Tragedy at Rutgers University turns attention to privacy, homophobia, bullying issues
The death by suicide last week of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi—which occurred after the online posting of private information—has been linked to several problems, including the bullying of queer youth in school and university settings. Tyler Clementi’s death was the fourth highly-publicized death by suicide among gay teens in the U.S. over a four-week period.
The deaths come amid the release of research showing that [opens to PDF] American LGBT students were significantly more likely to experience harassment when compared with their heterosexual counterparts and were seven times more likely to indicate the harassment was based on their sexual identity.
A similar Canadian study in 2009 [opens to PDF] found that three-quarters of LGBTQ high school students feel unsafe in at least one place at school and that many of those students reported being verbally or physically harassed about their sexual orientation.
We speak with Spencer Chandra-Herbert, B.C. MLA for Vancouver-West End and Helen Kennedy, executive director with Egale Canada.
