Suicide Awareness

Nine known suicides all within one month. September. All guys ranging in age 13-19. Bullied for being gay or perceived of being gay.

Billy Lucas, 15, died Sept. 9

Cody Barker, 17, died Sept. 13

Tyler Clementi, 18, died Sept. 22

Asher Brown, 13, died Sept. 23

Harrison Brown, 15, died Sept. 25

Seth Walsh, 13, attempted suicide on Sept. 19 and was on life support for little over a week. He officially died on Sept. 28 after being taken off life support.

Raymond Chase, 19, died Sept. 29

Felix Sacco, 17, died Sept. 29

Caleb Nolt, 14, died Sept. 30

Bad things usually happen in 3s. This has happened nine times that we know of. There were probably more that weren’t publicized. Only five of these were publicized everywhere in great detail. Anti-gay bullying is one of those issues that needs to be taken care of now and today. It can no longer be put on the back burner.

Bullying is something everyone has gone through at some point in their lives, even I’ve been bullied. Just now with facebook and other social network sites, bullies have become bolder, and it’s become easier to spread words of hate about another person.

If you’re being bullied, you shouldn’t get discouraged because there is help out there. There’s The Trevor Project which is an organization “determined to end suicide among LGBTQ youth by providing life-saving and life-affirming resources including our nationwide, 24/7 crisis intervention lifeline, digital community and advocacy/educational programs that create a safe, supportive and positive environment for everyone.”

If you feel like you are being bullied and you don’t know how to handle the situation, call The Trevor Project’s suicide hotline at 1-866-U-TREVOR.

Dan Savage is also the creator of the “It gets better” project. He, along with his partner, posted a video on youtube on Sept. 21 after the first suicides, telling teens to not choose suicide because it does get better.

“However bad it is now, it gets better and it can get great, it can get awesome and your life can be amazing but you have to tough this period of it out and you have to live your life until you’re around for it to get amazing and it will,” Savage said.

With over 1 million hits on youtube, the “It gets better” video has spread like wildfire. Celebrities and people from all over the US have recorded their own stories letting everyone know it gets better with time.

Oct. 20 was also “Wear purple day” which was organized in remembrance of the recent suicides. Many students around the US wore purple to recognize the tragedies that had happened during September.

Bullying can carry on into college past middle and high school. At any time that you may feel overwhelmed due to bullying, please call The Trevor Project or call the Counseling and Wellness Center at 850-474-2420 or call the Hopeline Network at 1-800-SUICIDE. And again, I am always here to help and can be contacted at any time via e-mail at jnr12@students.uwf.edu.

Hey Everyone!!!

GSA: It’s the Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s not just a “gay” club; it needs its straight allies as well, otherwise it wouldn’t work. One of those straight allies is me. My name is Joslyn, and I’ll be GSA’s Public Relations coordinator for this year. As this is my first blog, I would like to introduce myself to all of you.

This will be my junior year at UWF and my second year as a member of GSA. I’m a print journalism major, and you can see some of my writing and photography in The Voyager, as I am a contributing writer.

I’m full Puerto Rican, originally from the Bronx. I now reside in Ft. Lauderdale when not at school. If you need to find me randomly, I’ll most likely be in Argo Hall where I live and work as a Student Desk Assistant. I have also just been sworn in as one of two Marketing Coordinators in Student Government Association.

As a part of my PR position, I make sure that The Voyager is notified about any important upcoming events. If the event is worthy of local coverage, I will contact the Pensacola News Journal. I will also try to write on this blog every other week, so look forward to a new one in two weeks! The next blog will either be about the new Archie comic character (he’s fabulous) or the premiere of the second season of Glee.

One last thing, if you would like to contact me, my e-mail is JNR12@students.uwf.edu. I’m always online and I should get back to your e-mail pretty quickly. This is going to be a great year and I hope all of you come out to our meetings and events.

UWF GSA Encourages Students to Speak Out on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - Christine Thomas

It isn’t easy for me to wake up before noon on any given day—and that’s being generous. So, when Stephen Loveless, our GSA President, asked for volunteers to help set up over 800 flags on the Cannon Greens this morning, I wasn’t the first to volunteer for this 8AM shift. Sitting through our Executive Board meeting on Monday night and planning out the events that would lead up to UWF hosting the Human Rights Campaign’s Voices of Honor tour on Wednesday, however, made me a little more enthusiastic about pulling myself out of bed this morning.

I was only about 10 minutes late, and as soon as I arrived, I set to work with about twenty other GSA members setting small American flags in the ground. Each flag represents one of the 800 specialists with vital skills who have been discharged from the military under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy—this is a small fraction of the 13,500 servicemen who have been discharged overall since the policy was enacted in 1992. After about two hours, we had finally finished the visual aid of today’s event.

The rest of the afternoon, volunteers worked with two goals in mind. First, a station was set-up at which passers-by could briefly fill out a postcard that the Human Rights Campaign will be sending in to Florida Senator Bill Nelson in order to show him that there is vast opposition to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in his region. In a more immediate effort, a second station was dedicated to asking students walking by the Cannon Greens to take two minutes out of their lives to call Bill Nelson’s office and personally urge the Senator to support the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (While callers might not reach the Senator directly, Bill Nelson’s receptionist makes a tally each time a constituent calls the office to share his or her opinion.)

Several of us ventured to the sidewalks, University Commons, and shady trees near the Cannon Greens to stop students, faculty, and staff on their way to class or lunch to solicit signatures and phone calls. Then, I brought a petition sheet to my Adulthood & Aging class to collect even more signatures to send to Senator Nelson. The Gay-Straight Alliance will also have a table set up in the Commons tomorrow before the big event at 7:00, when Voices of Honor will take place in the Conference Center at UWF.

Today alone, I’ve gotten to share details of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy with tens of people who were previously unsure what the legislation entails. Education and advocacy are extremely important to me, and particularly when it comes to this issue. One of my closest friends is a gay veteran, and it frustrates me beyond belief that his sexual orientation alone could jeopardize the stability of his military career. Thankfully, the members of my Gay-Straight Alliance have really gotten behind pushing for the repeal of DADT, promoting the Voices of Honor tour, and helping with everything else that the Human Rights Campaign has been advocating surrounding this issue. I’m extremely proud of the hard work everyone’s put into this issue in the past few weeks, and I’m confident that we are helping to make a difference.