With the recent tragic suicides of 5 gay teens (in one week), Larry King’s show last night focused on this issue and had on his panel Wanda Sykes, Kathy Griffin, Tim Gunn, Lance Bass and Nate Berkus to discuss their own issues with being gay. Kathy is not gay (to my knowledge not that it matters if she is or isn’t) but she is a huge gay activist.

Lance Bass admitted to bullying gays in high school because he was trying to hide his own sexuality. I was surprised by that but easy for me to say having not experienced what he has experienced in life.

Gay teens are four times higher to commit suicide than other teens. This is beyond tragic and needs to stop. The hatred to someone who is of a different sexual orientation as what is considered the ‘norm’ is no different than racial hatred. Tim Gunn himself tried to commit suicide when he was 17 years old.

People dismiss bullying as being ‘typical’ of teenage behaviour but I disagree.  I realize that teenagers feel the need to ‘fit in’ to their peer groups but bullying needs to stop for whatever reason a person is being bullied.  Parents need to step it up and lead by example and society as a whole needs to take this issue much more seriously.  Hatred is hatred.

Teens needing someone to talk to can call 1-866-4-u-Trevor.