I don’t think anyone in their right mind has ever suggested that the suicide of a gay person is any worse than the suicide of a child (what about the suicides of gay children?). Suicide is pretty tragic overall, regardless of who dies. Just because we want to minimize LGBTQ+ suicides doesn’t mean we don’t also care about children who commit suicide for any other reason. Also, 12 is not too young to have a sexuality. It’s too young for sex, and their concept of sexuality probably isn’t fully developed – they might not fully realize who/what they’re attracted to, and their sexuality will probably continue to evolve as they grow older, but they definitely have one. I knew I was bisexual at 12. I also wanted to commit suicide at 13, partially because of that and partially because I was just depressed. Would my death have mattered, as a child? Or not mattered, as a bisexual?
Also, fuck you for defending bullies. I wanted to disappear off the face of the earth in elementary school because I was bullied. They were jealous of me, but also I was ‘weird’ and fat, and supposedly a lesbian because I spent all my time with my female best friend (because she was my only friend). But I didn’t give into the urges. I stayed ‘strong’. And eventually my bullies grew out of it. Some moved away, and two of them just became better people and ultimately apologized to me, one in middle school and the other in high school. If I had killed myself I would have never watched them mature. But that doesn’t make me any better than someone who did commit suicide, or who chose to change schools, or did anything else to escape the bullying.
And I have to confess, I was also a temporary bully. I took all that hurt and used it to be mean to a few perfectly innocent children, sometimes because I was jealous, and sometimes just because they were there and I needed to lash out. I never physically bullied anyone but I have said some very cruel things in my past. I will never forgive myself for hurting them, and it would be a source of endless torment if I ever found out that one of them took drastic action because of me. Bullying people doesn’t weed out the weak from the strong. It hurts people, sometimes forever. Both the victim and the bully, because that person has to live with what they did.
