Joel Burns tells gay teens "It Gets Better"

Zet

Zet

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    With the recent increase of teen suicides from being bullied about being gay, Joel Burns took some time to tell teens who are homosexual or feel like they are homosexual that things will be better and to not cave into the bullying.

    Honest to God I almost starting crying after listening to speech, and I do hope this helps teens who are being bullied to not give up.

    ​
     
    In case no one on PC knows about this, this is something people on Tumblr and Livejournal are doing.

    There's an image somewhere that has the faces of all the boy's who killed themselves, but I can't find it, so I'll just tell you. We're all (the people who know about it/support it/want to participate in it) wearing purple on the 20th. I went out and BOUGHT a purple dress just for this, and I think it'd be cool if PC thought about wearing purple too. I'll see if I can find the image, but yeah.

    I cried too, Zet ;-;...

    edit:// found it!

    [PokeCommunity.com] Joel Burns tells gay teens "It Gets Better"
     
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    very inspirational, and tear-worthy. the problem does not lie with kids alone, there are parents who nurture the bullying and i've even seem some that pride it. everyone needs to hear inspirational speeches like this, see the experiences for themselves and build some empathy. the parents who trying to justify the bullies' actions ought to take a look at the parents losing their kids because of it and motivate themselves to help change the intolerant perspective, and the kids need to regularly be reminded how vulnerable their classmates are (at my school we'd have motivational speeches on bullying once a year, and the effect would last for the rest of the day- people would cry and regret their actions- and the next day tormenting others would persist as usual.) and how vulnerable they are. living a life of rejection because of something you cant help has to be incredibly difficult, and i hope the strength of this man speaking to us and others who have undergone persecution spreads to those struggling with themselves as well. thanks for sharing zetty
     
    ...I cried as soon as he started crying. ;; And the part where he talks about the rings made me even worse. ;;

    Anyways, what he done must of took a lot of courage. What he done should hopefully teach people that it's wrong to bully someone just because they're gay.. it's saddening to see that people are commiting suicide because the bullies just don't understand what it's like to be that person. Heck, coming out is hard enough. This was heartwarming to watch.
     
    Perhaps I'm just an odd duck, but I heard about this on the news, and the first thing running through my head was "Well, duh it gets better!" It's something people seem to forget, and it doesn't just apply to gay kids. It applies to almost every situation a person can come across.
     
    Åzurε said:
    Perhaps I'm just an odd duck, but I heard about this on the news, and the first thing running through my head was "Well, duh it gets better!" It's something people seem to forget, and it doesn't just apply to gay kids. It applies to almost every situation a person can come across.
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    It doesn't always seem evident at the time, though. When one is experiencing that feeling of isolation and depression, it's hard to look to the positive. This is just a way to reach out to those individuals. :/

    Personally, I'm all for the It Gets Better project that is going on. I'm definitely wearing purple on the 20th and whatnot. People in my GSA were also discussing making their own videos . . we'll see! :)
     
    Any reasons behind suicide is horrendous. It's heartbreaking. Unfortunately, I can't really watch the video as I'm sitting in a McDonald's and my connection at home isn't good for loading videos (I get lagged) but I'm glad someone has taken the time to say something about it. But any type of bullying, this (sounds like it) can apply to.

    Don't quote me on all this, cause I can't watch the vid. I wish I could though. But I don't want to cry in public atm.
     
    Live_Wire466 said:
    This man is a hero. It takes immense courage to do what he did. More people need to talk about this and get the word out to the people that need it.
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    It does take a lot of courage to speak up- about anything. I respect him for doing so.
    Zebeedoo said:
    ...I cried as soon as he started crying. ;; And the part where he talks about the rings made me even worse. ;;

    Anyways, what he done must of took a lot of courage. What he done should hopefully teach people that it's wrong to bully someone just because they're gay.. it's saddening to see that people are commiting suicide because the bullies just don't understand what it's like to be that person. Heck, coming out is hard enough. This was heartwarming to watch.
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    I also cried Zee. About the same time.

    What saddens me is that this is an issue that has to be adressed. If people could just at least try to be tolerant... like that's gonna happen. Driving someone to the point where they feel hopeless enough to kill themselves is just heartless.
    /plans to wear purple on the twentieth
     
    The 20th is a Wednesday so I have school which means that I can't fully take part in this event. However, I do want to support it because I'm against bullying (especially about something as important as your sexuality) so I'll see if I can buy a purple watch or armband to wear, just to do as much as I can.
     
    My high school's doing some anti-bullying thing now. The best way to prevent it is to tell as little about yourself as possible. The less they know, the less they can bully you for. That's what I did and haven't been picked on for years.

    Not saying everyone should do this, but it's what I did.
     
    I don't have a single purple shirt or piece of clothing.

    I also doubt anyone in my school would take part in this. Just doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd do >_>
     
    .Seth said:
    My high school's doing some anti-bullying thing now. The best way to prevent it is to tell as little about yourself as possible. The less they know, the less they can bully you for. That's what I did and haven't been picked on for years.

    Not saying everyone should do this, but it's what I did.
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    This is a rather, dare I say, horrible way of going about things. You keep to yourself, keep inside just so others won't tease you? Most certainly not how I want to go about doing things, I want people to accept me as I am, thus I do not change for them, or act differently to meet their standards.

    ---

    I didn't watch the full video right now, but I will pretty soon. Those kids that I saw seemed to be happy kids. I don't think that it was some bravado that they strapped on every morning, because.. there was more to their smile than their curved mouth. It is a horrible thing that they had to take their life. What could be so horrible to drive one away from the greatest thing in life? I am talking about living. The greatest thing about living, is that you get to live.

    I have had my fair share of teasing, and I will admit, that at times it does get to me. I can't imagine how horrible it would have to be to want to, and accomplish taking your own life. I have thought about such things, but I just never really had any solid reason to. Yeah, I occasionally butted heads with someone, but nothing that would drive me this.

    I could continue on but I feel that I would repeat myself a thousand times over before I came up with new material. But before I go, I have this to say: I see no justification for bullying, whatever that may be. No matter who has said what, joking or not, it is just plain wrong. I was moved by this, verily so. I also want to remind people that you(read: a witness) can stop the bullying. Even if you don't know the kid, step in, have his(or her) back. If you do that to at least person, that is at least one person that you have helped. I've said that I would do, but that rings ever so truer now. I think that I will talk to my school about wearing purple on the 20th. On that note, I leave you with my sentiments.

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    EDIT:

    インフェルノの津波 said:
    That was deep.

    But I've got a question: why the hell do the tormentors do this? I mean, don;t they know if they torment this person it might end out bad?
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    The reasons are varied, but I think a majority of it boils down to this: misery loves company. The tormentor usually has something going wrong in life. In the event that they cannot rise back up, they drag others down, thus they stay closer to the top.
     
    Issues like this never quite hit home for me until I saw this video. I've experienced bullying firsthand, but nothing that drove me to suicide (obvs.), and it's rare to come by homophobia of that caliber in the urban environment in which I went to high school. I've been raised by my parents to treat everyone equally no matter their skin color, gender, faith, political affiliation, or sexual orientation, and I've lived my life as such, mainly associating with other like-minded peers so I never really noticed the darker side of human nature, only seeing it to characterize movie villains or played for humor on the Internet or something. Putting aside my usual /b/tard attitude, the stories about those teenagers killing themselves over bullying is just plain saddening, and one of the teenagers he mentioned by name supposedly attended a middle school that's less than a mile away from where I live and I know people that went through there to graduate high school.

    To bring in my cynical side again though, I really don't see what the schools can do to put an end to stuff like this. bullies will be bullies, regardless. I think the only change that can be made is reinforcing to the bullying victims that they're more valuable to the world than their tormentors would have them believe.

    Believe me, I was bullied in middle school to the point of hiding in a bathroom stall crying to myself once and the only thing that got my spirits up was the knowledge that there were people, no matter how few, that were willing to call me their friend. :D
     
    Props to Joel Burns for his speech; I don't think I've ever been as touched by a presentation regarding LGBT issues as I was by his. Even if one doesn't agree with another person's lifestyle, abusing innocent people is always wrong, no matter what the reason may be. It's just that plain and simple to me; I can't elaborate any further than that. I hardly have anything purple at all around my house, but I'll try to find something to wear for the 20th, if not just a simple ornament.
     
    This reminds me of a powerful post by someone on here...Surmonter, wasn't it? *searches for it*
    EDIT: Fooound it!
    https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=6221302#post6221302

    I find it ridiculous when people say being gay is bad. To me that sounds like it's bad to be happy, which is what people meant when saying that word a century ago. It still does mean "happy," but no one uses it in that context anymore...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay

    Personally I don't care whether or not you love someone of the same sex. Why do people get so much enjoyment out of causing pain over one little thing? :/
     
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    Well i can't listen to it now.
    My parents are in the room and they don't exactly know yet...
    but even though that 20th sounds like a mainly American thing i'm going to do it anyway. I'll need to go and buy something else thats purple. I have two purple tops and i wear them a lot already. Ill need to buy like a scarf or something to make a point.
    Well anyway tl;dr im didnt see the vid but im gona take part in the 20th event.
     
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