One year ago today, Billy (William) Lucas, a 15-year-old from Greensburg, Ind., was was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home — he had hanged himself.
Billy Lucas
While Billy never self-identified as gay, friends said he was tormented for years because other kids thought he was gay.
Billy took his own life just hours after fellow students told him he didn’t deserve to live.
“He was threatened to get beat up every day,” friend and classmate Nick Hughes said. “Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him.”
“Some people at school called him names,” Hughes said, saying most of those names questioned Lucas’ sexual orientation, and that Lucas, for the most part, did little to defend himself.
“He would try to but people would just try to break him down with words and stuff and just pick on him,” Hughes said.
Five months later, Billy’s mother told the story of his life, and his death:
Billy’s death was the first widely reported teen suicide in September of 2010, but followed another high profile teen suicide in Minnesota just two months earlier — that of gay teen Justin Aaberg, also 15.
Within weeks, America and the world would come to know the names of at least six more gay, or perceived gay, teens — each who would take their own life to escape the physical and emotional torture inflicted upon them by bullies.
But on learning the news of Billy’s death, nationally syndicated columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller, both victims of bullying during their youth, decided they had to do something.
“I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes,” Savage wrote, following Billy’s death.
“I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.”
And with that one simple message, Savage and Miller recorded a YouTube video to inspire LGBT youth, and deliver a message of hope — “it gets better.”
Within two months, the “It Gets Better Project” evolved into a worldwide movement, inspiring nearly 10,000 user-created videos and over 30 million views. Sadly, at least 10 more gay, or perceived gay, teens would never hear the message that “it gets better,” as the spate teen suicides continued into October and early November.
In the months and year that followed, visibility to anti-gay bullying and sentiment has prompted a a National Summit on Bullying and the first ever White House conference on bullying prevention.
And today, one year after the death of Billy Lucas, more than 25,000 people have created similar videos, giving LGBT youth a glimpse of what their lives might be like as openly gay adults — and the hope that it does get better.
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There is the amount of help the majority of schools give to gay education :(.
RIP Billy . . .
SO sad.
This is why it is our job as friends, parents, teachers, bus drivers, church members, allies, to do all we can to change peoples hearts and minds and try to make sure things like this never happen again.
God Bless Billy Lucas~
It does NOT get better.
Very sad that people think death is better than being gay!
the shock of hearing things like this paralizes me. to “remember” someone I never got the chance to know leaves me with a feeling of emptyness. this young man took his life because others told him it wasn’t worth living. we have got to support people before they reach such debths of dispair. this is unacceptable. to be driven to suicide! it’s tantamount to murder. i hope his persecuters burn in hell. well they will won’t they, that’s where there from anyway.
I know that Billy is in a better place. If I’d gone to school with him I would have just smiled at him and said hello. Sometimes the little things you do make a huge difference.
It’s not that they think it’s better Mikel, it’s the helplessness that is overwhelming when someone is abused day after day. With no one in his life to support him or even lend him a bit of comfort and hope that’s what leads to such drastic measures.
It does get better… http://www.thetrevorproject.org
This is my home, this is the state I live in. I’m deeply ashamed, but 15 years ago that was me. Only I really was gay, and the only way to stop the assults and sexual abuse was to pretend I wasn’t. It drove me into the closet for too many years and has taken yet another life.
Breaks my heart that these things happen. No one deserves to be treated that way and no one is worthless. Teen years are difficult enough without bring bullied. I can only imagine the overwhelming despair felt by those being bullied that they even feel that suicide is the best option. Parents, especially those doing the bullying, need to educate their children on tolerance and respect for others. I feel those parents are equally responsible.
These kids can not pull a Carrie White, and delete those that bully them. Kind words will not bring this young man back. Angels will not suddenly appear. The ACLU and a determined legal system needs to create a wrath of monetary damages and possible incarceration for these little criminals and the pathetic adults who enable them.
I wish I could stop them all from feeling that pain. It hurts so much!
welcome to my world.
Not a pretty one when this happens.
shared.
Organized Religion/Conservatism = hate, hate, hate…and…hate ;-(
Ron Paul’s not a hater. He’d remove any Federal laws to marriage, hetero/homo period.
Such a sad story. This is happening WAY too often.
This is all that happens for ostracizing people who are different. This is all it’s worth. This is all superiority, pride, hate, ignorance and fear leaves us with. We aren’t rewarded with joy or a sense of accomplishment for being above others. We’re left with loss, guilt, regret, and sadness, if our heads and especially hearts are working right.
Billy’s mother seems so strong even when she lost her child…I’ll give my condolences…right at this moment, that’s all I can do, with a promise that I will be there for someone in the future who is hurting. We can all be there for someone, and the little or big things we do can change so much right now and over time.
I did a Trevor Project workshop, and the participants could sign up to be a friend to a high school student. Bullying in high schools in my town has gotten very bad, so Trevor Project had an idea to see if people wanted to be friends to students. I could be someone a student could talk to, could ask for help with anything, and generally just be there. I signed up to be a friend, and I hope that I could meet the student I’d be a friend to. We could talk, or do homework–just anything.
Tell me a little about yourself Ben…
Do you have to deal with all of this Anthony???
Is this your world, Do you have to deal with all of this Anthony?