(Gone too soon: Raymond Chase)
Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality.
- James Baldwin
I'm just going to come right out and say it:
I blame the poisonous cocktail of patriarchal masculinity and religion for the deaths of these young men.
When you live in a society where children are routinely terrorized for not conforming to strict gender norms and where the mantra is, to varying degrees, "God Hates Fags," it should come as no shock that these children seek a permanent escape.
This has been a dreadful time. Too many young, gifted and talented individuals have chosen to leave behind the vicious homophobia and patriarchal cruelty they were forced to endure by ending their lives. It is imperative that we speak their names (click on their names to read their tragic stories):
Who knows what heights these young people could have attained had they simply been permitted to be who they were.
Wherever they are, may they find the peace, love and acceptance they could not find here on Earth.