MINNESOTA: Gay Teen Commits Suicide

[meegbear]

Openly gay Minnesota high school student Lance Lundsten, 18, committed suicide this weekend. Friends are blaming bullying.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday the Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten's residence in Miltona. When officers arrived, they discovered 18-year-old Lance Lundsten needing emergency medical care. Lundsten was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died. The Sheriff's Office confirmed to KSAX that they believed Lundsten's death was a suicide. The Sheriff would not confirm the nature of the medical emergency. According to his Facebook page, Lundsten was openly gay. On a Facebook memorial page in Lundsten's honor, friends said that Lundsten had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation. Some students who knew Lundsten believed the bullying may have led to his suicide.

Lundsten's classmates have launched an anti-bullying Facebook page. Sen. Al Franken sent his condolences to the family, saying, "My heart goes out to Lance's family, and friends and loved ones. It's a tragic event, not only for them, but for the school, and the Alexandria community and really for all of us. LGBT kids really do need more protection." Franken is the cosponsor of a federal anti-bullying bill called the Student Non-Discrimination Act, which would forbid schools from ignoring anti-gay bullying. Christianist groups are vehemently opposing the bill.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/01/minnesota-gay-teen-commits-suicide.html

[Danger Mouse]

1. not again...

:cry:

[myrna minx]

2. .

:cry:

[bobbolink]

3. "How long...?" We have Ms. Clinton and the others to thank for this ....

Blaming it on the victim with their "It will get better" bullshit campaign.

Thank God for Franken, for waying it as it is... "These kids need more protection." Its quite obvious, but at least there is now someone saying it. They look to adults to put an end to this misery, and we are failing them.

Thank you, Al! Work your buns off on that measure, and I am calling my two senators today to co-sponsor it!!

I ask all DU to do the same... TODAY!

Thank you.

[dsc]

8. to blame the it gets better campaign for this is total nonsense

and incidently, Franken made one of those videos too it should be noted. The people who have made those videos also strive to make life better within the schools. I am an out, gay teacher, who advises a GSA, and also have counseled students facing bullying. I also made a video. I think both helped.

[bobbolink]

9. If it helps to tell people to just accept it, because "it gets better", then there would be no more

suicides.

How many suicides will it take before ADULTS take ACTION to protect KIDS?

[dsc]

10. again making the videos doesn't preclude helping to change things

the fact is in my darkest moments I would have loved to have an example of someone who made it out of that seemingly eternal dark hole I was in. The fact is I can't change every school, every where. I can send that message and help change the school I am in.

[bobbolink]

11. None of us can really change the whole world, although leaders like Martin Luther King certainly

come close (and it is a good idea to meditate on them, and how to follow them as we are able).

I fully understand that you suffered greatly, and don't want others to suffer as you have.. and did. I understand that, because that is the driving force with me.... I don't want others to suffer homelessness. It is DESTRUCTIVE to the human spirit, and there is nothing good that comes from it.

But telling homeless people "it will get better", when there is no such honest hope on the horizon, would be to put the pressure and blame on them as individuals, for a societal ill.

I cannot and will not do that.

We are so fixated on individual solutions that we destructively put the onus on individuals when they, individually, really cannot change anything. Only we as a moral, just and mature society can do that.

When it comes to kids, it is even more cruel. They don't have the resources to even begin to deal with the mixed messages. They need to know we are there to protect them, as best we can, and when we fail to do so, that we take the responsibility and not hand it on to them.

edited to say: *MY* responsibiilty for these kids at this point is to speak up on these suicides, and to push others to push for the passage of HR 4530. Given that I am focusing totally on homelessness because it is NOT a popular cause, including with gays, even though gay youth on the street are suffering terribly, this shows how seriously I take what is happening to our youth. I will continue to push people to push for this bill as a real and concrete way to protect vulnerable youth.

[Metric System]

12. Huh? It Gets Better was started by a gay man.

[bobbolink]

14. That doesn't mean it is the right or only way.

As I said, and maybe you didn't catch it, we are soooo inundated in this society to think of everything as individual problems. Gay people are NOT immune to this societal construct.

This bullying and the resultant suicides are NOT an individual problem, so the individual solution of "It gets better" (with no action to MAKE IT BETTER) is nothing more than putting the burden square on the shoulders of the vulnerable kids who have already said clearly to us that that are not able to carry that burden.... especially alone.

Until we decide to BE THE ADULTS and let them know are resolved to solve the problem, there will continue to be suicides.

[justiceischeap]

4. Christianist groups are vehemently opposing the bill.

Of course, they don't want their progeny getting in trouble for telling those little gay kids they're going to hell, by whatever means necessary. So what if they're bullied, they're "evil sinners" anyway. They get what they deserve. Forget the fact that the kid may have not even been sexually active (this is where most people say the sin happens--in the perverted gay sex).

I'm getting so tired of these Xstians who think because some old book mentions homosexuality, like twice, that it is the most heinous sin in the world while ignoring the rest of the book and sins they commit on a daily basis. I can't wait for those who believe in heaven and hell for them to have their "come to Jesus" moment and find they've been wrong this entire time.

[Angry Dragon]

5. Shouldn't the last sentence read ....Evil Devil groups

Nothing Christian about them

[xchrom]

6. so sad. nt

[dsc]

7. It just breaks my heart to read about this

and know with every fiber of my being, that not a damn thing will be done either Federally or on a state level to stop this. Gay kids in these rural towns are left to fend for themselves and this is the direct result.

[Robyn66]

13. You know this just sucks

There is just no excuse for this any more. No amount of memorial facebook pages or candlelight vigils are going to put a halt to kids being bullied to death!

1. Teachers need to PAY ATTENTION to what is going on with kids. They KNOW what a target looks like and they SEE kids being bullied. Maybe there needs to be more teachers in the schools because they are overwhelmed or something but there is NO EXCUSE for the teachers NOT SEEING that bullying is going on.

2. And this is the most important part, THE PARENTS OF THE BULLIES HAVE TO BE BROUGHT IN when their little dear is caught bullying. THE FIRST TIME. They have to be informed and held accountable for the behavior of THEIR children. If it means these kids are in bad homes then that has to be dealt with but these continued suicides HAVE TO STOP!

[bobbolink]

16. Thank you, Robynn, for calling for responsible action! Putting the onus on the BULLIED kids really

gets my goat!

It is waaay past time for action on bullying..... from one who lives in the Columbine state. :(

[Robyn66]

17. Well my daughter is a bullied kid

and I am constantly working (fighting) with the school, writing articles for the paper and trying to get speakers for the school to address the issue. Most of the time I feel like I am screaming into the wind. I dont understand why the school refuses to hold the parents of the bullies accountable. Parents need to understand their little prince or princess is doing permanant psychological damage to people and that it is wrong and if the parents choose not to address it law enforcement will have to. THe school is clear that the next thing that happens to my daughter (who has aspergers) the kid who does it is having charges pressed against them!

[hfojvt]

15. on an average day, about 90 people commit suicide

11 of them are between the ages of 15 and 24

http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=04EB7CD1-9EED-9712-89C9540AFCB44481