Tag Archives: suicide

The locally well-known gay owner of a Key West tanning salon has killed himself, apparently (in part) as a result of President Obama’s reelection. Keys News reports: A Key West businessman who for years gave to AIDS Help and other charities may have taken his own life after a bout of depression over a struggling business and the recent election …

An evangelical pastor and his wife in Queens are keeping their terminally-ill daughter, a former Manhattan banker, hooked up to a ventilator against her will because they believe that her stated wish to die naturally constitutes suicide in the eyes of God. And that’s a mortal sin that will send her to hell. Lee’s court-appointed lawyer complained her devout parents …

“Sue me, Tony. I’d love to see you talk about my ‘issues’ on a witness stand. I realize that this isn’t how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you’re old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people …

“Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council — First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them. Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide — doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a …

Predictably, the Liberty Counsel says they will file suit to thwart California’s just-approved ban on the “ex-gay” torture and brainwashing of children. Their suit will be filed on behalf of NARTH, whose board member George Rekers was recently exposed for hiring a lithe young male prostitute for a two-week European vacation. “The California governor and legislature are putting their own …

The mother of Tyler Clementi, the gay Rutgers student who leaped to his death from the George Washington Bridge, says she’s riddled with self-blame but has come to a new understanding about her son’s sexuality. “I think some people think that sexual orientation can be changed or prayed over,” she said now, in her kitchen. “But I know sexual orientation …

Scott directed many blockbusters including The Hunger and Top Gun. He was the younger brother of famed sci-fi director Ridley Scott.

That’s how Barstool Sports spins an NPR report on a Danish study about a feline-borne parasite that has been shown to affect human behavior. Barstool Sports: Probably the least surprising study of all time. Anyone who knows somebody with a cat could have told you this. Just the saddest group of people on the planet. Waiting on their slave master …

As news cameras rolled, a former Wall Street banker appeared to swallow poison moments after he was convicted of burning down his Arizona mansion. Paramedics pronounced him dead minutes after he went into convulsions on the court room floor. All eyes were on the court clerk as she read the verdict on a single count. Then the jury left the …

Tyler Clementi’s parents appeared on NBC to speak about their son and their new foundation. (Via Andrew Belonsky)

British Columbia’s provincial Supreme Court has overturned Canada’s ban on assisted suicide. Justice Lynn Smith of the British Columbia supreme court declared the laws invalid but suspended her ruling for one year to give Canada’s federal parliament time to draft legislation with her ruling in mind. The federal government is expected to appeal against the decision. The case will likely …

Dharun Ravi is expected to granted an early release from jail this week. Dharun Ravi, 20, will likely be released from the Middlesex County Jail after serving just 20 days of a 30-day sentence, warden Edmond Cicchi said. Ravi used a webcam to stream video of his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kissing another man inside their dorm room in September 2010. …

Dharun Ravi’s legal team has filed a notice of their intent to appeal his conviction. The notice lists the proposed issues to be raised on appeal, including that the bias intimidation statute is unconstitutional as applied to Ravi and that several decisions by Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman, who presided over the trial earlier this year, “prejudiced the defendant’s ability …

The Boston Globe reports today that in 2006 then Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney blocked a state anti-bullying guide because it included the words “transgender” and “bisexual.” Romney aides said publicly at the time that publication of the guide had been delayed because it was a lengthy document that required further review. But an e-mail authored in May of that year …

Over the screams of the Catholic Church, today the Ontario provincial legislature passed Bill 13, the anti-bullying ordinance that orders all schools to allow gay-straight clubs. Bill 13 was launched after the suicide of a 14 year-old gay boy, whose own father opposed the bill. Catholic schools and parents will soon come to accept the provisions of the government’s anti-bullying …

The father of the boy whose suicide prompted Ontario’s pending anti-bullying bill says that had his son belonged to a Gay-Straight Alliance, he would have been an even greater target. The father’s words are now being heralded by anti-gay groups as evidence that schools should not allow such clubs. From the anti-gay LifeSiteNews: “From what I read of studies of …

Calling it nothing more than a PR stunt, the parents of Tyler Clementi have refused to accept the apology offered Wednesday by Dharun Ravi. In their first public comments on the sentencing, the Clementis issued a statement in which they rejected Mr. Ravi’s apology as insincere. “As to the so-called ‘apology,’ it was, of course, no apology at all, but …

Noting his lack of a prior arrest record and the unlikeness that he will re-offend, today a New Jersey judged sentenced former Rutgers student Drarun Ravi to only 30 days in jail and probation in the case of the suicide of his gay roommate Tyler Clementi. More on the sentencing will follow shortly in this post. UPDATE: The probation period …

The New York Times reports that a number of gay activists are arguing for leniency in the case of Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers student who will be sentenced today for spying on his gay roommate Tyler Clementi, who leaped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after Ravi live-streamed his encounter with another man. In an op-ed article …

Yesterday I referenced this weekend’s New York Times story about the recent suicide of accomplished Manhattan therapist Bob Bergeron. I’ve since gotten a couple of dozen emails complaining about the Times article, including several requests for an open forum to discuss the issue. Here you go.