LGBT Teen suicide and bullying has been in the news a lot lately. It's not a new phenomenon, but the fact that the mainstream press has finally picked up on it is what's new. The "It Gets Better" You Tube campaign is an amazing, and almost immediate response, and I'm grateful for all the celebrities who have participated in encouraging these teens to hang in there and hope for a better future.
The question that needs to be addressed is what do we do right now? The LGBT community needs to work towards providing safe places for these kids to grow up in supportive environments. We need to provide outlets for their rage, right now, before they become the violent ones. We have to remember that in cases like Columbine, it was the victims of the bullies that became the mass murderers.
A few years ago I had an idea for a novel about a place called the Glass Bar. In my mind, this place would provide an outlet for anger so people did not have to go to regular bars and get drunk to numb their mounting rage. In the Glass Bar, people buy empty bottles and glasses, and they throw them against a giant rock wall, with all the proper safety precautions, of course, and the glass being sent to the nearest recycling center.
I never wrote this novel, since it was on a list of about fifteen other books that I want to write. Well, a few weeks ago, I was watching CSI: NY, and there was an episode that featured a place almost exactly like the Glass Bar! I was shocked, and also pleased, because now the idea is out there, and maybe there will be a real place soon where angry kids can go to let off steam before rage takes them over the edge.
It's great to tell teens that it will get better, but the rage is here now, and needs to be released in healthy ways now, before it's too late.
© Judy Kamilhor 2010
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