Last year, my bestfriend was in 7th grade. He had a lot of friends, and people respected him, liked him.
Then he came out as gay.
His friends basically disowned him, refused to look at him or speak to him. Within days of telling only a few people, the whole school became aware that he was gay.
It started as a few snickers from random people, or people passing by him muttering "faggot." Soon it developed into way worse problems. People started assuming that every guy my bestfriend looked at, he thought was hot. Every single guy was repulsed by him, and his actual crush (who was his friend before he came out) rejected him over and over, and embarrassed him. At lunch, he sat with the people who hated him the least, but people would still kick him from under the table.
Every single day, he was told he was worth nothing, he should be raped and killed, abused, etc. He couldn't go into the locker rooms to change for gym, or he would most likely have been beaten up. People he didn't even know would scream at him in the hallways "faggot" and much worse terms. One girl told him that she wished he would get cancer one day, and die. He was told that if he ever came out to his parents, they'd probably hate him too.
He started to cut himself, and whenever someone would notice, they'd laugh at him and call him an attention whore.
When he finally got the courage to tell his mom, she completely disregarded it, and said it was a faze. Every single day, his mom pretended like nothing had ever happened. She knew a lot about the bullying too, but did nothing about it.
He felt unsafe. Unwanted. Unloved. He hated waking up every single morning, and he wanted to die.
This summer, he moved to California to live with his dad, and go to school there. He loves the school there, has tons of friends, and everyone loves him. But he won't ever forget his other school. So he gave me permission to message a few certain people that made his life hell on Facebook, to tell them that they basically made him hate his life and want to leave it. This is what I sent:
Hi, I'm Kayla. You don't know me, but I know a lot about you. You, along with several other people from ****** Middle School are getting this, because of Alex *******. He moved to California this school year, because each and every single one of you ruined his life. Every single day he felt unsafe and unwanted, because you made him feel this way. Everyone treated him like an animal instead of a person, simply because he was gay. Who the hell cares if he likes guys instead of girls? He has a right to like whoever he wants, and he doesn't need your approval. What he does need is to feel safe, like he isn't going to be beaten up at school. He needs to feel like he has a friend that he can sit with at lunch, instead of sitting with people who hated him the least. None of you will probably EVER see him again, but I just hope you know that you made a person want to leave this Earth forever. I hope you feel happy with yourselves. Maybe next time you go to bully someone, or call them a fag, you'll think of how you made my bestfriend Alex feel, and you'll think "How would I like it if someone did this shit to me?" Think before you speak. Thanks.
-I got an answer from one of the guys I sent it to, and he basically told me to fuck off, and that he'd only feel bad if Alex actually killed himself.
So guys...things do get better, I promise you. Alex is fine now (minus the douche bag comment the guy sent in reply to my message). Just remember that anything you say to someone, could completely effect them in ways you don't even know.
Thanks for reading