After I sent out a request for someone who might want to help me show people what it is like to be a LGBT youth, I got one response from Chat. She connected with me through www.youth-guard.org, an email list for kids who are LGBT, and we got to work. I am using her nickname, Chat, since she cannot afford to have people around her find out.

At age 14, Chat could pass as a normal middle school student. She is about 5’2”, and enjoys the creative writing club. Though she is not on any of the school sports teams, she does enjoy playing kickball, badminton, and plans to join the high school swim team next year. But what sets her apart is the story bubbling just below the surface.

After a relationship with another girl two years ago, she knew she was bisexual. Before she knew this, her life was great. She was well liked and accepted. However, the use of the word “gay” began to become more and more hurtful. That was when she came out.

For her, coming out wasn’t that hard. She said, “All I had to do was tell about five people in a group that I was bisexual.” Word of mouth spread it from there. One of these five friends was Elijah. Elijah also came out as gay around the same time as Chat.

Within a few weeks, everybody in their school knew about the two of them. They began to get harassed more and more. To deal with it, the first thing they turned to was drugs, ecstasy to be exact. Chat also took up cutting as a second way of stress control. With time, things got better for Chat, but Elijah was a different story. For him, things got worse. Chat tried to help by getting him off drugs, but there was not much she could do. He has since run away to avoid drug charges.

As things got better, she gave up drugs for sugar and gave up cutting for sex. After a while she also gave up sex for a healthier way of getting rid of stress: crying with music.

Two major questions would arise from all this. Firstly, where were her parents in all this? Secondly, why was nothing done to stop the harassment? For Chat, coming out to her parents was not an option. Her parents told her that if she was bisexual, or a lesbian I would guess, they would kick her out. They made this apparent by telling her and once putting her into a different school after she befriended a bisexual girl. As for why no one did anything, in her town, if you’re getting harassed for being LGBTQ it does not matter as long as there is no major disturbance.

Why should anybody care about what she went through? Everyday, there are thousands of kids who do not want to get out of bed in the morning and face the kids in their school. Even someone in what might appear to be the best situation can be living in their own personal hell. Stand up, speak out, and be yourself. Life is too short to do anything else.

Since I began talking to Chat, and writing this (it has been a while), Chat has come into some good times. She has been able to talk to Elijah and some other people who have helped her. She now wants to, eventually, become a counselor for other kids.

Tags: Stonewall