Students Spread the Love

Students Spread the Love

In a campus chalking campaign Monday, students fight against LGBT suicides

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

“You are loved”—this is the message that students will be chalking all over campus today as part of a national campaign to prevent suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

This is the first year that the campaign is taking place at Penn. The timing is uncanny, according to college freshman Noah Levine, an organizer of the campaign, as it follows a string of five suicides among LGBT youth that took place in the last three weeks.

“It’s very, very shocking,” he said, referring to the death of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide on Sept. 22 after his roommate secretly filmed his sexual encounter and streamed it live on the internet.

“It happened right nearby to someone our age, going through much of the same things—going to a new school, coming to terms with being himself in a new environment,” Levine said.

Three of the five recent suicides involved individuals of high-school age and younger, according to the Consortium of Higher Education. One included a students at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I..

Suicide rates among LGBT individuals have always been high. According to The New York Times, teenagers that identify as LGBT are four times more likely to consider suicide than their straight counterparts.

Read the rest of this article at The Daily Pennsylvanian.

 

Can we count on you?

In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.

We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.

Stories like these and the one you just read are vital at this critical juncture in our country’s history. Now more than ever, we need clear-eyed and deeply reported independent journalism to make sense of the headlines and sort fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and uplifting the voices of grassroots advocates.

Throughout 2024 and what is likely the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you rely on.

Thank you,
The Editors of The Nation

Ad Policy
x