11 Year Old Boy Hangs Himself Following Daily Homophobic Bullying
Posted: 3rd Dec 2009 Author: Michelle Penny Topics: Homophobia, News
An eleven year old boy from Massachusetts was found dead earlier this year (April 6th) after he committed suicide by hanging himself with an electrical cord at his home.
Speaking out about her son’s death his mother, Sirdeaner L. Walker, said Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover had been subjected to anti-gay taunts day after day at his school, the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, Massachusetts, and that she had been in touch weekly with school administrators over the last six months in an attempt to get them to do something about this homophobic bullying.
Saying that amongst other taunts, Carl had been told “you’re gay, you must be gay, you act like a girl” , his mother also reports that on the day of his death her son told her he had been given a five-day suspension for bumping into a girl who verbally abused him and threatened him with harm, something the school has denied occurred.
The president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Neil G. Giuliano, in speaking about Carl’s death, said it showed just how important it was that anti-LGBT defamation be eradicated and that “Words matter and can turn what should be a safe place for learning into a dangerous and isolating [place] for many students – gay and straight – who regularly face verbal and physical attacks.”
