Shattered Lives, Broken Silence: Jaheem Hererra, Tesia Samara, Angie Zapata and Gwen Araujo

In April of this year, another young life was needlessly thrown away as the result of aggressive discrimination perpetuated by children towards a child and codified as acceptable behavior by educators and administrators who, through lack of awareness or through apathy, did nothing to stop it. Jaheem Hererra was only eleven years old, yet he took his own life rather than face the constant anti-gay bullying and torment that he received in a daily basis at school.  Schools should be places of safety and security for children, teens, and young adults. They should be institutions that foster growth, awareness, and self discovery. They should not be places that engender so much hatred and fear that a student feels the need to end his or her life. Yet this is not an isolated case. LGBT students at the elementary, secondary, and even college level must face discrimination not only from their peers but also from faculty and administrators who allow their own socio-religious belief systems to impact their judgment, often causing them to turn a blind eye to the problem or to, in some instances, condone it.  How many children and teens must die by their own hands or by the hands of others; how many lives must be lost before society’s collective eyes are opened? How many Jaheem Hererra’s , Tesia Samara’s, Angie Zapata’s and Gwen Araujo’s does it take to make us realize that these are not isolated instances, and that hatred is alive and well in the 21st century not only in foreign lands but in our own presumably civilized society?

Herrea, Samara, Zapata, Araujo, these are just a few names that belong on a collective memorial wall of shame – not shame for the fact that they were transgendered, but shame on the part of our society for fostering belief systems that encourage the isolation and abuse of anyone who steps outside of the norm.  Jaheem Herrea was just a small boy, an elementary school child who was taunted and called “gay” by his peers. Whether he was truly gay or not isn’t the issue in this case. At eleven, kids shouldn’t really be thinking about sexuality to begin with. What is the issue in this case is the fact that it is still “socially acceptable” to use the label “gay” as a derogative insult in public speech. It’s used all the time. Even the media can be heard to utter the phrase “that’s so gay” in response to anything that is “not good enough” or “not the norm” and no one says a word. However, let the same shock jocks accuse a bunch of girl’s basket-ball players of being “nappy headed” and the civil liberties coalitions across the country go up in arms. So, even though Herrea was just a kid, and while he may or may not have grown up to be a homosexual, he’s never going to get the chance because somewhere along the line that sort of torment was condoned and this particular child couldn’t take it any longer.