Washington Post Publishes Editorial From Mother Of Dead Bullied Gay Child

In response to widespread criticism for publishing an anti-gay editorial from Family Research Council head Tony Perkins, the Washington Post has posted a response from the mother of 11 year-old Carl Walker-Hoover, who took his life last year after relentless homophobic bullying. An excerpt:

I am a single mother and a devout Christian who had never been involved in advocacy work or politics. After my son died, and GLSEN reached out to me, some of my friends and family members expressed concern about the organization's work to address anti-gay bullying in school. They voiced religious opposition to GLSEN. Thanks to Tony Perkins' On Faith piece published yesterday, I don't have to repeat the arguments. Perkins' lays them all out practically word for word. And they're all wrong. [snip]

If schools perceive addressing anti-gay bullying as a controversial issue, then they'll continue the status quo of putting their heads in the sand and hoping the issue takes care of itself. It won't. And we need to be clear on one thing - addressing anti-gay bullying is not a controversial issue. If you move through the smoke screen organizations like Family Research Council try to create, you realize addressing anti-gay bullying is simply the right thing to do if we care about all of our young people.

Read the entire essay.

Remembering Carl Walker-Hoover

It was one year ago that 11 year-old Carl Walker-Hoover hung himself in his bedroom closet after being relentlessly tormented by anti-gay bullies at his school. GLSEN requests that you honor Carl today by signing their petition that Congress pass the Safe School Environments Act, a federal bill that would provide funding for schools to prevent and respond to incidents of bullying and harassment. Carl's mother will appear on ABC's 20/20 this Friday night to talk about her son and the anti-gay bullying that pushed him to end his young life.