An update. http://www.youtube.com/user/RandomTV201

Nevermind. I see the link in the post. o_O

Yup, it gets better. Even the spelling.

Please stick around, Jonah. Things will get better and not everyone in your life will be a jerk.

Take good care, kiddo. And make sure to write Dan if you need someone to talk to through all of this.

What a devastating video.

BetaRayBilly @5, you are a miserable human being.

Oh man, I was going to say inb4 "whiny little bitch" but I am as ever too slow. Weakness freaks people out, doesn't it? I think people like @5 lash out at it because they're scared.

God Damn it to fucking hell. I'm sure his parents DO know. I think the bravest people are kids who go through this day after day and somehow make it through. I hope he has parents that have his back.

Oh, yeah, fuck you #5. Hopefully asstards like you won't be breeding into future generations.

The conservative assumption regarding genes influencing complex behavior, @5, is that they persist in populations because they confer a net benefit on the species, which of course includes those too ignorant to understand such concepts.

I am glad you posted this.

I can't imagine who could watch this without shedding a tear. @5 Other than sociopaths like you.

Why do his parents keep making him go to school? Fuck school. He's not getting anything in school that he couldn't get outside of school, except abused. One year of it, maybe that's just a bad year. Two years, you'd start to wonder if it's a pattern. To force a little kid to go through that for SEVEN YEARS? That's sick.

I don't know how I made it through that, but his last cards made me glad I did. Learn how to use your fists, kid. I wasn't even gay (I was small, unathletic, gentle, and always the new kid. When I hit back, the school officials said I was a problem) and I endured a-lot of bullying (both at home and school, and later at work) and I hurt to this very day, and I know I didn't have it as bad as him.

@5, fuck off and die! You are worthless, and people like you do nothing but make this world a miserable place! Please stop your car on the West Seattle Bridge and jump off, it's the only positive thing you have within you.

I am glad for the updates suggesting he may be on a firmer footing these few months later. His youtube channel is a wonderful collection of mostly tv commercial parodies he made with his friends. They show a sharp sense of humor and a freewheeling ensemble camaraderie it is sad to think was not as sustaining for him as it appeared. And a sharp eye for media and topical comedy: obese people signing up to be held at gunpoint to eat less and exercise, the private special ed racket, scandalmongering reporters. It is the dustiest of truisms that performing arts talent like his has never been any guarantor of happiness, so I am very glad he is taking action. Thanks for linking to it, sir.

I'm rarely an automatic defender of parents, just because we see too many instances when parents are checked out, lazy, or even an active part of the abuse of a child. But in this case - and in a lot of bullying cases - the parents may be unaware of the extent of the abuse Jonah is getting from his classmates because he hides it. He says it right there in the video - he smiles and fakes it. A lot of kids who are bullied hide it from their families and friends because having the only people who seem to care about you know that you are not liked by your peers, that you are called names and beaten up and made to eat their shit all day at school is just too much additional humiliation to bear. I hope that getting this video out there turns out to be a good experience for Jonah and that it prompts his family and the adults around him at school to intervene and make things better, but I wouldn't assume just because he says at the end of the video that he not suicidal that he isn't. I've seen commenters on other websites calling him a whiny bitch and an attention whore and saying he needs to suck it up and just deal with the bullying like everyone else has to. This kid needs some ongoing support, not just pats on the back for a brave public statement. I hope he gets that from his community because while it does indeed get better for many of us, for some kids, it doesn't get better soon enough. My best to you, Jonah.

Ugh, I feel for the kid. I think for many people this is the worst time in their lives, gay, straight, or whatever. Hormones, social cliques, awkwardness, weird ass hair all growin' in places. Someone wise once described Middle School to me as "a cage where children are put until they can begin to be released into society."

That man was my Middle School guidance counselor.

I have to offer some defense for the parents.

I was bullied as a child too, though not nearly as bad as Jonah. I told my parents about it at one point, when I was about 11. They talked to the school administrators. The school did nothing. The lesson to 11-year-old-me was to not make a big fuss about it, and stuff it down. And I did. Many of us who were bullied are VERY good at hiding it. My parents and teachers never heard another word of complaint from me, even though the bullying continued for about another two years.

Most parents want to think the best of their children. Sometimes kids pick up on that, and present their best face to their parents, and pretend everything is fine. Since that is what parents want to see, they rarely see past that.

If Jonah is anywhere near as good at stuffing his pain as I was at his age, it is entirely possible his parents have no clue, even if they are very well meaning, supportive parents.

@5 I knew Charles wasn't going to like this video, but why bother with the pseud?

This kid is so brave. I'm glad to hear things are getting at least a little better already.

someone on metafilter pointed out this response video, which i thought was just as moving as jonah's statement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s7vrxXHc…

Sorry but I'm with with 5. My first reaction to this was, alright, yeah sad, but what is this emo narcissism bullshit? Does this kid really think he's such a snowflake? I mean, I feel for him, I've been there, but I grew up without the Internet. Surely this kid could have found someone to reach out to in a more personal way, without making such a theatrical public stage show.

While I am pleased that this video has finally gone viral, I'm even more thrilled that Jonah seems to be on level ground. My greatest hope is that this video & all of the It Gets Better videos will continue to provide that tiniest silver string of hope for all bullied & fearful youth.

@5, I wonder what you'd do in Jonah's place. My money says you wouldn't survive.

Wonderful video. Horrible situation. Great guy. Had me in tears, too. Gosh, how I wish I could help directly.

Hang in there.

@21, a lot of kids simply DIDN'T make it to adulthood under these conditions, and still don't. When you're young, you tend to emote in ways that make adults go "hey, buck up, enough of this emo bullshit," but that's just how young teens cope and express themselves. I don't really remember how it felt, exactly (at 28, I'm enough of an adult to have adult feelings, finally), but I remember how it was. Many people seem to forget in adulthood that our stony-faced acceptance of bullshit, even constant bullshit, is a learned coping mechanism and not something we were fucking born with.

@21: I grew up without the Internet too, and I was bullied in school too, and I tried to smile and fit in as best I could, all the while thinking I was the only gay kid around and hating myself and praying that I would change. No more! We have the Internet and it's not the gay kids who need to hide -- it's the bullies. If you don't want to see gay kids like this making emotional YouTube videos, do something positive to stop bullying in school -- don't make whiny comments that bullied kids should just suck it up.

Have you volunteered at your local PFLAG, badstone? No? Why not? How about going and seeing what you can do to make a difference instead of just telling the oppressed to suck it up?

Also, the Internet is a good resource for networking; so good, that there is an entire generation of kids who have grown up with it being an integral part of their lives. Just because previous generations "made it" without YouTube, livejournal, blogs, whatever doesn't undermine the usefulness and importance of these resources to young people today.

Of the list of people who I think this video should fill with shame (bully kids, bully religious authorities, bully politicians, school authorities etc.) I think the only ones with a small chance of it are the teachers. I'll bet hard cash his teachers have ALL seen this. They are the people responsible for making his school safe. If he's afraid to go back, it means they are failing.

I hope his parents will consider secular homeschooling, at least for a time. It can feel like it means the bullies won, but it may help to see this as a temporary crisis that has to be resolved before he can go back. This kid is close to the edge, and I think he needs to be pulled back a smidgen and not tossed back into the toxic environment his school obviously is.

Fuck off, @28. Engage and discuss, or get lost.

Taking a look at @5/28's past comments on its profile page tells you all you need to know: TROLL.

This kid has demonstrated more strength and bravery than people well beyond his years. It's no doubt something he had had to develop because of the hate he has had to endure for so long. We stand with you, Jonah. Life gets better.

@30 at least he's a troll who doesn't hide his past comments (too dumb or doesn't care?). I have noticed some suspicious posters (who at least bothered to register) in the last few months that I seemed to show up right after Occupy started.

Jonah seems like an incredibly brave young man just to face the hurts that prompted that video. I suppose it's inevitable that this thread would attract trolls that aren't interesting or creative enough to make a difference themselves and so instead become a nuisance in a desperate bid for attention.

Hey BBillyRay- why not make whiny comments instead? Oh- you did that..

@35 Go right ahead, son. See if you get out from under that repressed personality of yours.

I wish we could send Jonah to live with Ms Kim for a year, maybe more. Would that be enough?

If I post nothing tomorrow, it's probably due to insomnia tonight.

I wish people would cut it out with the "go fuck off and die" type comments to trolls. Respectful, logical answers (@25) or no response at all, folks. Don't feed hate with hate.

Beta Ray Bill needs a good slap with mjolnir

@35, isn't it what you're doing already?

Looks like you think gay people don't have the right to have problems. Or that people with problems can't make videos about them.

I think this video is obviously fake.

This kid isn't whining. He's sharing his struggle and showing other scared bullied kids that even when it's not getting better right now there is hope as long as you hang in there. He IS "sucking it up"

@39, I'm sure you accidentally overlooked @10, but I'm glad you used one of your five comments total in the last year to wag your finger at me @29, because you're right, of course. If comment editing were allowed, I probably would have throttled it back about 30 seconds after hitting "post."

You will have noted, however, that (unlike "Beta Ray Billy") most of the persistent Slog trolls will at least earnestly put forward (again and again) the "facts" they think support them (even engage in multiple rounds of debate with other commenters), and I'm sure you used all of your other four comments in the last year to remonstrate with them concerning their hundreds of anti-gay, misogynist, racist, christo-fascist assertions.

Oh wait, only one expressed displeasure with an odious troll comment. Oh wait, that one only asked for the comment to be deleted; it didn't directly confront the commenter. Well, kudos for that, anyway. You're safely in NALT territory.

#5 you are a horrid, weak, close-minded person. Shame on you.
#21 news flash, the times they are a changing. Internet is here and it's the fastest way for this young man to reach out and share his story and if "theatrics" is what it takes to get people's attention than so be it. He need support, not criticism.
What a brave thing to do, hang in there Jonah.

@42, in the same way you get to misspell 'misappropriate' and still think you've said something worthwhile.

Isn't a progressive Christian an atheist? I'm confused. Progressive and Christian never belong in the same sentence unless that sentence is: "A Christian has about as much chance of being progressive as BetaRayBilly has of being laid or being heterosexual for that matter".

BetaRayBilly, I want you to know that when you were a kid, all the people who called you a whiny little cunt were WRONG. If all the hurt that you've been pushing down since then ever surfaces, and you have the courage to ask for help, I feel certain that you will get the support you need from people who care.

@51, so what's your point? Kids don't cut themselves for no reason.

And if your response to that is, "he's just doing it for attention", consider that he might need some attention.

@46 Huh? Perhaps I should have been more specific, but I wasn't actually responding to your comment, but more to ones like @14, which are violent, lacking in depth and (in my mind) unhelpful to a productive dialogue. Even if one might think that anti-gay, misogynist, racist, christo-fascist people should kill themselves, telling them to do so is entirely unhelpful.

Although, I really doubt that a productive dialogue can be had with the majority of trolls in comment sections no matter how logical or convincing. Kudos to others for trying, but my empirical experiences and established research indicates that it's not all that effective. That's the problem with the internet: the online inhibition effect, the increases in unethical behaviour linked with anonymity, and my (not unsupported) assumption that the majority of trolls are uninterested in discussion but solely out to boil others' blood.

In fact, I don't disagree with telling people to leave if they're not contributing meaningfully or are being abusive, as all the trolls are, but I also doubt that will discourage them. This is why I avoid comment sections usually. They make me feel hopeless and irritated, since so often they are derailed and degenerate into petty name calling and personal attacks.

Speaking of which, nice of you to accuse me of NALT-ism based only on my online activity on this one site. Comment sections represent a miniscule proportion of my energy re: political/social discussions, and things like this are exactly why.

@40 for the insider-geek diss. & bitch-slap from Sif to boot!

It's pretty easy to sling words around when one uses a screen name. The phenomenon is something I call "keyboard balls". Trolls have huge keyboard balls. Saying things anonymously or pseudo-anonymously make people spout some stuff they'd (likely) never say to someone else's face.

Meh, human nature.

There was a discussion over on Gawker or Jezebel about how bullying gets more press these days, that bullying is worse now than before, & some adults who were previously bullied kids were saying that they disagreed, that it's always been as bad as it is now. I don't think that's true. The internet takes what used to be a daytime, at-school happening, that you then tried to get over while at home with your family, & turned it into something that can happen 24/7. Plus it's not like hateful photos, videos, texts, etc, stay confined to just the bullied kid's school - they go viral, just like Jonah's video, above.

Someone on that other thread also used the phrase "special little snowflake". Eh, the topic of gay kids getting bullied is gonna attract trolling. It represents social change. First of all, kids coming to grips with what they know is true about themselves at younger ages. There weren't as many examples of gay people in the media 20 or even 10 years ago. Second, we're a country in transition: roughly a little more than half of us think gay marriage is just fine / gays are like anyone else, & the other half, not so much. Thirdly, see above about bullying being more intense due to its 24/7 type nature. Combine that with areas of the country where it's not okay to be gay or perceived as gay, & there are more suicides or attempted suicides.

@54, your presence confirms it.

It amazes me that whenever a kid (or anyone else) confesses that they cut themselves to cope with their feelings some people will accuse them of "just wanting attention" or "being overly dramatic." Um, no. Permanently disfiguring oneself isn't fucking trivial. Most kids who engage in it start doing it to cope with the trauma of sexual abuse, which makes the dismissal of it all the more deplorable. How is a kid suppose to act after getting raped?

I don't know if this poor kid was sexually abused, but being completely socially isolated and living under the constant threat of physical violence can be just as emotionally trying. I'm so glad that videos like this are changing the tide of public opinion from the bad old days when bullying was viewed as character building or inevitable or whatever.

Really? Your sexuality comes up when you're trying to get laid? So the person you're hitting on doesn't assume she or he is the normal target of your sexual attraction? Weird indeed.

@51: OMG! It _does_ get better!

Seriously, I'm glad Jonah is fitting in at his new school. What a difference four months can make in a young life.