Jadin Bell was 15. Jadin Bell was bullied on a daily basis for being gay. Jadin Bell hanged himself. He was taken off life support this week, showing only little brain ac tivity.
Imagine Jadin Bell as your own sibling or family member. Picture yourself in the situation, in the hospital, staring at his limp body. Imagine the seizing grief. Imagine the horrible guilt. Imagine the questions.
Such questions have kept me up for many a night.
What does it take for someone to decide to commit suicide? How much of a hell does life have to be for someone to decide that to continue living would be a fate worse than death?
How does this happen? How does this keep happening? Why do so many of our gay youth kill themselves?
For me, the question lying beneath all of this is the question of the culture. Is our culture one that truly welcomes the healthy development of young minds?
I think that as long as prejudice exists to such a large degree in our society, the lives of our youth are at risk. As long as bullies feel validated and righteous in their cause, and as long as the victims of the bullies feel degraded and worthless, I think children will continue to kill themselves.
Homophobia runs rife through our culture. Homophobic symbols can even be found at the heart of UF’s campus.
The university prides itself as an institution that is “committed to non-discrimination with respect to … sexual orientation, gender identity and expression...” But, if the university really were so committed, why is there still a Chick-fil-A on campus?
When asked about his stance regarding gay marriage, Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, said by questioning the traditional definition of marriage, we’re “inviting God’s judgement on our nation.” In 2010 alone, Chick-fil-A donated nearly $2 million to anti-gay groups.
While Cathy has claimed to have changed his tune, he has still been supporting groups that work against equal opportunities under the law for homosexuals.
It was recently reported that Chick-fil-A’s tax forms indicated no donations to anti-gay groups. These reports are based solely on the words of Shane Windmeyer, a gay activist in higher education, who also recently announced his organization, Campus Pride, has suspended their boycott of Chick-fil-A products.
However, Windmeyer later clarified his position, saying Chick-fil-A is still, in fact, donating money to anti-gay groups.
According to the Gainesville Sun, a petition was drafted for UF President Bernie Machen some time ago in the hopes of finally removing the establishment from campus. The petition had nearly 1,000 supporters. According to the petition’s creators, it was delivered to Machen. To my knowledge, Machen has not responded, and the Chick-fil-A remains.
I think every one of us has to take a personal interest in what our culture looks like. We all have a role to play, no matter how small, in creating the culture.
If you have any sympathy at all for Jadin Bell and those like him, I invite you to consider the fact that by eating Chick-fil-A products you’re helping fund the people and lobbies who create his story.
This isn’t some bold assertion. It is a fact that when you give money to Chick-fil-A, they go and spend it on lobbies that are hostile to liberty, lobbies that continue to affirm a strong homophobic presence within our society. How could anyone honestly come to the conclusion that this is only a matter of a chicken sandwich?
We have to do our best to create a culture in which we can all flourish freely. This means ceasing to support organizations that serve interests and ends counter to those we want to create.
Ask yourself what’s worth more to you: Jadin Bell’s life or a sandwich?
Brandon Lee Gagne is an anthropology senior at UF. His column runs on Fridays. You can contact him via opinions@alligator.org.
