Before it got better, life for David Levitt, a gay 15-year-old from Richmond, got so bad he tried to hang himself with strings from his brother's guitar.
"I took an old guitar string from a case my brother had and I wrapped it around my neck [and] tried to hang myself, but it snapped," Levitt said. "I tried two more times with different guitar strings." They snapped too.
That was three years ago. Now, with support from his parents and the local youth lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community, the former victim of homophobic bullying has transformed into an advocate.
At a news conference at King George secondary school on Tuesday, Levitt and other students joined NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert to urge the B.C. government to rid schools of homophobic and transphobic bullying. The event was tied in with today's Pink Shirt Day, a national campaign against bullying.
Only about 25 per cent of B.C. school districts have an explicit sexual orientation and gender identity policy, and Levitt and members of the Vancouver District Students' Council said they want that to change.
Levitt's experience with bullying mirrors that of many gay youth in this province, according to the council.
At 12, he told a friend he was gay. Shortly after, they got into a dispute at school and the friend "blurted it out to the whole classroom," Levitt said.
After being humiliated, Levitt returned to the closet. Being abandoned by friends and called names "drove me to a sense of self-loathing," he said.
Levitt took his failed suicide attempts as a sign from a higher power that there was another route, the one he's on today.
He came out to his parents about a year ago. After initial apprehensions, they got him involved in a local youth LGBT group, he said. "The LGBT com-munity - has given me the strength needed to continue on with the things I love - without hating everything," he said.
"Bullying isn't about hate, it's about ignorance," said Levitt, wearing a pink T-shirt with "Bullying Stops Here " across the chest.
Open discussions about diverse sexuality should be built into every school's curriculum, he said.
In an open letter to Premier Christy Clark, the council called on the government to end inconsistent approaches to teaching sexual diversity in B.C.'s schools.
"The government has been muddy on the subject of anti-homophobic bullying policy for schools," the students wrote.
"LGBT students need to be protected ... not only because they are more susceptible to bullying, but because they require the same protection as every other child in their class."
Clark, who gained a reputation as an anti-bullying advocate while working as a talk-show host at CKNW radio, promised action late last year, but nothing has been announced since.
Certain aspects of the pink day campaign haven't been welcomed by everyone.
Some Burnaby parents called for the government to prevent teachers from posting a YouTube video of students dancing to Lady Gaga's Born This Way as part of the pink shirt campaign.
The U.S. pop star is not an appropriate learning resource, the Burnaby Parents' Voice wrote in a letter to Clark and Education Minister George Abbott, noting that Lady Gaga's own video of the song includes simulated group sex, masturbation, semi-nudity and a birth scene.
The students' video posted on Tues-day afternoon was tame, and showed children pumping their fists, clapping their hands and dancing.
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