Invasion of Privacy
Tyler Clementi had his whole life ahead of him. He was a very talented young man at playing violin. One small favor turned into a tragic nightmare for his family. It was because he was different than his roommate and it led him to his death. This is happened at Rutgers University, a much respected school in the east. The sad fact is that this would have happen at the University of Illinois at Chicago too.
Tyler was a student at the Rutgers and he was gay. One day, he just asked his roommate to be alone with his boyfriend in his room for a while and his roommate let him be alone. Not only did he leave, he had a webcam on that recorded the whole thing while he was in a friend’s room. Many of the other students saw them and the teasing began for a week. Tyler was so depressed that he decided to take his life by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Many students that knew him wrote on a Facebook group page that was made in his honor, but of all the memories that had of him and hoping that he rests in peace.
This is a tragic story about someone who just wanted a couple hours alone with their partner. His roommate really should not have recorded what they did, and post it on the internet. The reason that I believe that this would happen at UIC is because Rutgers is one of the most diverse universities in the United States. It is has many people of different races, religions, beliefs, etc. Rutgers is not known for being an anti-gay college and many former alumni felt accepted on the campus. “I’ve always dreamed of going to a place like Rutgers, where it wasn’t a big deal to be gay” said Shane Windmeyer, founder and executive director of Campus Pride. This could happen anywhere because in every college there are going to be people that disagree with the whole issue about being gay. No matter where you go there will be people that support equal rights and those who strongly disagree with it. There will never be a time when everyone agrees on the same thing because it makes us an individual to go against the crowd. Here at UIC, there are many groups and people that you can talk to if you have any problems. Again, many other colleges have these groups to help those in need and Tyler did not seek out this help. Help may have saved his life, but he never looked for it and no one got it for him. This is just one thing that our society has to deal with, the inability of some to accept others for who they are. It is a sad that this young man lost his life because his roommate decided to break his privacy. There were many things he could have done to get help with getting through this event, but it was just too embarrassing to talk about it with anyone. I think that if he had received help, then it would have just prolonged his suffering. The reason it would be prolonged is because it is difficult for many teens to be comfortable with their peers when they know they are gay. Some of their peers do not accept them and decide to just bully them for being an individual.
Clearly, this is a problem throughout the United States as more and more teens are committing suicide because of bullying. It is time to for us to look in the mirror and decide do we want the next generation to be more accepting of others differences or not. Change is something that is always needed in society, and right now we need even more than expected.
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