During an appearance on CNN's Anderson
Cooper AC360, Jamey Rodemeyer's mother said her son had a big
heart.
Jamey is the 14-year-old Buffalo junior
high school student who committed suicide after being bullied for
coming out gay.
Tim and Tracey Rodemeyer appeared on
the program along with their daughter Alyssa.
“For a 14-year-old, he had the
biggest heart in that little body. He was well loved by everybody,
which included friends, teachers, and, of course, family,” Tracey
said of her son.
In May, Jamey posted a YouTube video
for the It Gets Project, which reaches out to struggling gay teens
considering suicide. “All you have to do is hold your head up and
you'll go far,” he said in the clip. “Just love yourself and
you're set … It gets better.”
The video was a relief for his parents
who saw it as a sign that their son's struggle might be coming to an
end.
Dan Savage, the co-founder of the It
Gets Better, noted on his blog that “sometimes, the damage done by
hate and by haters is simply too great” to overcome.
“It sounds like Jamey had help – he
was seeing a therapist and a social worker and his family was
supportive – but it wasn't enough,” Savage
wrote. “Whatever help Jamey was getting clearly wasn't enough
to counteract the hatred and abuse that he had endured since the
fifth grade, according to reports, or Jamey's fears of having to face
down a whole new set of bullies when he started high school next
year.”
The Rodemeyers added that Jamey
appeared fine the night before he died. (The video is embedded in
the right panel of this page.)