Jamey Rodemeyer's sister Alyssa on
Wednesday's edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 talked about
the bullying of her brother after his death.
Jamey committed suicide after being
bullied for coming out gay. The 14-year-old freshman at Wiliamsville
North High School outside Buffalo, New York was found dead outside
his home on September 18.
In a YouTube video posted in May, Jamey
said Lady Gaga had inspired him. “Lady Gaga, she makes me so
happy, and she lets me know that I was born this way,” he said in
the clip.
During her appearance on CNN, Alyssa
told host Anderson Cooper that she found her brother's body hanging
outside their home.
Finding him was “rough, but … I
didn't have time to soak it all in 'cause I was in a state of shock
and I was trying to do everything, you know, call 911, get my
parents, try to save him. It didn't register at the time, I guess.”
Alyssa also discussed an incident that
occurred during a homecoming dance after Jamey's death.
When a Lady Gaga song began playing,
“We all started chanting for him,” Alyssa said. “We were all
jumping around and we were singing to it. … A little group of like
three of his prior bullies, as we were chanting, they started yelling
stuff back at us. They were saying that they were glad he was dead,
and just basically that, and some obscenities and things.” (The
video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
(Related: Possible
criminal charges in connection with Jamey Rodemeyer suicide.)