Openly gay stars are speaking out on
the suicide of gay Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi.
Officials fished Clementi's body out of
the Hudson River on Thursday. The
18-year-old student took his own life last week after learning that
his roommate secretly posted on the Internet live video of him having
sex with another man.
Clementi's death is the latest in a
string of recent incidents where young teens took their lives after
being bullied for being gay.
Among the stars speaking out are chat
show host Ellen DeGeneres, How I Met Your Mother star Neil
Patrick Harris and former 'NSYNCer Lance Bass.
“Let me assure you, if you're getting
bullied and feeling like you're on the outskirts, it gets better,”
father-to-be
Harris said in a
video posted on MTV.com. “Because, when you get older, you
find that people are actually drawn to individuals with different
points of view who are proud of who they are and who make interesting
and different and unique choices for them – at least I am.”
“My heart is breaking for their
families, for their friends and for our society that continues to let
this happen,” DeGeneres
said Friday on her show The
Ellen DeGeneres Show. “We can't let intolerance and
ignorance take another kid's life.”
In
his video message, singer Bass confessed to bullying gay kids in
his youth.
“I had the secret this whole time.
And so if people can look at me and see that I was one of those
bullies that, like, always made fun of gay people and I had this huge
secret, there is always more to the story than you see.”