Rapper’s Comments Follow Atrocious Day of Gay Suicides, Says TWO
NEW YORK – Truth Wins Out called on rapper 50 Cent to clarify potentially anti-gay remarks he made on his Twitter account today. The tweet comes on the heels an infamous day of sadness and sorrow, where four gay teens died from suicide. According to 50 Cent’s message:
“If you a man and your over 25 and you don’t eat pu**y just kill your self damn it. The world will be a better place.” Lol, Twitter.
“We hope that 50 Cent was simply expressing enthusiasm for oral sex in an inartful way,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It would be unconscionable if he were calling on gays to commit suicide in the face of such tragedy. Only a despicable reprobate would do such a thing and leaders from Hollywood to Washington should condemn such rhetoric. Truth Wins Out calls on 50 Cent to clarify his remarks immediately.”
In September, there have been four gay teen suicides as a result of school bullying, as well as an incident where classmates broke a young man’s arm because he joined the cheerleading squad:
** Seth Walsh, the Bakersfield, CA 13-year-old who hanged himself from a tree in his back yard after years of being bullied, died Tuesday afternoon after nine days on life support. Police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself. “Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears,” Police Chief Jeff Kermode said. “They had never expected an outcome such as this.”
** Asher Brown, 13, an eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Houston Texas. Brown, his family said, was “bullied to death” — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.
** Billy (William) Lucas, 15, a student at Greensburg Community High School in Greensburg, IN, was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home Thursday evening — he had hanged himself. Friends say that he had been tormented for years
“He was threatened to get beat up every day,” friend and classmate Nick Hughes said. “Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him. Some people at school called him names,” Hughes said, saying most of those names questioned Lucas’ sexual orientation.
** Yesterday, a Rutgers University freshman posted a goodbye message on his Facebook page before jumping to his death after his roommate secretly filmed him during a “sexual encounter” in his dorm room and posted it live on the Internet. Items belonging to 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi were found by the George Washington Bridge last week, according to authorities. Clementi’s freshman ID card and driver’s license were in the wallet.Clementi’s post on his Facebook page, dated Sept. 22 at 8:42 p.m. read, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”
*** School bullies broke the arm of eleven year-old Tyler Wilson because he joined the cheering team. But he’s pushing through it, and he’s going to cheer and not give into the thugs. A longer report and full interview with Tyler and his mom from Good Morning America are here.
“In this time of mourning, we need voices of love and compassion,” said TWO’s Besen. “The last thing we need is a recording artist with 3,366,288 Twitter followers to throw gasoline on the fire and encourage hate. I certainly hope that 50-Cent makes it clear that his statements were misunderstood. If his statements were, indeed, anti-gay, then we are looking at a genuine monster.”
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism. TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their misinformation and exposes their leaders as charlatans. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
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