After an incident at a Toronto high school where two straight students bullied a gay student for wearing a pink shirt, students intervened in the situation. Students also decided to start a viral movement to wear pink in support of the gay student and to take a stand against bullying.
The Suicide Prevention Resource Center synthesized numerous studies and estimated that between 30 and 40% of LGBT youth, of various ages and sex groups, have attempted suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender teens are up to 4 times more likely to attempt suicide. Nearly every member of the LGBT community has experienced bullying because of their sexual orientation, many during their grade school years.
When Officers Ryan Wilmer and Luke Watson heard of this movement they wanted to get involved. Officer Wilmer went on twitter and offered a challenge. His partner, Officer Watson, will dye his hair pink if their original post reached 500 re-tweets. Well their post reached 560 re-tweets before Officer Wilmer arrived at his station.? As promised, Officer Watson died his hair pink. They then?offered to have him keep this new hair color for 1 week if people re-tweet the #stopbullyingnow and #dayofpink campaigns 1000 times. They even offered to have Officer Watson keep the hair color 1 additional day for every 100 re-tweets on top of the 1000.
Clearly the Toronto police department is supporting a good cause, the only question is why haven’t American police departments jumped on the band wagon? Gay Bullying is a serious issue and it’s great to see young people and institutions taking a stand against it.
See the video of Officer Watson’s super cool pink hair.
