Raymond Chase: Another Gay Teen Suicide or Just Another Teen Suicide?

And then there were five.

On September 29, 2010, 19-year-old Raymond Chase of Monticello, New York, an openly gay Johnson & Wales college student, reportedly hung himself in his dorm room. Chase is the 5th gay teen to kill himself within the past few weeks.

But that may be where the similarities end.

The reason or reasons for Chase's alleged suicide are unknown, and it would be extremely careless to pin this young man's death on his sexuality. Gay people are just like everyone else. They hurt for many reasons. Pain is something each and every one of us must endure.

Instead of making this a gay suicide issue, I think we need to make this a teen suicide issue. It has never been more evident, that our children are being plagued with a hopelessness that is so deep and dark, it is silencing their voices and driving them to extreme measures.

Remember the old saying, "all that glitters isn't gold"? Well, the same applies to people. Not every smile is genuine. Not every "confident" person is sure.

In Raymond Chase's own words, he liked to laugh, he liked to have fun, and he was gay. But that summation is too simplistic. Too generic. Obviously, there was so much more to him... and now the world will never know what he could have accomplished.

Before I wrote this article, I visited Raymond Chase's Facebook Memorial page. I was impressed at how well the page was managed by the administrator. Unlike Billy Lucas and Tyler Clementi's memorial pages, there were no homophobic, hate-filled messages - no vulgar pictures with vile captions - only mournful posts from loved ones.

But even that made me wonder... How many of those people actually took the time to tell Raymond they loved when he was alive? How many of them actually said the words, "Raymond, you are my friend."

This video is dedicated to Raymond Chase, Billy Lucas, Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, and Asher Brown.