A 9-year-old boy has committed suicide after being bullied for his sexuality, according to a Denver mom. Jamel Myles just started fourth grade last Monday and was eager to open up to his peers after coming out as gay to his mom over the summer. “And he looked so scared when he told me.
He was like, ‘Mom I’m gay,'” Leia Pierce told KDVR-TV. “And I thought he was playing, so I looked back because I was driving, and he was all curled up, so scared. And I said, ‘I still love you.'” Hoping to get the same support from his peers, Jamel went to school ready to share. “He was gonna tell people he’s gay because he’s proud of himself,” his mom said. Unfortunately, his classmates were not as accepting as his mother; she says he experienced bullying, which led to his suicide. Pierce found her son dead in their home Thursday and points to bullying as the cause.
“Four days is all it took at school. I could just imagine what they said to him,” Pierce said. “My son told my oldest daughter the kids at school told him to kill himself. I’m just sad he didn’t come to me.”
