It does not always get better

Seattle sex columnist Dan Savage started a campaign trying to persuade gay teens to stop killing themselves because life does get better if you can get the fuck out of high school and the bullies and idiots who live there.

Which is all nice and everything, except that sometimes high school seems like it lasts forever.

Back in May, Buffalo teen Jamey Rodermeyer contributed a video to the "It Gets Better" campaign. Though only 14, Rodermeyer felt he had a message of hope to send whoever was watching. Now, four months later, he's dead of a suicide.

Jamey's parents, who found him dead at their home early Monday morning, say that he had been bullied because of his perceived sexuality for years, but that they thought that he was doing better, having started high school three weeks ago. Following his death, they now suspect he'd just gotten better at hiding the effects of being harassed. Friends at his school say he was still being teased and worse on a regular basis.

So, that's fucking terrible. Today, when we celebrate the repeal of one bit of federally legislated anti-gay bullying, let's remember that it also still of course exists in myriad small ways, for many people, all over the world.