Connect with us

17-Year Old Gay Teen Commits Suicide — Father Blames Anti-Gay Bullying

Published

on

An openly-gay 17-year old boy committed suicide in Rochester, Minnesota on Sunday, and his father is blaming anti-gay bullying as “a big part” of the cause of his son’s death. Jay ‘Corey’ Jones, also known as Corey Jay Jonestrader on his Facebook page, was a student at Century High School, and was bullied for years his father, JayBocka Strader, says.

“He said all of his life they always picked on him. He’d still try to keep his head up at school, but then he’d come home and be really sad about it,” Strader says, in a report at the Post Bulletin:

Jones, a member of Century’s gay-straight alliance, had an image on his Facebook page that said, “Gay & Proud.” He was open about his sexuality and occasionally wore tight, colorful tank tops and short-shorts to school, Strader said.

“He just got really depressed about it because the guys weren’t accepting him,” Strader said.

Jones jumped from a pedestrian bridge near Century High School on Sunday, according to police.

In response to an inquiry from the Post-Bulletin, schools Superintendent Michael Muñoz issued a statement acknowledging there are issues related to bullying in the district. He did not directly address Jones’ situation.

The district is in the planning stages of providing training and support for students, staff and families, Muñoz said, and will continue anti-bullying collaborations with Gov. Mark Dayton’s recently formed anti-bullying task force, Rochester police and others in the community.

“I want everyone to have on pink shirts and remember the Corey that tried to get the rights,” Strader said. Pink was one of Jones’ favorite colors, his dad said.

“When I saw him in pink, I really liked him in pink, and he was really happy,” Strader said. “I just told him that pink looked good on him.”

A report on Minnesota Public Radio yesterday added:

Last year, Jones told his dad, Jay Strader, he was gay. Strader immediately noticed a change.

“I just saw a difference in him I saw a smile, I saw a little more energy than actually being down and out and depressed-looking,” Strader said. “To me he felt a sign of relief, like, ‘Yeah I got over the hard part, right,’ you know.”

But coming out exposed Jones to other pressures, Strader said, primarily from bullies at school. Jones moved to Minnesota from Chicago two years ago. He lived in Minneapolis for a year before moving down to Rochester.

Strader said his son was comfortable with his sexual orientation. But the teasing Jones encountered at school turned into a constant struggle for him and he was diagnosed with depression.

“I wanted him to let me know what was going on with him. I didn’t get a chance to get that,” Strader. “I didn’t get a chance to find out what was going on inside his head.”

Strader said his son’s death Sunday has not sunk in yet. It’s been an emotional week for his family and him, as well as for many high school students in southeastern Minnesota.

Minnesota is currently the stage for a contentious battle for an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The funeral for Jay ‘Corey’ Jones will be held in Chicago on Saturday.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Image: Facebook

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

Time for the DOJ to ‘Stop Playing Trump’s Reindeer Games’ and Indict Him: Former Federal Prosecutor

Published

on

Reacting to a report in the New York Times that Donald Trump plotted with aides to use the sensitive documents he illegally took with him to Mar-a-Lago after losing his 2020 re-election bid as bargaining chips to gain access to documents related to an investigation into his ties to Russia, former prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said enough is enough and the DOJ needs to indict him.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Katie Phang Show,” Kirshner claimed the DOJ has been overly tolerant of the former president’s delaying tactics as they investigate him and that they have enough on him already to prosecute.

“You know, Trump is all about the quid pro quo, isn’t he? This for that,” he told the host. “And it proves a couple of things if this reporting is accurate, and we have no reason to believe it’s not, but, first of all, he knew he had the documents. He knew the documents were of some value, frankly, he knew that he had no right to possess the documents because he was negotiating for their return to the federal government.”

“I don’t know why the government negotiated with somebody that I have called a classified documents terrorist for so long rather than taking the kind of law enforcement activity that the Department of Justice would have taken if you or if I were in possession of stolen national security information,” he added.

RELATED: Trump plotted to trade Mar-a-Lago files for ‘sensitive documents’ about his 2016 campaign Russia ties: report

“Donald Trump is now exposing himself as somebody who is willing to take property that he stole and leverage it to his own benefit for other information that he wants, that he has no right to, from the federal government,” he elaborated. “I analogize it to a situation where your neighbor stole your TV, and then said if you want to back give me $500. Well in concrete terms, that’s what Donald Trump was doing with these stolen documents.”

“I do wish that the Department of Justice would stop playing Donald Trump’s reindeer games, stop playing on Donald Trump’s playing field because civil litigation is Donald Trump’s playing field and it’s where he can best weaponize the delay that is inherent in the civil litigation process and you know how the DOJ can put an end to all of that? Indict him in federal district court in Washington D.C.” he insisted.

Watch below or at the link:

 

Continue Reading

News

Trump Plotted to Trade Mar-a-Lago Files for ‘Sensitive Documents’ About His 2016 Campaign Russia Ties: Report

Published

on

According to new reporting from the New York Times, Donald Trump told aides he wanted to make a deal with the National Archives to return the documents and files he whisked away to his Mar-a-Lago resort in exchange for “sensitive” documents he believes prove his 2016 campaign did not conspire with the Russians.

As the Time’s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt wrote, the former president pressed aides to lie about what he took and was hiding, thus also putting them — and his attorneys — in legal jeopardy.

The report states, “Mr. Trump, still determined to show he had been wronged by the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia, was angry with the National Archives and Records Administration for its unwillingness to hand over a batch of sensitive documents that he thought proved his claims,” before adding, “In exchange for those documents, Mr. Trump told advisers, he would return to the National Archives the boxes of material he had taken to Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla.”

RELATED: ‘Holy moley’: Legal experts believe FBI inquiry into possible Trump Tower stash related to looming ‘criminal case’

The Times reports that the former president’s aides “never pursued” his plan, and that the episode “…demonstrates how Mr. Trump spent a year and a half deflecting, delaying and sometimes leading aides to dissemble when it came to demands from the National Archives and ultimately the Justice Department to return the material he had taken, interviews and documents show.”

The report adds, “Mr. Trump floated the idea of offering the deal to return the boxes in exchange for documents he believed would expose the Russia investigation as a ‘hoax’ cooked up by the F.B.I. Mr. Trump did not appear to know specifically what he thought the archives had — only that there were items he wanted.”

The report comes on the heels of additional reporting that DOJ believes the former president has still not turned over all of the documents he took, which could lead to Espionage Act charges and a criminal obstruction indictment.

You can read more here.

Continue Reading

News

‘As a Father, He’s Done Nothing’: Herschel Walker Urged the Mother of His Child to Have a Second Abortion – NYT

Published

on

The mother of Herschel Walker‘s 10-year old son who reportedly had an abortion the former NFL star paid for, reveals he also urged her to have a second abortion when she again became pregnant. She refused, ended their relationship, and gave birth to a boy, The New York Times reports.

The woman, whose name is not being published for family and safety reasons, revealed this week the former NFL star now running for a U.S. Senate seat as a hard core anti-abortion Republican had urged her to have the first abortion, and paid for it when she did.

“As a father, he’s done nothing. He does exactly what the courts say, and that’s it,” she told The Times. “He has to be held responsible, just like the rest of us. And if you’re going to run for office, you need to own your life.”

READ MORE: ‘Nothing to Be Ashamed of’: Herschel Walker Says if He Paid for an Abortion He Would ‘Be Forgiven’

The Times reports “the woman said Mr. Walker had barely been involved in their now 10-year-old son’s life, offering little more than court-ordered child support and occasional gifts.”

Walker has publicly acknowledged his eldest son, Christian Walker, but months ago when The Daily Beast revealed he had a “secret son,” Walker’s campaign confirmed only the second child, but did not initially reveal that Walker had fathered an additional two children.

In their interviews, the woman “described the frustration of watching Republicans rally around Mr. Walker, dismiss her account and bathe him in prayer and praise, calling him a good man.”

“The fact that I had a choice” to have an abortion, and “now he’s in the public trying to say he wants to put a ban on abortion completely,” the woman said. “It appalled me.”

She also “said Mr. Walker hardly knew his 10-year-old son — she said he had ‘maybe only seen him three times’ — and had not spoken to her in years.”

Walker is running to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, a progressive pastor. Warnock has not directly commented on this latest Walker scandal, one of many Georgia voters will have to weigh when they vote. On Thursday he tweeted, “The people of Georgia have a clear choice to make about who they think is ready to represent them in the United States Senate.”

Also on Thursday, Walker repeatedly flatly denied the allegations. But he did say if he had paid for an abortion, it was “nothing to be ashamed of.”

READ MORE: ‘Train Wreck’: Herschel Walker Criticized for New Ad Claiming God Helped Him ‘Overcome’ His Mental Illness

The woman, who is not being named by the press, also spoke with The Daily Beast, which broke the original story earlier this week and revealed many of the details the Times reported Friday.

Meanwhile, once his strongest supporter, Christian Walker has now become his father’s harshest critic.

“I stayed silent as the atrocities committed against my mom were downplayed, I stayed silent when it came out that my father, Herschel Walker, had all these random kids across the country, none of whom he raised,” Christian Walker said in a video he posted this week, after The Daily Beast’s report was published. “And you know, my favorite issue to talk about is father absence – surprise – ’cause it affected me. That’s why I talk about it all the time, because it affected me.”

“Family Values people: He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them,” Christian Walker continued, lambasting his father. “He was out having sex with other women. Do you care about family values? I was silent lie after lie after lie. The  abortion card drops yesterday – it’s literally his handwriting in the card. They say they have receipts, whatever. He gets on Twitter, he lies about it. Okay, I’m done.”

He hasn’t tweeted since Wednesday, but Christian Walker’s last tweet reads: “Wear a condom, damn.”

READ MORE: Watch: Herschel Walker Says if Georgia Voters Don’t Elect Him They Won’t Even ‘Have a Chance to Be Redeemed’
 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.