Rutgers student’s suicide prompts Las Vegas anti-bullying rally

By Rich Coleman

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010 | 1:55 a.m.

There was a lot of noise coming from East Charleston Boulevard on Monday night that, at times, was hard to compete with.

There were raucous motorcycle engines, passing cars, sirens from ambulances -- even a helicopter flew by. But hundreds of people at a Bully-Free Zone Rally at the Arts Factory made their own ruckus to compete with.

“There’s a lot of people at home and a lot of people walking by,” J.Son, community relations director for QVegas magazine, said into the microphone. “We need to make as much noise as possible so that the city of Las Vegas knows that this … is a no-bully zone.”

The crowd at the rally erupted.

Nine suicides from September were on the minds of those in the crowd. Though the nine were from different areas of the country, there was one commonality they shared: they involved people who were bullied over their sexual orientation.

The most talked-about suicide was that of 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate streamed a live feed of Clementi and another man having a sexual encounter.

People are paying more attention to the issue of bullying, said local resident Amanda Mirjanian, who attended Monday night’s rally, but she said bullying against gays and lesbians is something that happens all the time – including in Las Vegas.

“Vegas is a very conservative community,” Mirjanian said. “I see it all the time at work and I hear about it from kids at school. It’s very likely to happen here.”

Derek Washington, chairman of the Stonewall Democratic Club of Southern Nevada, helped to organize Monday’s rally. The Arts Factory is the usual venue for Stonewall’s monthly meetings.

“I couldn’t go to sleep the night Tyler Clementi died,” Washington said. “When I woke up in the morning, I immediately said, ‘I gotta do something,’ and started putting this together.”

Besides members of the gay and lesbian community and activists, politicians also attended the event, including U.S. Rep. Dina Titus and state Sen. David Parks, the only openly gay member of the Nevada Legislature. Parks told the crowd he had plans to improve anti-bullying legislation in Nevada.

J.Son spoke near the end of the event and almost broke down into tears as he told his coming-out story to the audience. A regular contributor for QVegas magazine, J.Son spearheaded a suicide awareness campaign at his high school in Syracuse and, more recently, started a campaign called You Are Loved to combat bullying.

“I live as an openly gay man. I have a great career, and the more I’m openly gay, the more successful my career has been,” J.Son said. “I was ashamed that I’d forgotten how bad (bullying) can be. So, I knew I had to do something.”

Demond Nettles, a freshman at UNLV, said the rally helped him feel more involved with his community.

“I feel appreciated, loved. Someone doing an event like this shows that it’s a big deal,” Nettles said. “We need to take responsibility for this and take action – or else it’ll keep happening.”

Las Vegas Weekly reporter April Corbin contributed to this report.