Approximately 75 people attended a candlelight vigil in Ybor City Oct. 24 to honor recent victims of bullying in the LGBT community and to shed light on the crisis
Organizer Zeke Fread, founder of Pride Tampa Bay, dubbed the event “A remembrance of the bullycides,” and lead a candlelight walk from Streetcar Charlie’s to Centennial Park.
“LGBT teens are nine times more likely to be bullied, and therefore take their lives by suicide then their heterosexual counterparts,” Fread said.
A steady stream of demonstrators peacefully chanted “Stop the Bullying, Stop the Hate” as the group snaked along 7th Avenue. The focus of this event was show a unified voice in the community against yet another form of discrimination.
Recent high-profile suicides have catapulted bullying-related suicides into the news. In order to show support for LGBT youth struggling with bullying and their sexual identity, walkers wore purple shirts.
“We chose to wear purple because, being the sixth color in the LGBT Pride Flag, purple represents ‘spirit.’ Purple also represents ‘deep mourning,’” said Fread.
Other speakers at Centennial Park included St. Pete City Councilman Steve Kornell, Hillsborough County School Board Member April Griffin and Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who read a proclamation from the county.
For Griffin, school bullying is a personal fight.
“This issue is personal to me, as a mother, because my child has been bullied in school,” Griffin said.
