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Hundreds gather at vigil at Church and Wellesley

A candlelit vigil was held in remembrance of a number of gay youth who’ve committed suicide over the past few months on Wednesday night.[briefbreak]

Recently, it’s seemed impossible to turn on the news without hearing about another one of these tragedies.

“I’m quite surprised that it’s being covered with this level of attention,” said Aniksa Ali, the outreach coordinator with Youth Line which is Ontario’s peer-support phone line for gay youth. “We know that suicide for LGBQ identified youth often goes unspoken about. I mean, we see the stats, but the individual stories don’t generally make the news. At least not the mainstream news,” she said.

Now that the attention is on though, writer and musician Vivek Shraya took it upon himself to organize this event that brought hundreds of people to Church and Wellesley at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night. From there, the crowd marched to Queen’s Park chanting, “End the silence on homophobic violence.”

Ali was there, and said that although the crowd was loud as they marched, it was overwhelmingly quiet as people listened to each speaker that addressed the crowd.

She said that the most moving part of the night was just that so many people turned out. “The fact that we lit up those streets and the fact that so many people were coming together to stand up in hope,” she said.

The event’s Facebook page listed some of the young people, almost all of whom were under 20 years old, who were being honoured by the gathering. Among those listed were Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who killed himself after a videotape of him and another man was broadcasted online, and Jeanine Blanchette and Chantal Dube, a young couple who’s bodies were recently found in a wooded area in Orangeville.

Crowds also gathered in Kingston and Montreal for corresponding vigils.

Another will be held in Ajax on October 20th on the anniversary of the death of Shaquille Wisdom, a 13-year-old boy from the town who killed himself because he was being bullied at school for his sexuality.

NOW columnist Dan Savage is also doing his part for the cause. In response to the shokcing number of young gay suicides showing up the media, he started a YouTube channel called It Gets Better in September. There, people can post videos directed at gay youth showing them that things won’t be so bad forever in hopes of avoiding even more of these tragedies.

There are now over 900 videos on the channel, including those from celebrity-gossiper Perez Hilton, Project Runway host Tim Gunn and Glee’s Chris Colfer.

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