It seems tonight the amount of comments the people are leaving on Youtube, has gone from hundreds an hour last night, to thousands of comments every hour.  The reaction has gone from 50/50 hate and death threats and support,  to mostly messages of support, however that still means he is getting hundreds of death threats, and hate messages every hour. I have checked the ages of the people telling Jonah to die, and they are mostly from adults.      I never knew so many adults are so full of hate, that they would say things like, "just shut up and die" to an 8th grader.    I can imagine they feel threaten by a boy going public and exposing the world of hate, but why would they then go on and confirm this, by posting hate filled messages, and death threats against a boy.

Bizarre.

what a sweet darling intelligent child.  courageous, possibly, probably.  Desperate deffinitely and hopefully the right people will see this art piece for what it is.  Courageous to illicit the world's reactions to exposure of self.  Very interesting and hugely clever and even genius.  Did he mean to be?  Probably.  Kids have a closed in system that allows them to connect certain dots we forget about as our world loosens.

I call what I see from your description, Alex

the 50% of people who can not feel empathy as they are too effed up.  This is a sad statistic, the worst and really they are the worst in that they are asking to be healed from their misery without putting any work into it ( therapy, volunteerism, activism, et al) and they want their quick fix - so hate gets us a quick adrenalin and endorphin high which stops the from feeling the depression.  The only problem with hate chemicals that I have found is that the subsequent drop from the initial adrenalin rush is as horrid  as the drop from a sugar high - creating more depression and anger.  "Pity" - a kind friend once said to me, when I was trying to come out of my hate cycles, "it takes less energy."

The other 50% are people who are doing the bracketed stuff but obviously have been too worked by beaurocracy to reach out in a meaningful way to Jonah. 

That's how I see it.

I once told the principal of my daughter's high school that if I knew of bullying and who the bully was, I would first phone the parents and if that didn't work, I would walk into the high school and confront the bully in front of the students in the hallway. 

The principal said that he would have to call the cops if I did that.  I said, that I'd do it anyway.  These are children.   You can deal with it now, or have people who are unable to see their own alienation freaking out on people they have nothing to do with as they get older and older and on and on.

Jonah reminds me of me at one time.  I looked like Jonah when I was in my 30s.  I actually have pictures that look like that - I was maybe thinner and female, but the rest is the same.

My guess is that kids have been bullying him because he doesn't fit the norm. Kids can be cruel - picking on the one they perceive to be the weakest. They pick on the ones who aren't "normal." As a teenager, I was one of the ones they picked on - until one day I decided I had enough and I chose to stand up for myself. After that, things slowly started to get better - I was never a popular kid, but I did start to make friends at that point and realized that I did not have to put up with what was being said and done to me.

Oh my God, my heart is breaking. I'm so proud of this kid, and so sad for him.

Alex,

Seeing the negative and hurtful and hateful comments adults have made may show us childhood bullies who never changed or those who raise the next generation of bullies.

Bullying still plays a part in my life after all these years. It is not that I still hear their taunts or have extremely low self-esteem. Therapy and self-acceptance along with a more tolerant world means the damage they did scarred over. I bear the marks, but it healed. It is the other damage that still rears its ugly head.

In elementary school you went to the washroom during class and often solo or with a "buddy". It was ok for me in my elementary school which went to 7th grade -then, you went to the High School. Changing classes meant going between classes with a crowd.

I recall my first weeks in 8th grade running home from school at the end of day to use the washroom. I was not "allowed" to use the washroom between classes because girls would keep me out by forming human barricades...pushing, shoving, hitting, spitting, pulling hair.... calling me names and theatening me after school....

Teachers would not "allow" me to use the washroom during class. They would not issue a hall pass because I was to go between classes like everyone else. If they made an exception for me everyone would wander the halls with a washroom hall pass. I told them I couldn't and why. I did so knowing it would make my tormentors even angry, though I offered no names.

The adult response was that if I dressed and acted like a girl they would let me in.

It started with me being tardy to class, because I would wait until the bell rang. It escalated into me screaming or fighting. I got in trouble and that meant detention and longer until I could use a washroom. If the other girl(s) got detention with me (which was rare) they would sit and make sounds like water running or taunt me.

My absentee rates climbed as loose bowels or feminine issues meant I could not wait all day. I stayed home where I could use a washroom should I need one.

Trust me, with an untreated bipolar 1 mom at home school was my refuge. I did not want to be at home.

I did not tell my mom, the real reason, as she was mentally ill and unable to handle things and prone to "going off" and embarrassing me.

One day saw me sent to the office on suspicion of being drunk or high. I had a seizure in the principal's office because of toxic shock syndrome.

My mom stormed the school. They told her it was her fault for not making me be more feminine. She was eventually escorted off the property. That was the last day I attended school in Michigan. My mom called after a couple days and said if they picked me up for truancy or charged her or anything she would go to the press... they never did.

My transcripts show a huge gap... I did return at 16 (when I should have been in 11th grade) to the 10th grade. My grades were great (high honours in an advanced placement courseload) and then it all started again.... the same cycle. My teachers were annoyed because I passed making up work. They actually seemed to urge bullying. I would go to the office or be suspended which meant no make-up. They would actually laugh as I left and the teacher would do a pop quiz with questions everyone would get 100% on, but I was not there. Because it was disciplinary and not medical, I was not permitted make-up.

School was torment, though I loved learning and am a sponge. Continuing education was not really anything that appealled to me.

That lack of a formalized education haunts me to this day, especially today. It stands in my way. I wish more people understood that the effects of marginalization present in diverse ways.

It is heart-breaking.  

Here is a letter I came across while looking for something else, about something in BC called the "Purple Letter Campaign."

http://purplelettercampaign.ca/2011/09/29/my-story-shahraz-kassam/

It is interesteing to see the ongoing reactions to the video. As well looking at Jonah's reaction. It seems what caused the reaction to change for hundreds of comments an hour with a fifty fify split between hate and support, to thousands of comments an hour, and 80 to 90 percet being supportive was caused by Lady Ga Ga (who has the second largest following on twiter after Justin Biever) She tweeted a message to her followers. Also now many other LGBT friendly celecrities have tweeted their support and a link. 

It is funny now the negative comments that are abusive and wishing that he would die, have been replaced by comments that he is lieing about being bullied and is an "attention whore" 

This might be a bit much for an 8th grader,but  he seems pleased with the success of his video and thrilled that Lady Gag Ga knows who he is and has tweeted his video.  (which has gone from a few thousand fews last week to a few million today.

He just posted this on his video

I <3 the internet.  Good choice in music :3

(and he did that without editing?  goodness)

"We are never alone"

The internet is a whole new world, waiting to be created.

Like many original videos, that go viral, this one has spawned thousands of imitations and replies.

This one is very charming, made by another teenage boy in reply to Jonah.  Very heartwarming.

I see Jonah has had over 5 million views of his video, with over 300,000 comments.  The video's popularity is growing expotentially.

He still getting people telling him to die, and others call him names, while others say he is lieing.

I agree Alex . . . I felt you could see the compassion and caring in his face.

Jonah knows what is real, what is truth for him . . . and that's what counts.

Unfortunately, he has to take the cyber-attacks along with the comments that uplift and encourage and validate him.  Hopefully he will be strong enough to ignore them.  Hopefully this will not make things worse for him in school.  It will be there forever though, and follow him the rest of his life.  I give him credit for doing what he felt he needed to do, and what, hopefully, will make a difference in his life and in the lives of others for the better.  A courageous young man . . . watching the video made my heart ache for him, and the many, many, others who go through this day after day.

(((((((((Jonah))))))))) - Hope, Peace, Joy, Love!

Many news networks have picked this up as a story. From ABC

Jonah Mowry's Mom Says Gay Son Inspired by Support

Interesting the facebook page dedicated to this video has cut off the ability for people to comment, becasue of all the hate filled messages.  If you think this is just an american thing, than go to the CTV story on this story. They too have cut of the ability of people to comment on this story. They do not say why, but I can only assume it is also due to the hate filled messages, directed at Jonah.. Very sad indeed.

I remeber when homophobes accused LGBT of waiting to abuse cghildren (as recently as last month when Crossroads accused The Toronto School board of wanting teach kids anal sex) 

The reaction to Jonah's video, shows it is homophobes who abuse children.  

I believe it is time for people to wake up and realise, homophobia is child abuse, and that we stop allowing child abuse in our institions, including our schools, and churches.  Demand answers.

SG

OUCH!!!!!!!!!

Hard not to feel resentful, turbine angry and very sad about that.  This is when my friend taught me to pity people rather than resent and hate them.  It did help me take it down a notch so that I could have a life instead of being connected to such reductionist and hurtful things.  I still have to do it, as I am still bullied  - middle management, men, and women playing the heteropatriarcal capital/corporate fear trip et al. 

Isn't that what the bullying is all about?

Is why I used to wear a "pinko puke"  t shirt - kind of stopped the game all around. - even the loud-mouth fascists found it difficult to respond to as their game really is reduction.

Over 7 million hits so far. While music, and comedy related vidoes reach over 100 million . This video is perhaps the most successfully internet video to raise political and social messages. Bullying, homophobia, and other  issue facing children.

Forget about the rest of the world, but in Ontario alone, it has had a major impact as the governement has introduced antibullying laws, while certain religious groups have claimed it's is a violation of there freedom.   Now the news is focused on the other  lies these religious groups are spreading.  Inclding an outrageous lie that McGuinty mother's supports bullying. The other lie exposed is that these groups are pro life and pro kid.

Not bad for an 8th grader.  

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1097682--anti-bullying-bill-a-front-for-sex-ed-agenda-groups-say

Thomas even evoked the premier’s mother into the mix. “The premier’s mother said to him, ‘Dalton, I didn’t raise you this way,’ ” he said.

However, the premier’s office later told the Star they had no idea what Thomas was talking about.

The premier is misguided on the anti-bullying legislation and it really is an attack on faith-based schools, said Jack Fonseca of the Campaign Life Coalition. Mendel Kaplan, of the Council of Orthodox Rabbis and one of the religious leaders holding the press conference, agreed.

The fight against religion (blind faith in a supernatural Diety) continues :3

Ideas competing openly in the light of truth :3