The visible impact of bullying is often delayed, because the emotional impact can take months or years before it becomes visible. Depression, loneliness, hopelessness, low self-esteem, learned helplessness and victim status can combine to cause youth to drop out of school and to settle for low-paying, dead-end jobs and to enter relationships that are abusive. Bullying is an unwanted gift that, like the Energizer bunny rabbit, just keeps going and going.

Bullying caught the attention of the media again this month, with the suicide of Jamie Hubley, a gay 15 year old gay, Ontario youth, who experienced bullying. Watching Jamie's You Tube gave the sense that he was comfortable in his own skin.  In one of his videos, Jamie sings a Lady Gaga song.  Touched by Jamie Hubley's suicide, gay Canadian television personality Rick Mercer, made one of his famous rants, in which he makes the call to "Make it Better Now." Rick Mercer's "Make it Better Now" rant can be read online at RickMercer.Com. Links to videos of Rick Mercer's rants, including his rant about gay teen suicides, can also be found on RickMercer.Com.

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October marked National Coming Out Day, a day when gay and bisexual people celebrate coming out.  Some members of sexual minorities wait until Coming Out Day to come out.  Many gay and bisexual You Tubers created videos in honor of Coming Out Day.  In some cases, Coming Out Day videos relate their personal coming out stories, sharing the painful and the affirming experiences of coming out.

Matthew Shepard was murdered in October.  This month saw an increase in videos about Matthew Shepard, as people remembered one of the queer community's many victims of hate crimes.  Because Matthew Shepard's murder brought many queer people out of the closet and because Matthew's murder helped the gay community obtain protection in hate crimes legislation, it seems appropriate that National Coming Out Month and Gay History Month are the same month as Matthew's murder.  Well over a decade after Matthew Shepard's death, he is still remembered in by gay, bisexual and trans people around the world.

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United Kingdom News

An article on The Independent, a United Kingdom news website, "Homophobia Exacts a Chilling Price as Hate Crimes Climb," discusses trends in homophobia in the Britain. According to the article, hate crimes against gay and trans people increased, with an increase of about 14% for hate crimes targeting members of the trans community in 2010.  In some locations in Britain, bias crimes against sexual minorities increased by up to 170 percent.

A British Broadcasting Corporation article informs us that Kevin Thakrar, a prisoner in Frankland Prison who has been charged for assaulting three guards, claims there is a climate of racism and tensions between Islamic and non-Islamic inmates and between Islamic inmates and non-Islamic guards.

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An online article on The Jewish Post states the number of anti-Semetic incidents reported in the United States increased slightly in 2010.  Additional information can be found on The Jewish Post website.

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A CNN news article informs us that 19 year old Deryl Dedmon was charged with murder and a hate crime in connection with the murder of James Craig Anderson, a Black man.  We gather authorities believe James Anderson was beaten and driven over by an automobile.  Seven white youth are thought to been involved in Anderson's murder.

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A Rueters article states two Arkansas men were sentenced under hate crimes provisions in connection with an assault on a group of Latino men, who were told they should return to Mexico.

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The University of California, Berkeley experienced an increase in hate crimes in 2010.  An article in The Daily Californian provides details about the increases in hate crimes.  According to charts in The Daily Californian, there were increases in hate crimes on the basis of race or ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation.  The most significant numerical increase in hate crimes was hate crimes based on religion.  In total, the number of hate crimes at University of California, Berkeley increased three-fold in 2010.

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Canadian News

Several news reports from Canada relate to racism and hate crimes.  An article on the Canadian Television Corporation website indicates an arrest was made of a man who might have engaged in a hate crime.  According to the article, a suspect is thought to have uttered racist comments when attacking Vancouver, British Columbia security guard.

The Toronto Sun carries an article about Paris Dipersico, an author who wrote Wake Up Call, a book that is critical of some elements within Islam.  According to the article, Dipersico was beaten by people who are reported to have called him Jewish and to have accused Jewish people of wanting Dipersico to write the book.

A Canadian National Post article about an Arab engineer, Abdullah Almalki, who spent over a year and a half incarcerated in Syria, due to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) informing Syrian officials that he was a threat, provides information that gives the impression the RCMP had no real evidence on Almalki. The article gives the sense that internal documents show the only thing the RCMP had on Almalki was his Arab heritage. While the RCMP may have had suspicions about what was doing, the internal document appears to be racist.