I know positive stories are important, and details about sharing joy really matter, but I thank you very much for these stories, which in my opinion don’t get told often enough.

When 12-year-old Eli committed suicide in his rural Tennessee bedroom last December, local media did not report that he had been suffering because his classmates had been taunting him about being gay. His mom wanted people to know, but his local community didn’t want to hear. Probably because they didn’t want to feel responsibility for his death.

Eli posthumously created something of a stir in LGBTQ communities around the world, but almost nothing changed in the school where he was bullied and where staff tolerated the bullying.

I wrote about Eli in December, specifically about the toxic media environment in Tennessee that constantly denigrates LGBTQ people. I’ve kept the story alive in my social media as best I can, and just yesterday before I even read your draft, somebody on Twitter ripped into me telling me it’s impossible for a 12-year-old to know he’s gay.

But you know what? Eli is still dead.

LGBTQ adolescents are five times more likely to consider suicide than their peers, and their attempts are much more likely to end in death.