A 18 year-old male student committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after his sexual encounter with another man was streamed online. Tyler Clementi, who was a freshman, was having sex with another man in his dormitory room on 19 September evening when his roommate Ravi, also 18, surreptitiously placed a webcam in the room and broadcast the video of Clementi's sexual encounter on the internet. Clementi committed suicide on 22 September, leaving his wallet and cell phone on the bridge. The New Jersey prosecutors are determining whether to prosecute Dharun Ravi and another Rutgers University student for bias intimidation, which is a criminal offence under New Jersey law. Any person who commits a crime with the purpose of intimidating someone because of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or ethnicity, or if the victim or victim's property was selected as a target because of the same factors, is guilty of bias intimidation in New Jersey.
The suicide incident of Clementi should not have happened; it is tragic, unfortunate and outrageous. As a university student, Clementi has very good career prospects and his life should not have ended so abruptly due to somebody else’s mischief. It is outrageous because the mischief-makers are also university students and they do not have the sense of respect for the other person’s privacy, personality and dignity. The case may also illustrate that discrimination against sexual orientation is common and serious in American universities and even the society. The local authority and the Rutegers University should take concrete actions to make sure that the same tragedy will never happen again.
Source: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-30/justice/new.jersey.student.suicide_1_bias-charges-sexual-encounter-sexual-orientation?_s=PM:CRIME
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