Bullied Gay Teen Meets with President Obama

When we last checked in with Caleb Laieski — a gay adolescent from Arizona United Nations agency started his anti-bullying policy once he was forced to drop out of high school at the age of sixteen — he was within the middle of a month long consciousness raising campaign, assembling with legislators on Capitol Hill to garner support for the coed fairness Act.

Now, 2 months later, Caleb Laieski is return from his third trip to Washington D.C. this year, wherever last he was Associate in Nursing invited invitee of the White House to attend President Barack Obama‘s LGBT Pride Reception on Saints Peter and Paul.

While meeting with the President, Caleb projected that the administration appoint Associate in Nursing LGBT youth authority to the President, which might function a liaison between the Obama Administration and also the nation’s LGBT youth population to deal with anti-LGBT bullying and request solutions to different problems facing LGBT youth.

In March, Caleb attended the White House’s initial ever Conference on Bullying hindrance, that galvanized him to advocate at the federal level, “for people who are afraid to talk up.”

In May, Caleb came back to Washington to lobby for support for the SNDA — the House version, HB 998, presently has one hundred forty five co-sponsors; the Senate version, SB 555, has thirty four co-sponsors.

During his twenty two days in Washington, Caleb met with nearly two hundred legislators and members of the Administration, as well as Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the bill’s chief sponsor within the House, Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and also the workers of subunit. Al Franken, the SNDA’s chief sponsor within the Senate.

Caleb additionally met with Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sibelius, and shared his personal expertise being on the receiving finish of anti-gay bullying. The story curst Sibelius, and days later, she spoke to Caleb’s story at the foremost LGBT Youth Conference that was hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.

Caleb was a victim of bullying on a commonplace in his public college, that crystal rectifier him to go away regular categories and pursue his GED rather than a high school credentials.

After departure college, Caleb sent a legal notification to his administrative division that he would bring a legal proceeding to safeguard himself et al United Nations agency were troubled by bullies, prompting the district to vary its policies. He later sent an analogous notice to each administrative division in Arizona, contacting quite 5000 college directors, council members and state lawmakers, difficult improved measures to fight discrimination.

And during a tragic event that affected too near home, Caleb lost an in depth friend his age to suicide last year United Nations agency had featured similar experiences with bullying.

In fact, statistics show that almost nine out of ten LGBT youth (86.2%) reportable being troubled in school within the past year as a result of their sexual orientation, and three out of five LGBT youth (60.8%) felt unsafe in school as a result of their sexual orientation, consistent with GLSEN.

Caleb Laieski aforementioned his goal is to channel his inner pain into a positive expertise by turning into a robust personal advocate for hangdog LGBT Youth.