13-Year-Old Australian Boy Takes His Life After Years Of Bullying About His Sexuality

Tyrone Unsworth once required surgery after being hit in the face with a fence post.
From: NewNowNext

 A 13-year-old boy in Australia took his life this week after enduring abuse about being gay, say his grieving mother.

Tyrone Unsworth of Queensland, who died on Monday, had been been bullied for at least two years.

“Tyrone ended up being gay and a lot of people started picking on him,” his mother, Amanda Unsworth, told The Courier Mail.

“He was a really feminine male—he loved fashion, he loved makeup—and the boys always picked on him, calling him ’gay boy,’ ’faggot,’ ’fairy.'”

Tyrone was interested in becoming a veterinarian or fashion designer, says Mrs Unsworth.

“His favorite saying was ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me,” she recalled. “Obviously they ended up getting him.”

The bullying was physical as well as verbal—Tyrone once required surgery after being hit in the face with a fence post.

“When he came out of hospital he was a different boy,” recalled his grandmother. “He just kept telling us all ’I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to end up back at hospital.'”

Police were investigating the incident, though the Unsworths did not report it to administrators at the Aspley State High School.

In fact principal Jacquita Miller insists there were no reports of Tyrone being bullied.

“We really try to work with families to resolve these complex issues. I’m just so sorry and sad that we didn’t have the opportunity to help this young man.”