A representative of the antigay National Organization for Marriage invoked the name of Tyler Clementi, a New Jersey college student who committed suicide after being outed by his roommate, and the young man's family is furious.
NOM's Jennifer Morse was speaking at Iowa State University a few weeks ago and implied that Clementi ended his life because he had to much access to other LGBT people.
"There are a lot of situations where people are doing something sexual that's probably not the best thing for them," he said. Morse used Clementi as an emample of LGBT youth who she claimed are, "...getting help and support from the gay activists who have their own thing that they're doing which is not necessarily to help the individuals but they've got some sort of political vision."
Clementi's parents, joined by GLAAD, HRC, and Equality Matters, are furious and demanding an apology.
"To exploit our late son's name to advance an anti-equality agenda is offensive and wrong," Joe and Jane Clementi wrote in a statement. "By doing so, [NOM] proves[s] that not only is there no low they will not sink to to advance their cruel agenda, but that neither they nor Ms. Morse have any grip on reality. The very idea that Tyler's tragedy happened because of too much support, instead of not enough, is ludicrous. Shame on them."
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