“Guess I am dead. Killed myself. Sorry.”

Rachel Bryk killed herself last week. She was 23 years old. Before her suicide she had been repeatedly bullied on-line for being transgender. I read about her death this weekend, but it was in reading a Washington Post article this morning that I felt a rage build in me.

I like so many LGBT people was bullied when I was a kid. I got it for being fat and being a 'f*g' and being girly. It took me over twenty years after high school to finally find a sense of selfworth and happiness. I see stories like Rachel's and I just can't stand it. We as a community need to find a way to better reach out and counter the hate. For my part, I plan on doing exactly that by helping my local PFlag and state equality group.

To tie this into weight loss, I guess I will add the primary reason I am losing weight is because I view the weight I carry as the shield I built around myself. Now that I feel like I can be myself, I am working at removing that shield so people can see the real me that much better.