Ethan Henderson was a bright young lad. He hailed from a small rural Arkansas community where hunting and fishing were traditions, and he wholeheartedly embraced his background. He enjoyed these outdoor activities with his father. But a year ago, the family’s blissful life was shattered when Ethan revealed the truth about his sexuality- he was gay. His father walked away, the community rejected him. But with his mother, Connie’s support, he tried to cope. However, when the struggle got too much, Ethan took his own life. He was 15.
Rennae Stubbs, the former coach of Serena Williams, expressed her heartbreak when she got to know about this. The young lad had celebrated his birthday just a few days before the drastic step. Stubbs, who has never shied away from stepping up for justice, shared a poignant message on X with a special request for all parents.
“Please! Take a minute and read this. If you’re a parent of a young kid, try and make them understand, words matter & as parents understand what u say out loud influencers your child to act like this. RIP beautiful Ethan ,” she wrote.
Ethan’s mother is devastated. As reported by Memorial Legacy, she said, “He was such a good boy, so loving, so caring… He began to withdraw and late at night he started to hurt himself, even to the point of going to the E.R.”
Local farm boys would bully him, use derogatory names, and mock him. They isolated him and spread rumors about Ethan that he would transmit AIDS or meet an untimely death. This persisted at school, too. In fact, it became so serious that the staff issued suspensions as well. However, the insults didn’t stop. The harassment started to happen online.
As per Connie’s admission, Ethan was fine the day before his death. “I mean, it was a good day, I didn’t see any problems.” But the next day, she lost him to his despair. This issue brought the LGBTQ+ community together as they extended their support to the boy’s family. Rainbow Youth Project USA from Indianapolis reached out to the family in order to provide grief counseling services as well as to help with the final arrangements.
Rennae Stubbs understands how difficult it can be for LGBTQ members and their families. She came out as a lesbian during one of her 2006 newspaper interviews. Since then, she has always been vocal about the importance of covering the community’s issues in the news media space with sensitivity. Stubbs once shared how there is no shame in a person being “who you are”. Hence, a few years ago, she also showed her support for another athlete who opened up about her sexuality.
“It’s scary for any athlete, man or woman, to come out,” Rennae Stubbs declared
When India’s Olympic sprinter Dutee Chand declared her sexuality in 2019, Stubbs made sure that she came in support of the young athlete. Especially after she received backlash from her own family, Stubbs opened up about the possible reason behind it and shared her opinion.
“It’s scary for any athlete, man or woman, to come out. It is, however, important to teach younger generations about the spectrum of sexuality, of understating themselves. Whether or not people are directly homophobic, there are so many other things for the person to deal with,” Stubbs said. Then she acknowledged Chand’s courage for coming out and urged everyone to put effort into normalizing it. After all, the statistics of suicide tendency, anxiety, and depression rates among the LGBTQ community are high.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) reports that youth who identify as LGBTQ have a six-fold higher likelihood than the overall population of experiencing depressive symptoms. According to the Trevor Project’s 2023 survey, the likelihood of an LGBTQ kid committing suicide was three times higher if they reported being bullied.
In the previous year, 70% of LGBTQ teenagers reported having anxiety symptoms. Depression symptoms were reported by 57% of LGBTQ teenagers. 81% of LGBTQ teenagers surveyed said they had sought mental healthcare in the previous year. But 56% of those young people were unable to get care. As Rennae Stubbs continues to take a stand for athletes and young kids who are facing the same struggles, it is voices like this that will make a difference in society.
