Last Friday, students all received an e-mail from Associate Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams about support offered by various groups on campus in light of the recent suicides in the gay community. While the University's name doesn't appear on any official lists commending it for upholding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights or being a "gay-friendly" college, it certainly has the resources and the openness to combat the misguided attitudes of individuals regarding the LGBTQ community. Not since the 1998 torture and murder of Matthew Shepherd, a gay college student who was beaten, tied to a fence and brutalized for his sexual orientation, has the urgency of securing gay rights been at the immediate forefront of people's minds. The very recent, tragic suicides of five gay teenagers have been described both as an "epidemic" and "a call to action" and have propelled individuals in our society to start changing the way people think about sexual orientation.

Politicians and celebrities alike are coming together to reform our country's faltering views on sexual orientation. They are ensuring that schools and universities can adequately provide help for LGBTQ teens and are branching out to reform prior laws about bullying as well as adopting attitudes of acceptance and intolerance.

The cases of these five young men and teens who took their lives all point to a common culprit: harassment from their peers due to their sexual orientation. For example, a Rutgers student was atrociously videotaped and exploited by his roommate, and a 13-year-old boy was routinely bullied by other students at the apathy of the school administration.

These two extremes showcase the widespread bullying of homosexuals. Although it would seem that a college campus would be a more open and accepting environment, a 2010 study performed by the advocacy group Campus Pride found that 25 percent of the LGBTQ students and employees interviewed have endured harassment due to their sexual orientation.

Playground bullying has crossed over to campuses because of our society's prevailing opinions and mentalities of intolerance. Bullying of homosexuals is encouraged by laws like "don't ask, don't tell" and crude movie one-liners that make it okay to use the word "gay" to describe something perceived as stupid or dumb. Recently, the homophobic Republican candidate for the governorship of New York, Carl P. Paladino, denounced same-sex marriage as a ruse to "brainwash" children into thinking homosexuality is acceptable. These archaic and regressive attitudes are incompatible with our country's mode of equality and tolerance.

In the words of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, "This must stop."

According to a 2009 study conducted by the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, of the 7,261 students surveyed, only 18 percent said their schools had programs helping students deal with anti-gay bullying and harassment. Unsurprisingly, students who have been exposed to such programs and environments are less likely to be victimized by bullies or conduct the bullying themselves.

Judging by the e-mail we received from Adams, the University has a comprehensive support program for LGBTQ individuals. There are numerous groups that are available for students should they feel the need to talk or vent. Groups like the Online Resource Center, Triskelion and Students Talking About Relationships are always available if a student feels like they need to talk or confide in someone. The Counseling and Rape Crisis Hotline offers its services as well if someone wants to talk anonymously or confidentially.

However, given the ambiguity of verbal harassment in the law, even if a school has support groups and is able to apprehend the bully, it still may be unable to legally do anything about the harassment. Seth Walsh, one of the five youths who committed suicide last month, reported his bullying to administrators, who then consulted with the police. Though the police identified the two individuals involved in the harassment prior to Walsh's death, they found that the bullying did not constitute a crime and consequently let the students go.

As of now, only eight of the 44 states that have laws that specifically address bullying based on sexual orientation consider the harassment to be "prohibited conduct" because it's not a crime.

Politicians should take this opportunity to turn what can be considered one of the darkest times for the LGBTQ community into a better one by reforming current laws or passing new ones to give school administrators the power to protect students from bullying. Senator Robert Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania recently introduced a law called the "Safe School Improvement Act," which would require schools to receive funding for the single purpose of developing programs combating bullying based on sexual, gender and racial harassment.

This may also be the opportunity to repeal the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy and legalize same-sex marriage. It's the idea that an LGBTQ individual is not welcome to disclose his or her sexual orientation or marry the person he or she loves that encourages the attitude that gay is wrong. This homophobic message is hypocritical. While such actions cannot definitively disrupt the rampant bullying in schools or immediately eradicate the intolerance prevalent in our society, they could send powerful messages: the messages of acceptance and inclusion.

Changing the attitude of an entire nation is an undertaking that will not successfully be accomplished overnight or even over the course of several years. Political red tape will surely uphold anti-bullying initiatives, religious anti-gay groups like the Minnesota Family Council will surely corrupt the public mentality, and students will surely still bully those who are different.

But as college students, we can start the movement on campus and take our ideas into the world when we leave school. Whether it's by wearing purple on Oct. 20 to commemorate the lives of those teens or voting for an initiative that will give schools funding to create anti-bullying programs, it all starts with the single idea: Stop the hate.