No one gets to choose who they are and no one deserves the right to humiliate someone for being themselves.

You hear about it every day. In high school around the country, instances of bullying. Now, I graduated some time ago, but last night, I felt like I was walking through the halls again. After a long night out and a long ride home, I finally arrived to Queens-borough Plaza to catch my last train home. When I stepped on the platform I noticed that the 7-train was halted. This is across from the N-train that I had to wait for. There was a commotion going on with some teenagers and a conductor had to stop the entire train.

I noticed some kids were laughing as another young man exiting the subway car and proceeded down to the end of the platform. There was no reason for him to go this way so I knew something was wrong. At first i thought he was just trying to get on another car. He continued past that point. I followed him to see everything was okay. After living in New York City for almost ten years you learn to ignore many situations. This was an instance where I knew it needed a little attention.

The young man, probably in his early twenties was crying as he stood on the edge of the platform. I approached him knowing that he needed some help. He was hysterical as i tried to calm him down. This is when I figured out why the 7-train was temporarily shut down. He was a small asian kid with glasses and a soft voice. Apparently, while quietly trying to get home, some kids had noticed that he was gay. They began to taunt him, tease him, and one teenager even spit on him. He was so frightened as the on-lookers ignored the whole situation that he pulled the emergency cord that is located on every car on every subway train. This is when they got to Queens-borough Plaza.

He only had two stops to go until he could get off and walk towards his home. Terrified that no one was coming to his aid and frightened that these kids would follow him to his destination, he found himself with no other options. As I stood there with my arm around his shoulder, trying to comfort this poor young man, I knew that it wasn't going to make his journey home any easier. I imagined how he had to deal with this every day.

I'm still not sure why he walked to the edge of the platform, but a part of me knows what he was thinking about doing. We talked for a few and finally I convinced him to get back on that train and not let these kids prohibit him from getting home. We walked back on to the last train in the car and we told conductor that he was the man who had pulled the emergency cord. I looked around at the crowded train and knew he was still scared.

As the police arrived to hopefully give those nasty teenagers what they deserved, the train was about to start moving again. On the other side, my N-train was pulling into the station as well. In a heated moment, as I knew I had to leave this man on his way, I spoke to all the people on that train who  looked frustrated because their ride had been slowed down.

"The reason why this train has been stopped is because some assholes, four cars up, decided it would be funny to humilate this man here. They spit on him, and teased and no one did anything." My new friend looked up, still with tears in his eyes. "Please make sure you don't do the same thing and make sure he gets home okay."

The whole situation sounds crazy and it happened so fast that it felt like it was a surreal dream. But when I finally caught the train, and was heading back to my apartment, I realized how real it actually was. How real it feels to be bullied so bad that you fear for your life, or worse, want to take your own because of it. It may not happen to you on a daily basis, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't continue. And next time you see it going on, don't look the other way. No one gets to choose who they are and no one deserves the right to humiliate someone for being themselves.