Parents of Rutgers student who committed suicide say "Sin needs to be taken out of homosexuality" [View all]

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Parents of Rutgers student who committed suicide say "Sin needs to be taken out of homosexuality"

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/27/12437202-parents-of-rutgers-student-who-committed-suicide-say-sin-needs-to-be-taken-out-of-homosexuality?lite



The family of a Rutgers University student who killed himself after discovering his roommate, Dharun Ravi, had spied on him is speaking out for the first time since Ravi’s conviction of hate crimes earlier this year.

Tyler Clementi’s parents, Jane and Joe Clementi, and his older brother James told Rock Center exclusively that Tyler was struggling with many issues before his death. But they believe Ravi’s decision to spy on Tyler during a sexual encounter with another man in his dorm room played a role in the suicide. They also say they have changed their views on homosexuality in the wake of their son’s death.

‘Whatever underlying depressions or pains that were going on with [Tyler], that was straw that broke the camel’s back and that was the thing that pushed him to the breaking point,” James Clementi told NBC’s Lester Holt in an interview scheduled to air Thursday, June 28 at 10pm/9c.

Tyler Clementi, 18, had just begun his freshman year at Rutgers University’s Busch Campus in September 2010 when he asked Ravi, 20, if he could have their room for the evening. Ravi says he later went to a dorm mate’s room and remotely activated a computer webcam. Ravi says the webcam briefly streamed live video of Clementi in an embrace with his date.