Everyone remembers the tragic case of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers student who killed himself in October 2010. He jumped from the George Washington bridge after his roommate, Dharun Ravi, set up a webcam to spy on Clementi while he was having a sexual encounter with another man. Ravi then sent links and text messages to friends, encouraging them to tune into the live stream from his webcam.

Today, Ravi was found guilty in his trial. He has now been convicted of hate crimes and tampering with evidence and witnesses. The jury ruled that Clementi had reason to believe that he had been targeted because he was gay, making Ravi guilty of bias intimidation, which is a hate crime. Ravi was found guilty of tampering with evidence and witnesses after attempting to hide and delete messages he had sent to friends regarding Clementi. Before the trial began, there was debate about whether or not Ravi should have been charged with a hate crime.

The judge has set a sentencing date of May 21. Ravi’s lawyers have six weeks to appeal the decision, if they choose to do so. He may face deportation to India.

What do you think of the verdict? What punishment is appropriate for Ravi?

Hey Dude,

I’ve been dating a guy for about a year now, he is 27 years old and I’m 24. We haven’t had any arguments because we’ve generally been very open and honest with each other. We’ve done the whole meet the family and discussion of the future talks… However, my problem is that recently he hasn’t been speaking to me (it’s been almost a month!).

It started with us having plans for New Years Eve, but when those fell through he decided to hang out with his friend rather than make new plans (he didn’t even invite me). I was upset over this that night (night before NYE) and he decided he needed some time away instead of discussing the issue. I thought giving him some space would be a good idea because originally we were only seeing each other on weekends (for about 3 months).

When a week had past and I had not heard from him, I grew worried. I found out that I could not contact him – he would ignore my texts, calls and emails. When I called him on a private number, he hung up on me. This went on for about two weeks on odd days before I decided to wait for him to contact me. He ended up saying that he felt that he could not offer me anything and that he ‘didn’t know me’.

The last message he sent was about picking up his things from my apartment – I didn’t even know if we’ve broken up! When I ask him about it, he ignores my messages.

I know he has a history of severe depression, including many suicide attempts. We’ve broken up once previously which lasted a week, but he was admitted into the hospital. He has been seeing a psychologist, yet refuses to take any of their advice. He’s said he loved me and I love him. I don’t want to give up on this relationship, but I don’t know what to do.

Thank you so much in advance,

Amanda Read More »

The United States of America is kind of divided on the whole homosexuality issue.

A new study produced by the University of Chicago surveyed public opinion across the country to find out which regions are more accepting to gay people. The country averages show that overall opinion is fractionated. While 44% of people surveyed said that homosexuality is “always wrong,” a close 41% said it’s “not wrong at all.” The opinions of the unaccounted for 15% weren’t made available, though Jezebel speculates that it could be those who are okay with acts of homosexuality if the two individuals are hot (*cough*most guys when girls make out*cough*)

Having an outside (Canadian) perspective the results aren’t all that surprising. The worst tolerance was found in the South Central states, with a whopping 73.7% of adults saying it’s always wrong in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. This is followed closely by 68.1% of people in the Western South Central Regions. Read More »

After the unfortunate death of Russell Armstrong, the Bravo network had some tough decisions to make about the next season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. If you’re not familiar with what happened a few weeks ago, Russel Armstrong (husband of Taylor Armstrong) was found dead in his home, hanging from a rope. While some sources say it was due to depression after Taylor had filed for divorce a month before the tragedy, authorities believe there were also a lot of mental health issues going on as well.

So what was Bravo supposed to do? They could either cancel the show altogether and lose millions of dollars or air the show editing out all the footage surrounding the Armstrong family. Either way, Russell’s mom has something to say about it.

John Ann Hotchkiss simply thinks it’s too soon, and doesn’t want Bravo to “murder her son twice.” In other words, she “hopes Bravo will take the high road” and just cancel the season altogether. Read More »

Anyone who watched The Ellen Degeneres Show today got a huge shock: Perez Hilton publicly announced that he will no longer be bullying celebs. Perez, who is arguably the world’s most well known citizen journalist, is as famous for his out-and-proud sexuality as he is for his snarky criticism of public figures. It makes sense that the one thing that would strike a nerve with Perez is the recent suicides of teens who were harassed for their sexuality, but is Perez taking things too far by cutting out all criticism?

Isn’t it possible to poke fun without crossing the line?

Of course, cyber-bullying is always wrong, and never something to be taken lightly, but Perez could simply make more harmless comments. Poking fun at someone’s wardrobe choice is okay, but attacking his or her personal struggles is not. After all, who would Perez Hilton be without his trademark witty blog posts and inappropriate graffiti art? Read More »

As far as people go, I am rather intolerant.  I am intolerant of people who do not clean the coffee maker after they use it.  I am intolerant of couples that walk too slowly together on the sidewalk and therefore block all of the people behind them.  Mismatched outfits and too much eye makeup make my blood boil. And don’t even get me started on people who don’t know how to parallel park.

However, I’ve always felt that I exemplify a very accepting society when it comes to the bigger issues. Things like racial inequality or sex discrimination. I’m all about equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or gender. In fact, when my professor made me argue for school segregation and against gay marriage last week as a class exercise, I started laughing because I literally had nothing to say.

Why wouldn’t we want everybody to be happy?
Doesn’t everyone feel this way?
Doesn’t the law basically say just live and let live?

Yeah, apparently not. The events of the past couple of weeks have informed me that I am completely wrong about the world and the people living in it. Turns out, my tolerance isn’t the rule, it’s the exception. And minority groups, especially the gay population, have to put up with way more than I realized. Read More »

If you’re reading this in your dorm room during your daily blog roll, I encourage you to change out of your casual Friday outfit and put on some classic black – New Jersey’s Rutgers University has organized a “Black Friday” memorial today for Tyler Clementi, the college student who committed suicide after being outed on the Internet by his roommate.

It started out as a harmless prank that became an invasion of privacy and deadly, anti-gay harassment. Tyler Clementi, an eighteen year-old Rutgers freshman, asked his roommate, Dharun Ravi, for some privacy in the room they shared. Ravi complied by killing time with Molly Wei down the hall, where they used her computer to log onto Skype and access his own webcam back in his and Clementi’s room. Whether by accident or on purpose, they allegedly caught Clementi and another male in what authorities called a “sexual encounter.”

And what did Ravi do with that information? The same thing all students living and connecting in the 21st century do when we’ve got something to share (be it a great new product or annoying things our roommates say): he Tweeted. The video he captured was also streamed live online, and Ravi and Wei repeated the ritual to try and catch Tyler in the act again a few nights later. The video spread fast, as the most scandalous often do, and the public revelation of Clementi’s secret sexual orientation ultimately drove him to jump off the George Washington bridge.

This story is disturbing on two very serious levels. First, Tyler Clementi is the third male within a month that has taken his own life as a result of anti-gay harassment. It is a sad reminder that although the 21st century has brought its share of liberation for the gay community, there are still a number of battles left in this war against homophobia (including the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell debate). A war which clearly has tragic consequences. Read More »

Remember those slam books that used to circulate around middle schools and high schools when we were younger? Or the Burn Book that led to that day of sisterhood bonding after it was discovered in Mean Girls? [If you were lucky enough to miss out on this tween trend or are the only person on earth who hasn't seen Mean Girls, slam books were notebooks that got passed around, in which everybody could write their thoughts and feelings about another person without adding their name – and those thoughts and feelings were usually very negative and very hurtful]

Remember that horrible feeling you would get when you saw your name, terrified to read the comments but also unable to resist it? Remember how happy you were when those years were over and slam books were behind you?

Well, they’re back, they’re online and they’re worse than ever.
And you can create one for yourself?

Welcome to Formspring.com.

Formspring.com was originally made as a website where people could post anonymous questions on a person’s page for them to answer. I’m not sure of the exact reason for creating this site website, or why people would use it, but I’d like to think that it started with innocent intentions; a way for people to find out more about you without having to flat-out ask. However, like most things on the Internet, the site quickly morphed into something else.

Formspring in its current form has become a place where people can talk some major sh*t, and do some completely anonymously. Apparently, once you set up a page on there, you can comment on just about anything without ever having to list who you are. Postings range from actual questions (i.e. the original intentions) to vicious and evil comments (“You’re so fat,” “No one likes you,” “Why are you and your friends so ugly?”). Yeah, it’s bad. Read More »

Question for Tuffski?! Email her at TuffyLuv@collegecandy.com and perhaps get an answerino.

Dear Tuffy Luv,
My best friend got engaged on Valentine’s Day. I want to be excited for her big moment, but I can’t help but feel like she’s making a gigantic mistake. She’s only known him since November (he was a mutual friend of the guy she was sleeping with at the time) and has a long history of rushing into relationships with really sketchy guys. Every relationship she gets into, she seems to fall head-over-heels for the guy and turns a blind eye to all of his problems until after he breaks up with her, at which point she realizes what a jerk he was for cheating/abusing her/lying/etc.

Her fiance has never abused or cheated on her, but a couple of months ago they had a pregnancy scare and he threatened to kill himself. I don’t think either of them are mature enough to get married, and if they do, I think it will end in divorce. They plan to get married in Summer 2013 after she gets her bachelor’s degree, so there’s time for her to realize it won’t work on her own, but I don’t think she will. Should I raise the issue with her? I love her and just want her to be happy, but she’s so ecstatic about the engagement and the guy that I’m afraid speaking up could end our friendship.

–Friendo Read More »

As college students, we are constantly inundated with new knowledge. It can be useful, thought-provoking, or crammed into our head on a Starbucks-fueled binge several hours before an exam. However, very rarely do we question the validity of all this new knowledge (unless you take philosophy classes, then you’ll question away).

That’s where College Candy comes in. We’re not going to debate whether or not the Theory of Relativity actually exists (a disappointment, I know, but I’m a communications major and stopped taking science classes after Baby Bio fresh year). However, we are here to thoroughly investigate the most widespread college knowledge (no, not rhyming)—the myth.

So we’ve all heard this particularly morbid myth (no, not any of the ones from Urban Legends—although Brenda was a bad-ass scary killer) about one surefire, if not tragic, way to snag a 4.0. The general myth goes a little something like this: If your roommate dies, you automatically achieve a 4.0 average for the semester.

There are a ton of variations to this myth; if you weren’t in the room at the time of death, you only get a 3.5 (sorry, not traumatized enough!). Or if you have more than one roommate, you’re not all going to get the golden 4.0 (they don’t want to run out of perfect GPA’s, I guess?). And, of course—you can’t kill your roomie for the express purposes of getting a 4.0 (killing her for ruining the suede clutch you lent her, now that’s another story). Read More »