Make It Stop (September's Children)

Album: Endgame (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • On September 22, 2010 Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. An 18-year-old student at Rutgers University in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, he was provoked into his tragic act after his sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room was video streamed by his roommate and a fellow hallmate over the Internet. The same month, Asher Brown, 13, Billy Lucas, 15, Raymond Chase, 19, and Seth Walsh, 13, all committed suicide, in each case allegedly due to being taunted about their homosexuality. The series of suicides made national news, bringing to light the subject of bullying and the plight of gay teenagers in the US. Seeing that none of his rock music contemporaries were saying anything about the troubling issue, Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath knew he had to speak up. He told MTV News: "When the month of September rolled around, and the wave of gay-teen suicides happened, I realized there needed to be a song about this, and also because the rock scene in general kind of fails to comment about this stuff - it sort of doesn't comment about this stuff; it largely ignores this kind of thing.

    And rock being a male-dominated, testosterone-driven place that I've been in the eye of the hurricane now for several years, I realized that it can be a place that can perpetuate homophobic behavior unless it's addressed by bands like us."

    This song, which takes stabs at homophobia for its link to teen suicide was the result with a message of hope. Said McIlrath: "The message is: It can get better, it does get better, give it a chance to get better, don't end your life prematurely. And don't give credence to all these bullies that would give you all this crap and try to make your adolescence something that's hard to deal with."
  • Endgame was Rise Against's sixth studio album. The band stuck with longtime collaborators Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore to produce the record in their favorite studio - Fort Collins, Colorado's Blasting Room. "It's so unpretentious and low-key," said McIlrath to Spin magazine of the space. "It's just a big grey building that says 'Furniture and Rentals' on it, and there's a box truck parked out front that the Descendents used to tour. It's been sitting there for a million years."

Comments: 5

  • Crow from Okc, Oklahomadon't ever be scared to reach out for help y'all. Keep going to spite them all, stay strong
  • Sys64738 from Hbg, PaHey, Shadow from Depression, You are everything that you need to be. If that doesn't meet someone else's standard, let it be their burden to bear, not yours. You do you. You are the perfect you.
  • Blast from ParisTim also told a story about fan, "who was nervous about telling us that he was gay, couse he wasn't sure about how we take that. Right away ofc, we comforted him, but it made me think about us as a band, what have we done, or haven't done, to make somebody feel like - just for a second - that their might not be accepted in our audience, that's when we decided to make the song."
    you can find the interview here --> itgettsbetter.org
  • Shadow from Depression, VaI am bisexual, and I am Christian. I want suicide and have been considering suicide for several months now.
    It hurts to hear a song like this, saddens me deeply. I just wish that everything could be better.
  • Gabrielle from Ellsworth , WiI love Rise Against, and this song made me cry when I saw the video. I'm bisexual and my best friend is gay so it really pulled on my heart strings, on top of that, its just a great song. They never dissapoint thats for sure. Thanks for helping to show people that it gets better. I have learned to live without shame, and dispite the amount of hatefull "christens" out there I am also proud to be a christen (the true loving kind).
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