A victim of bullying said he once took sandpaper to his face to try and get rid of his acne after years of abuse.
Liam Hackett shared his experience of growing up as an LGBTQ+ person in St Helens and has recalled years of abuse at the hands of his classmates in a bid to help anyone else going through something similar.
The 31-year-old told the ECHO : “Bullying was a really big part of my life for as long as I can remember to be honest. I always felt like I was different from my peers and I remember even at primary school being bullied quite heavily by my classmates.
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"When I moved on to secondary school, I'd say it got way more severe and I experienced a lot of homophobia. I was physically attacked and I went through this entire time of my life that was so difficult and I felt so isolated.”
During his secondary school years, Liam said he was taunted for his acne, which lead to him taking sandpaper to his face to try and "scratch off" the skin condition. Sadly, the sandpaper incident is just one of many shocking stories Liam had to share as he claims a bully was paid 50p to beat him up and recalled being outed as gay by his childhood crush who printed out their private conversation and hung copies of it up around the school.
Liam said "the most traumatic” memory he has was when a group of bullies grabbed him and “rammed” his head into a car bonnet.
Liam said: “I genuinely thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to kill me. I had blood all over my face and had to go to A&E and have stitches on my face. Probably for about three or four years after that, I wouldn't go out at night on my own.”
All of Liam's experiences occurred around the same time when social media was growing in popularity.
He added: “I started to talk about my experiences on MySpace and started to build my own community around me. It was incredible because I realised that these issues were not just affecting me, they were affecting so many other people. That became a bit of a support network for me when it came to the bullying and also helped with my mental health as it was impacting how I saw my physical appearance and my sexuality.”
Liam’s upsetting experiences prompted him to start his own charity, Ditch the Label, a global youth charity dedicated to helping young people through a range of issues, such as mental well-being, bullying, identity, relationships and digital literacy.
Having started small in 2012, the charity now reaches over 20,000 students in the classroom every month, offers free advice and support from therapists and is expanding into Mexico early next year.
Liam added: “I've been pushed to the breaking point with my experiences and I had an opportunity to help other people who were going through similar things and who felt isolated. I feel that the internet is a really powerful tool to connect people together and it felt like an authentic transition for me as part of my healing.
“We all have a purpose and I feel like part of mine is to use some of the darkest times in my life as a really positive thing to not only help people but drive massive change in policy, attitudes and education. This digital label has really been at the forefront of change over the past 10 years and although my experiences were really dark and difficult, I don't regret it because I think so many people have benefited from it.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised within this piece, there are many charities and organisations throughout Merseyside and the UK working to support victims of hate crime.
The LGBT Foundation is a national charity which provides advice, support and information services to the LGBT community. 0345 330 30 30 or helpline@lgbt.foundation.
Citizens Advice Liverpool offers advice and support to victims of LGBT+ hate crimes on behalf of Liverpool City Council and Merseyside Police. 0151 522 1400 ext 5006 or lgbthatecrime@caliverpool.org.uk.
LCR Pride Foundation is the Liverpool City Region’s LGBT+ charity, which is working partnership with organisations across the region to tackle hate crime. For advice and guidance contact info@lcrpride.co.uk.
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