Natalie’s Story

Recounted by former partner Raine.

Content warning: homophobia, mental health, suicide

I met Natalie in primary school, we were friends for a while until she moved in year 6. We reconnected in March of 2023. She attended a Private catholic school, which I’m not gonna name for privacy reasons. Same with her last name. We officially labelled our relationship in the end June of 2023, when she would officially call me her girlfriend. I was 14 at the time, she was 13, and it was puppy love. We went to different schools so most of our “dates” were after school at a park that wasn’t too far from either of us. In August that year, she came out to her friend group as a lesbian, she thought they were supportive and they were until they all had a fight, her school was kinda known in her area for being homophobic. When the fight occurred, one of them went to the principal to “report her for being gay” using the excuse that it was a sin. She was pulled into a meeting with the principle, her deputy and the schools counsellor where they asked her if it was true, how she knew and if she had a girlfriend. When it was revealed we were dating she was sent home for the day and the school contacted her parents. Her parents were incredibly upset with her being queer and were looking into conversion therapy, different schools and were even floating the idea of kicking her out. Her school put her on a 1 week suspension “pending investigation”  and when she was allowed back at school there were a lot of issues. Teachers AND students both ostracized her, she was being terribly bullied and when she would report it, the teachers wouldn’t do anything about it. She would tell her parents and they wouldn’t do anything as it was “god's way of punishment to help her stray from sin.” I remember her parents not knowing about us. When the school called she told them it was a different girl that they didn’t really know so they made Natalie block her instead of me, it was nice that I could be a constant still. By the time the holidays came around, she was incredibly depressed and wasn’t allowed out of her home. Her parents were planning to send her to a “church camp” at the end of the next term. When school went back she still had nobody and the school was planning to kick her out/had already, I’m not super clear on that part unfortunately. On November 3rd of 2023, she took her life. It happened super early in the morning and I didn’t find out until after school when I came home and got a call from her younger sister, she was the only one in her family who knew about us. I had known Natalie her whole life, we had been friends since childhood.