James, Tyler Clementi’s openly gay brother, speaks up in an interview about his family’s tragedy. Be sure to have some tissue near when watching this.

“Words are devastating. Until you’ve been the target of that kind of hatred, you don’t understand the pain you’re inflicting on other people and I just thing about, the epidemic that suicide has really become among gay youth and it breaks my heart and every child I see on the news since and before my brother’s death, he’s one of many unfortunately and this needs to stop. It’s not the answer, there’s always somewhere that you can go, and at any point, no matter what, as long as you’re still here there’s something worth fighting for.”

Out has also published James’ letters to Tyler, which tug even more on the heartstrings.