ETA: "But maybe there's just a sort of exhaustion that happens and people just have moments where they feel pallid and small, and if you have the wrong moment at the wrong time, for just an hour you could end up where Clementi ended up."

I agree with that.
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Maybe I should have been clearer. I think there were several factors in play.

Like you (or someone else in this thread), I realize this incident probably set Tyler over the edge when he was already vulnerable. I have never thought it was exclusively Ravi's harassment that led to Tyler's suicide; Ian Parker's story made that clearer. Nor do I think bullying, isolation, or risk of suicide in college students is a concern exclusively when gay teenagers are the victims.

I think Clementi's being gay was a key part of this case, but secondary to his interaction or perception of others when he was just beginning to experience that part of his life (sex, romance, whatever you want to call it)--coming out of his shell.

My take on the time between Tyler's starting college and his jumping off the GW bridge would be the same if the he had been heterosexual.

Being a college freshman is difficult for anyone, but likely doubly so for someone with a somewhat shy personality. He started that semester with the sense (however misguided) that he'd been rejected by an otherwise loving parent for something intensely personal. Finally, worse than being slightly isolated in an unfamiliar environment, Clementi got a glimpse of how thoughtlessly cruel and stupid people are. What an unwelcome audience expressed was either boredom or immature disgust at what they saw (e.g., Wei's "ewwwwwwww" reaction to footage she shouldn't even have seen, and certainly shouldn't have discussed publicly).

No one chastised Ravi.

Who wouldn't be furious? Who wouldn't have a heightened sense of distrust or alienation? Based on coverage of the story, it seems Tyler was convinced any roommate that came along would be just as obnoxious and invasive.

This has been my take from the beginning--he was sexually and generally humiliated by people who didn't even have it in their sights to hurt him. I repeat, this story would sadden me and unnerve me just as much if the subject had been a heterosexual student of either gender.

This isn't about Clementi being gay, this is about a number of things that happened around that time and his roommate giving someone in a vulnerable stage an ugly image of human behavior.
I repeat, this story would sadden and unnerve me just as much if the subject had been a heterosexual student of either gender.

I'm not expressing myself that well, most likely, but I'm fully aware that Tyler's suicide is not simply a matter of gay rights.

Not a single person seemed to speak up up on Tyler's behalf when Dharun was Tweeting about the webcam feed.

So much harm was perpetrated by people who were just being...thoughtless. There was no animus behind it. Somehow, that makes it worse.

The story presented him as a shy, sensitive kid that was just coming into his own as an individual/a gay man, turned into a sideshow by an otherwise "normal" roommate. He presumed at that point the next one might be just as bad.

His perception of his mother's reaction to his coming out probably didn't help.

I'm rambling, but my point is...all of that is lot for a person to shoulder.

That sort of humiliation is enough to lose faith in people.

THAT'S why I didn't watch.

Everything else, I was either too young to appreciate or it seemed a bit blah ("Surface").