The subject of bullying has come to the forefront over the past few weeks, sadly because of several gay teen suicides. Thursday,  LGBT ally Joy Behar chatted with Dr. Phil on bullying and specifically bullying gay kids.

The segment was spurred by Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who killed himself after he was outed when his roommate streamed him having sex with a man over the Internet.

While bullying is a problem period, Behar said that the gay part of this rash of suicides really bothers her. “A lot of times you’ll hear politicians gay bashing and so-called religious people, hypocritical religious people, gay bashing, and I think that this sort of thing has an effect on the society as a whole,” Behar said.

Dr. Phil, who has testified before congress on cyber bullying replied, “There’s got to be a message in the societal fabric as a whole that it is ok or it wouldn’t be so prominent for people to pick on these folks, and I think that’s egregious.”