Homo High? Is Segregation the Answer?

It should come as no surprise that LGBT students are much more susceptible to harassment, bullying and discrimination than just about any other group, with the exception of possibly obese students [which unfortunately may become the norm in the near future, considering one in three children/teens in the US are overweight or obese].

The GLSEN National School Climate Survey study found that 86.2 percent of  LGBT students reported varying degrees of bullicide during school hours due to their sexual orientation. And 61%  who identified as LGBT indicated they felt unsafe at school.  The hostile environment leads to a high dropout rate for these kids.

No federal laws currently exist that specifically protects young LGBTs.  But Minnesota Democratic senator Al Franken has introduced a bill,  the Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA),  that would make anti-gay bullying in schools a federal offense. (Click here and here and here to support)

"Our nation’s civil rights laws protect our children from bullying due to race, sex, religion, disability and national origin. My proposal corrects a glaring injustice and extends these protections to our gay and lesbian students who need them just as badly." - Al Franken

So, are exclusive  LGBT schools the answer?

Well, the issue at hand is whether the creation of separate schools will become an excuse for those in public administration to avoid implementing reforms that will protect LGBT students from discrimination and bullying regarding their sexual orientation. Moreover, there is the issue that segregation might prolong the existence of homophobia by bolstering the average homophobe's belief that gay people are unlike "regular" people.

“If we create ‘Homo High,’ we don’t have to prohibit this behavior in other schools.  The reality is, we have to live as neighbors. We have to learn to tolerate one another, if not accept one another. All our kids should be safe in all our schools; segregation is not the answer.” - Rick Garcia, political director for the LGBT advocacy group Equality Illinois

Kevin Jennings, the founder of the GLSEN network, and now the "Safe Schools Czar" , or Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools that President Obama appointed in 2009,  who has been the target of right-winged witch hunts ever since, disagrees. He said, "We can continue to do nothing, and we know the results, or we can save young people’s lives and offer them an education and a future.”

There is no question that there should be alternatives to mainstream education for some LGBT students.  However, as more than ever before, young Americans are choosing to live openly as LGBT, which challenges the deep-seated societal bias toward homosexuality, segregating gay students at this time may halt any progression that has already occurred.  And then there are the students who will never enroll in these schools, either who may need the most protection due to hostile family situations, or who are not yet ready to confront the possible consequences that identifying as gay may present.

Links:

Antibullying Bill Passes N.Y. State Senate According to the Empire State Pride Agenda, the statewide LGBT advocacy group, “The bill creates tools for school administrators, teachers, parents. and students to address bullying and bias-related behavior of all kinds that interfere with student safety and learning. Key provisions include developing rules to prevent and respond to discriminatory harassment and hate violence; establishing teacher, staff, and administrative training guidelines; incorporating discrimination awareness into civility and character education curricula; and required reporting of incidents of bias harassment to the state education department.”

Gay and Lesbian Rights/Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Your Rights Against Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

Strategies to Prevent Homelessness, Strengthen Services and Build Support for LGBTQ Youth - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's final report of recommendations from the City’s Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Runaway and Homeless Youth. The Commission began its work in October 2009 and was charged with developing strategies to address the unique needs of LGBTQ youth.

Massachusetts Rights of LGBT Public School Students

If you or someone you know is a victim of a hate crime, or if you have direct knowledge of such a crime, please contact your local FBI office . The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 protects all persons equally regardless of immigration status. Reporting the incident to the FBI is a necessary step to ensuring justice for all victims of violent hate crimes.

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Bullycide and the Mutilation of a Child's Spirit.

Second update: The American Academy of Pediatrics released a new policy statement (pdf file) on June 29, 2009, recognizing the serious threat bullying poses to kids’ health and safety, and increasing the involvement of pediatricians when it comes to dealing with bullying.

Listen here to Dr. Robert Sege, one of the report’s authors and chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, and Sirdeaner Walker, the mother of 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hovver (pictured below) who hanged himself last April after being relentlessly bullied at his Springfield, Massachusetts elementary school.

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Update: Another 11-year old, Jaheem Herrera, frustrated with bullies calling him "gay", "ugly", and "the virgin", took his own life.

His mother found him hanging by his belt in the closet."He used to say Mom they keep telling me this ... this gay word, this gay, gay, gay. I'm tired of hearing it, they're telling me the same thing over and over," she told CNN, as she wiped away tears from her face.

But while she says her son complained about the bullying, she had no idea how bad it had gotten.

"He told me, but he just got to the point where he didn't want me to get involved anymore because nothing was done," she said.

Bermudez said she complained to the school about bullying seven or eight times, but it wasn't enough to save him.

"It [apparently] just got worse and worse and worse until Thursday," she said. "Just to walk up to that room and see your baby hanging there. My daughter saw this, my baby saw this, my kids are traumatized."

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The parents of Eric Mohat a 17-year old, who was "harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully said publicly in class, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you," he did", aren't seeking monetary compensation; "rather, they are asking that the high school that their son attended recognize their son's death as a "bullicide" and put in place what they believe is a badly needed anti-bullying program."



In another case, 11-year old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover's mother found him hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of their home Monday night after, as his mother said, "he had endured another day of taunting at New Leadership Charter School, where he was a sixth-grader." Carl left behind a note for family members. He would have turned 12-years old on April 17.

The perception that a child is violating stereotypical gender roles by other children plays a significant role in bullying behavior. Students taunted and threatened both Eric and Carl on a daily basis, often referring to them as "gay," "fag," "queer" and "homo", and in Eric's case, and possibly Carl's, often in front of teachers. Both Carl's mother and Eric's parents tried to intervene and called the school repeatedly to complain about the situation, but nothing changed.

In one national survey, the reason most frequently reported by victims of bullying for being harassed was the student’s appearance. The next most cited reason for frequent harassment was sexual orientation ( A National Report on School Bullying).

In another report, students in middle school reported remarks about someone’s presumed homosexuality or gender identity as one of the most common forms of verbal harassment. In addition, a new review of studies from thirteen countries from Yale School of Medicine, have found signs of an apparent connection between bullying, being bullied and suicide.

Bullying, all too often, occurs with the full complaisance of adults - teachers, coaches, parents, etc - especially when it comes to perceived sexual orientation of boys, in particular. Young girls who don't conform to gender roles (tomboys) are accepted and even desired up to a certain age, whereas boys who don't conform are not at all accepted and almost certain to experience some form of bullying.

When children grow up in a society that preach and teach that gay people are not acceptable, hence, encourage this group to hide (Don'tAsk Don't Tell, closeted people in the public eye: politicians, Hollywood actors, etc.) who they are, and to hate themselves, it's no wonder that 30% of GLBT youth take their own lives and why the bullying of this group of children, in particular, occurs.

I can't let anyone find out that I'm not straight. It would be so humiliating. My friends would hate me, I just know it. They might even want to beat me up. Any my family, I've overheard them lots of times talking about gay people. They've said they hate gays, and even God hates gays, too. It really scares me now, when I hear my family talk that way, because now, they are talking about me .... Sometimes I feel like disappearing from the face of the this earth. - 16-year old Bobby Griffith *

This reason - the bullying and high suicide rate of GLBT youth - alone, is what makes the neoconservative long-term plan of targeting gay people, in order to generate "moral" panic - going as far as to suggest that our civilization is "at stake" - in order to secure their greedy agenda, just plain evil. Ironically, our civilization is "at stake" not because of gay marriage, but because of their greedy agenda.

If these same adults, complicit in the bullying behavior, were faced with the threat of potential law suits, they might change their tune. If that's what it takes, let the law suits begin.

"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well-considered, and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit." Erik Erikson

* Bobby Griffith, quoted in Miller, B. Jaye, "From Silence to Suicide: Measuring a Mother's Loss," in Blumenfeld, Warren J. (ed.). Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992, pp. 88-89.

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Commemorating Carl Walker's Birthday. The National Day of Silence.

Approximately one week ago I blogged about how children bullying other children can mutilate a child's spirit which can lead to bullicide (suicide by bully), as it did in Carl Walker's case. Sexual orientation is cited as the second most common reason given for bullying after appearance.

Yesterday, April 17, which would have been Carl Walker's 12th birthday, had he not taken his own life, also marked the National Day of Silence. This day is supposed to "bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Each year the event has grown, now with hundreds of thousands of students coming together to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior."

Essence Magazine interviewed Carl's mother who provided more details of her son's tragic death. Although Carl, only 11-years old, had not declared his sexuality, he was teased for what the other children perceived to be his sexuality.

"He told me that he was being called names and the kids were saying, "You're gay; you act like a girl."

It can't be emphasized enough that 30% of GLBT youth successfully take their own lives, and all of those deaths can be attributed to the acceptance of homophobia throughout all areas of our society. Unfortunately, this includes the child's own family, and friends. Unlike other minorities, who can seek comfort or support within the family, church, or many times, their community, children who are either gay, or perceived to be gay - sometimes before they even know that they are - have no support system whatsoever.

Is it any wonder that the suicide rate is so high within this group of young people?

Homophobia is Killing Our Youth

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