[Makarov]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

A bit dramatic for Calgary in 2014, more applicable to black civil rights in MLK's time. Nonetheless still some good quotes that make you rethink some comments that might have been expressed.

That said - and this isn't directed at anyone in particular, just that I've seen comments about gay kids in school.

I'm near 40.... in my high school days there were a few people that were assumed to be gay one I think was openly. Nothing happened to them, no one beat, or bullied them, and that was a long time ago. Now maybe they got beaten on the street or at parties and it just didn't happen at school.

But today? I can't imagine the average gay kid gets that much more bullied then the average other kid. Kids pick on other kids, the overweight kid, the smelly kid, the poor kid, rich kid, the middle class white kid who is none of the above, the fotze kid. If the other kids find a reason anyone is usually fair game (not that I'm saying it's fair).

Is there gay specific bullying that much in school in comparison to other bullying that it warrants more attention? I'm wondering if some of these comments aren't akin to "Won't someone please think about the (gay) children".

And please spare me the holier than thou posts turning this into a "Ranchlandsselling supports bulling of gay kids". I'm generally curious because the protected middle class suburban life I lead, nor the news stories, newspaper, or general word of mouth lead me to believe young gay kids in Calgary schools are any more bullied than any other bullied type of kid.

And if you know of a few circumstances sadly all that proves is kids get bullied. If your kid is gay and is horribly bullied then I'm very sorry for you and your child. However, I think we'd need a school counselor to chime in or a few teacher comments as mom and dad who hear from their kids are probably totally biased.

The product of literally 2 seconds of googling:

Since Premier Alison Redford took office, the Alberta government has promoted gay rights issues far more than in the past, with explicit support for GSAs in schools as part of its bullying prevention measures.

Sandra Jansen, associate minister of Family and Community Safety, says that because bullying often centres on sexuality, her office focused specifically on addressing gay rights issues when developing the province’s bullying prevention resources.
“We wanted to have resources that were addressing sexual and gender minority bullying…. We decided at the same time to look at assisting students in starting gay-straight alliances. The idea behind that was to look for ways to promote welcoming, caring, safe, inclusive learning environments. From the feedback we got from all of our stakeholders, that’s a pretty important piece,” she says.

Studies into bullying and LGBTQ issues agree. EGALE’s 2011 Final Report on Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in Canadian Schools reports that 21 per cent of LGBTQ students reported being physically harassed or assaulted due to their sexual orientation, 64 per cent feel unsafe at school and almost 10 per cent reported hearing homophobic comments from teachers.

“LGBTQ-inclusive safer schools policies and curriculum are not the entire solution,” the report says. But, “in schools that have made efforts to introduce LGBTQ-inclusive policies, GSAs, and even some LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, the climate is significantly more positive for sexual and gender minorities.”

SOURCE: http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/ne...ts-more-11642/

In 2011, Egale Canada released the findings from the first national climate survey on homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian high schools11. This study found that:

• 70% of all students hear derogatory comments such as “that's so gay” every day in school.
• 37% of youth with LGBTQ parents are verbally harassed about the sexual orientation of their parents.
• Aboriginal and ethnocultural LGBTQ youth typically experience greater discrimination and harassment than their LGBTQ peers.
• 53% of LGBTQ youth felt unsafe at school, compared with only 3% of heterosexual youth.

Homophobic bullying can range from seemingly simple or benign comments (such as “That's so gay”) to acts of physical violence (gay bashing) or hate crimes. Homophobic bullying often happens in secret. Many youth are embarrassed to be singled out from the “norm”, or are afraid to report it and risk being “outed”, harassed, or re-victimized by an adult. Sadly, 10% of students report hearing homophobic comments coming directly from their teachers12.

SOURCE: http://www.bullyfreealberta.ca/homophobic_bullying.htm

According to recent gay bullying statistics, gay and lesbian teens are two to three times as more likely to commit teen suicide than other youths. About 30 percent of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis. Students who also fall into the gay, bisexual, lesbian or transgendered identity groups report being five times as more likely to miss school because they feel unsafe after being bullied due to their sexual orientation. About 28 percent out of those groups feel forced to drop out of school altogether. Although more and more schools are working to crack down on problems with bullying, teens are still continuing to bully each other due to sexual orientation and other factors.

In a 2005 survey about gay bullying statistics, teens reported that the number two reason they are bullied is because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression. The number one reason reported was because of appearance. Teens are at a pivotal point in their young adult lives when they are trying to find out who they are and who they are about to become as adults. This is why being teased, bullied and harassed is something that could negatively affect a person's self-esteem and view of themselves for the rest of their life.

In fact, about 9 out of 10 LGBT teens have reported being bullied at school within the past year because of their sexual orientation, according to the most recent gay bullying statistics. Out of those numbers, almost half have reported being physically harassed followed by another quarter who reported actually being physically assaulted. Unfortunately most teens who experience bullying of any kind are reluctant to share their experience or report the incident to a teacher or trusted adult. Even more unfortunate are the gay statistics that report a lack of response among those teachers and school administration. According to a recent statistic, out of the students that did report a harassment or bullying situation because of their sexuality, about one third of the school staff didn't do anything to resolve the issue.

SOURCE: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/co...tatistics.html (Unfortunately I'm not familiar with this organization so I can't say how credible they or their sources are.)