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Loading ...NC anti-bully bill advances
05.29.2009 1:13pm EDT
(Raleigh, North Carolina) A North Carolina anti-bullying bill that includes LGBT students has been approved by a key state House committee.
The House Education Committee approved the measure Thursday over the opposition of conservative lawmakers who claimed it would special status to gays. The bill now moves to the House Judiciary committee before going to the floor of the House for a vote.It passed the Senate on May 6. A similar bill died in the legislature last year.
The legislation covers race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. It would require any school employee who witnesses or knows of harassment or bullying to report the incidents to school officials.
North Carolina’s two Roman Catholic bishops have denounced the bill as a prelude to legalizing same-sex marriage.
The Christian Action League of North Carolina this month urged its members to call or send e-mail to lawmakers telling them to vote against the measure. And the Family Policy Council of North Carolina said that if the bill passed it would lead to the expansion of the state’s hate crime law and anti-discrimination laws to cover gays.
But supporters of the bill pointed to a growing number of students in other states who were bullied because fellow students thought they were gay.
There have been at least four suicides of middle-school aged children linked to homophobic bullying according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Carl Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old from Springfield, Mass., took his life April 6 after enduring constant bullying at school, including anti-LGBT attacks. Carl did not identify as gay, his family said.
Also last month, the parents of a Mentor, Ohio, high school student filed a federal lawsuit in connection with their son’s suicide. Eric Mohat, 17, went home from school on March 27, 2007, put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
In a federal lawsuit, his parents allege that he regularly “was called ‘gay,’ ‘fag,’ ‘queer’ and ‘homo’ among other names” and that the school did nothing to prevent it.
A 2007 study by GLSEN of more than 6,000 LGBT students found that nearly nine out of 10 LGBT youth reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half reported being physically harassed and about a quarter reported being physically assaulted.
Oh heaven forbid that this anti-bullying law passes and leads to anti-discrimination laws and hate crime laws in North Carolina! The Family Policy Council actually said that? They are stating that discrimination and hate crimes against gays somehow ensure the stability of their definition of a family? That is absolutely ridiculous and sickening…to be against gay marriage is one thing but to be against anti-bullying laws, anti-discrimination laws, and hate crime laws is DISGUSTING!
All the objections from the religious right are about is to try and avoid blame for how their words murder 3000 American gay children via suicide each year.
And God only knows how many str8 kids are also suicides, when words of hate are used against them, eg FAG, etc. Especially if they live in a homophobic home, and are terrified of telling their parents people are calling them gay. In the last month a str8 kid in MA and a str8 kid in GA killed themselves after being tormented.
And how many of the other 6000 or so teen suicides are kids, who failing with girls, believe there is nothing left to do except “become gay”. And of course that is a fate worse then death, so we understand. One of my sons fitted into that category, but a good psych helped. he is fine, married, prob one of the 10 straightest kids in the country.
But we didnt really know the truth I relate above, until after he met Judy Shepard. Her son Matthew murdered by two good Catholic boys. And the local church tried to illegally influence the jury.
As some one said in the Movie Angels and Demons “We are the church that comforts the sick and dying, and feeds the hungry”. And I’ll add murders thousands of those gay kids every year with their words.
To the CALN: Are we children of a lesser God? We ALL need equal rights and protections. These are not privilledges.
Assholes.
It’s issues like this where we should just sit back and let the radical right scream its head off all they want, because maybe then everyone else will see just how hateful and petty they really are. Saying that kids in school don’t deserve protection from bullying or that fighting discrimination (of any kind) is bad is an absolutely untenable position. And yet they get all self righteous and angry when we call them bigots with archaic morals that have no place in our society? Well at least we aren’t saying that it should be perfectly legal and acceptable for someone to abuse/assault/kill any of them. I guess that’s the advantage of fighting for love, rather than fighting for hate.
>I’m sorry, bullying of children and Gay Marriage are two seperate issues…
As indicated in my last post, I agree with you.
But I just thought of something interesting. I can connect the dots between stopping the bullying of gay kids and gay marriage. It’s a very long chain, but it has to do with taking away the social punishments being applied to gay people. Once you remove the social punishments being applied, gay people feel safer and are more inclined to come out, especially the gay folks who could otherwise “pass” as straight. The more openly gay people there are, the more straight allies get to know us, understand us, and support us. Poll after poll has shown that straights vote for us 2 to 1 if they know someone who is gay. When gay marriage polls across the nation at over 50% (we’re already seeing signs that it’s headed there), then politicians will drop their objections and support gay marriage.
It kind of all gets back to what an earlier comment said: these people will do *anything* to prevent any kind of relief or equality for gay people. If understanding and empathy gain a foothold *anywhere*, it just might *spread*, darn it!
The American tendency to fear monger is getting so tiresome. “Don’t do X, because it will lead to this very scary thing over HERE!”
Stick to the point, people: trying to help kids be safe in school.
How anybody could be against a bill banning bullying is beyond me. It seems like these conservative Christians are against everything decent in the world. They don’t want homosexuals to have any rights or protection, they don’t want to allow people to choose their own religion or lack there of, and they don’t care about the environment. It perplexes me that these so called “good people” are doing such bad things.
Can I say how horrible I think it is that two RC Bishops and an entire organization of Christians are opposed to this measure on the basis that they believe that it is a “prelude” to a gay marriage issue? I’m sorry, bullying of children and Gay Marriage are two seperate issues, and shame on them for trying to make mountains out of molehills. Children should be protected no matter what.
How young do the suicides have to be before a screeching halt is called to the bullying?
The catholic church hierarchy in this country and abroad are simply EVIL.
The Catholic bishops are really disgusting.
A bill like this needs to be established in every state. Especially in the southern states, like Texas (where I’m from). From a former a victim of vicious bullying, I can tell you that it took me years to get over the trauma. This is a REAL issue. Not just a case of kids being kids. What happens in this school is nothing short physiological torture. When it happened to me, My parents, and I found that we got little help from the teachers, nor the students of my Highschool. And had to transfer to a school across town. Yet, even there I was picked on, and harassed for being different. And I didn’t even know I was a Lesbian then. I was just a Wiccan in a predominately Christian and Catholic occupied school
Hell I was just watching 365gay news on logo just this morning, and I just saw a case of Lesbian being harassed by the Teachers in California. Educators that supposed to being protecting and setting an example. Yet where the ones saying malicious comments and excluding her from changing in the girl’s locker room. Doesn’t these Right Wing Conservatives, and Christian extremists read the suicide rates?—oh they probably do, since they think that people who don’t obey the Bible deserve what ever they we get.
These are CHILDREN. No matter what sexual preference they might have. Yet, they only can see pawns in the LGBT agenda for Same Sex Marriage. They should be PROTECTED, every child should have that right. And I ashamed that these scum sucking self righteous bastards occupy earth that I do—Hell the same universe.
So, the conservatives are saying that we should allow bullying in schools. That we should allow students to be verbally and physically harmed, just because they’re not good enough to be protected. Because gays don’t deserve the “special rights” that everyone else enjoys.
I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY SOME OF THESE SO CALLED GOD FEARING CRISTIANS. LOVE TO HATE. GUESS THEY LIKE THROWING THE STONES THEY MUST BE THE RIGHTEST ONES HUH
Maybe it is “finally” going to sink in that when writing legislation, ALL citizens need to be treated equally. When some children need to be protected from being bullied, ALL children need to be protected from bullying.