Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Neff: Homophobes for hookie
Homophobes for Hookie.
Hey, American Family Association — feel free to use that campaign name for next year’s anti-gay effort on A Day of Silence.
The AFA, along with the Campaign for Children and Families, Concerned Women for America, Liberty Council, and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays last week called on parents to keep their children from classrooms on April 17 to counter the 13th annual A Day of Silence.A Day of Silence took place in thousands of U.S. schools to call attention to the plight of GLBT students. Launched at the University of Virginia in 1996, the day takes place year after year in the long tradition of peaceful, powerful student statements. Students on college, high school and middle school campuses take vows of silence to call attention to homophobia in the schools.
How does the uncompassionate right respond?
The Christian Conservatives for Cutting Class call for a walkout.
“The implicit purpose of the Day of Silence is to undermine the belief that homosexuality is immoral,” the groups said in a statement. “It is the belief of the sponsors of the walkout that parents should no longer passively accept the political usurpation of taxpayer-funded public school classrooms through student silence.”
“This day is not about ‘tolerance’ as it claims, but about forcing propaganda and acceptance of high-risk behavior into the schools with no opposing views allowed,” said Linda Harvey of the Mission America Coalition.
Last week’s A Day of Silence and those that have come before and will come after are not about forcing propaganda on students.
The day deals with high-risk behavior, but not what Linda Harvey implied as high-risk behavior. The day deals with high-risk behavior such as the bullying and harassment of GLBT youth and allies that too school teachers, principals and other administrators ignore.
The cards participants distribute on A Day of Silence read, “My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by anti-LGBT bullying, name-calling and harassment.
“I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward building awareness and making a commitment to address these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today.”
I know it was a long time ago that I attended junior high and high school, but surveys of students show that what I learned in school is still the rule today. It still is far more common to see a teacher punish a student for chewing gum than for verbally harassing a gay student. Blow a bubble and the punishment might be detention. Call a kid a “fag” and go on your way, day after day.
The anti-GLBT abuse that A Day of Silence spotlights does more than hurt feelings.
Nearly nine out of 10 GLBT youth report being verbally harassed at school because of their sexual orientation, according to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Nearly 44 percent of GLBT students report being physically harassed, and about a quarter of GLBT students report being physically assaulted.
The abuse can make school unbearable.
A GLSEN survey in Michigan schools found that the grade-point average of GLBT students who were more frequently physically harassed because of their sexual orientation was a half grade lower than of students who were less frequently harassed.
The abuse sometimes can make life unbearable.
Last week in Springfield, Mass., hundreds of people attended the funeral of 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover, who hanged himself after enduring months of anti-gay harassment at the New Leadership Charter School.
There was no leadership at Carl’s school. Despite his mother’s repeated complaints about the bullying, school administrators did nothing to help.
Carl would have celebrated his 12th birthday April 17 — it was A Day of Silence that spoke volumes about the climate in the classrooms, in part due to the thousands of GLBT students and their allies who took a vow of silence but also, in part, due to the efforts of Homophobes for Hookie.
Either coming to understand your sexuality or knowing that you are a GBLT person in this period of your life is really difficult and you must stand up to the authority figure (principal or teacher) and let them know that you are being mentally and physically harassed because of other students not being able to accept others as being different.
Personally I would do this:
1. Talk with your parents and have them accompany you to see the principal and have a witness to the Principals reaction.
2. WRite a letter to the Principal outlining your understanding as to how he is going to address the issue and *WHEN* this is going to happen.
3. Also let the teachers know and tell them you have talked with the principal.
If this does not help the next step is different as each school district is done differently.
Either write a letter to the school superintendent (or who ever has control over the Principal and let him/her know exactly what was said to the principal and enclose a copy of the letter you sent. You should also ask that a resolution needs to happen soon. Keep copies of all correspondence.
If nothing happens then you go to the mayor of the town with copies of all the documentation and ask that the education system be brought into the 20th century as well as the students be informed that gay bashing is *NOT* to be permitted and will be punished.
If you get no action then it is time to bring in the lawyers. Schools get nervous if you have lawyers around. BTW it would be helpful if you have a friend and him/her to take pictures (better) videos of the bashing (that is extremely important as then the school cannot say it is not happening). The other option is to carry around a tape recorder with you. Check with your state to see if that is legal as state laws vary.
Just remember to fully document each time you talk with any teacher/principal or any other school administrator. Again either by return email or by letter (with someone to accompany you to prove the individual has received the letter. EMAIL is OK but the email “proof issue” can be dodgy and might come back to bite you later on. *IF* this becomes a major issue you should probably consider Registered mail. Yes I know its $$ but again if it comes to a trial you will have an iron tight trail and the school personnel cannot get out of it in court. You might want to pay for return receipt as well and KEEP a copy of *ALL* correspondence and photos and eyewitness names.
I know this sounds like a pain but it will serve you better if it comes down to a lawsuit. Yes it is expensive but again it will make the lawyers (yours) job a LOT easier.
What this article doesn’t say is that the boy who hung himself didn’t even identify as LGBT. So it isn’t just some ‘deserved punishment for being gay’ or anything like that either. This was just a boy who didn’t fit into the mold, like most of us at that time. But none of the organizations that supported the walk out would think anything of that, I’ll bet. It’s horrible. Hopefully one day soon it will end. But until then, we must be silent one day, and too loud to ignore every other day! Don’t let anyone ever forget who we are, or what we’re fighting for.
I was bullied back in the late 70’s and early80’s for not only being gay which I didn’t know at the time and for being fat no one cared ,the school as today blamed me thus I was kept home which is too long a story for here needless to say the Government needs to get laws passed to protect children from bulling its just plain cruel and when teachers and principal ignore its just not right
American River College in Sacramento California has elected a Slavic-run homophobic student government that not only Supported Yes on 8, but has publicly denounced the day of silence. Someone should bring attention to this hate filled campus. There was an attempted recall of these officers but the student body failed to unseat the homophobes. This campus is a public community college with 32,000 students
This abuse must stop now! How does the school remain silent? IF a child is harassing another child, then they need to intervene. Advise the parents. If the abuse continues, keep disciplining the child. Counsel and advise the child why it is wrong to hurt and hate another child. Teach them how to respect diversity. Expel them if they wont stop. If one student called another one a “nigger”, would you stop it? Would you allow it to continue? Of course not! Then why do you allow the viscous name calling and even physical abuse and torture of a gay (or perceived to be gay) student?
fr Jessica:
>…im 14 and go to middle school were i EVERYDAY get picked on for being bisexual!Infact some of my teachers also join in on this tourment!just because i can take it dosent mean other kids can!<
Jessica, what you need to do, and have the RIGHT to do, is tell the principal about what is going on. INSIST that they listen to YOU. If you feel safe about it, tell your parents and DEMAND that the school board find out about what is going on in your school. You have the RIGHT to a harassment-free education.
Who but these psychopaths could view SILENCE in a classroom as detrimental to learning?!
When I was in school, they really LIKED silence, unless, as the kids who participate in the Day of Silence practice, it was to speak in response to a teacher.
Only these psychopaths could see SILENCE as *disturbing* to other students.
I suppose yelling names and pushing students and harrassing students isn’t *disturbing* to other students and detrimental to the learning experience.
Again…when I was in school…such rowdy behavior was the definition of disturbing the classroom.
Up is down, white is black, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, silence is disturbing, verbal and physical attack is conducive to the learning process.
Yep…psychopaths all.
I’m a teacher in the Dayton OH area and didn’t observe any drop in attendance- but I also didn’t observe anybody participating either.
Personally, I think the DOS ought to be rebranded as the “Day of Making A Ton of Noise” instead- the notion of “silence” doesn’t do enough to address this issue. Better still to make it some kind of national day of gay service, to show how useful we are to our communities.
Yeah, no duh it’s to “undermine the belief that homosexuality is immoral”. Kids wouldn’t get bullied if everybody could just get that through their heads.
And what’s up with the parents? Are they afraid that as soon as their kids are exposed to a different viewpoint they’re going to suddently turn out gay or something? Maybe the parents just realize that it’s impossible to rationally defend they’re own opinion, so they have to stop their kids from hearing any others.
Quite frankly, Linda Harvey must have completely missed the whole premise of the Day of Silence. If she believes that being silent for a day wastes money… then she should probably keep her child(ren) in school… Its funny, actually, what ever happened to getting an education and seperation of church and state.
Judging by comments by the American Family Association and the Mission America Coalition, harassment, bullying and even violence should be tolerated and acceptable in schools if they are directed against LGBT students, teachers and children of LGBT parents. As for counseling parents to keep children out of school as a protest against the Day of Silence, this needs to be treated by legal authorities for what it is– counseling breaking of truancy laws and depriving students of a right to complete education.
Tell it like it is, Lisa, tell it like it is! You sure hit the nail on the head!
schools never care about these kinds of comments!Really its not fair!im 14 and go to middle school were i EVERYDAY get picked on for being bisexual!Infact some of my teachers also join in on this tourment!just because i can take it dosent mean other kids can!
Do these parents not realize that some of their own children probably endure some of this same harassment at school? At age 12, children don’t fully understand their sexuality, heterosexual or homosexual. It’s all about the perception of the bully! I’m certain the heterosexual child who is quiet, is not inclined to discuss the fact he received a swirlly at school or had his face acquainted with a locker door would feel comfortable mentioning that to his bigoted parents. I know I never did when I was in school.