Today is GLAAD’s annual Spirit Day, a time to take a stand against bullying and show support for LGBTQ youth. In this election year, it is doubly important to show that we do not condone bullying behavior.
Not all LGBTQ youth are bullied, of course, and not all victims of bullies are LGBTQ — but bullying continues to impact our community in significant ways. The most common reasons students said other students are bullied, called names, or harassed, according to a 2015 GLSEN study, were: “Their body size/appearance (36.2%), actual/perceived sexual orientation (19.2%), race/ethnicity (10.4%), academic ability (10.1%), and how masculine or feminine they are (9.2%).”
The good news? GLSEN found that, “Overall, the general student body appears to be relatively accepting of LGBT people, and most have LGBT people in their lives, either as peers, friends, or family members.”
What seems to help are LGBT-related resources, which “have been shown to improve school climate for LGBTQ students by raising awareness about LGBT people and the issues they face, as well as by providing safe spaces and protections for LGBT youth to feel welcome and protected during the school day.”
These resources could include a gay-straight alliance club (GSA) or an LGBT-inclusive curriculum—but only about a third of students reported a GSA in their schools, and only a fifth said they were taught about LGBT people, history, or events in their classes.
Also helpful was an anti-bullying policy that enumerated protections for sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Although nearly 90 percent of students reported their school had a general anti-bullying policy, just over half reported an enumerated policy—an improvement from 10 years ago, but still barely a majority.
Things are getting somewhat better, therefore, but the hostile environment many LGBT students still face can lead to outcomes like skipping classes because of safety concerns, lower grade point averages, increased depression, and decreased self-esteem.
We still have a ways to go, though. GLSEN found that “Teachers generally intervened when hearing biased remarks, they did so most often when hearing sexist remarks (57.2% often or very often) and least often when hearing negative remarks about transgender people (45.2% often or very often).” And one trend is particularly troubling: “Teachers were less likely to intervene in homophobic and sexist remarks in 2015 and they felt less comfortable intervening in all types of biased remarks than did teachers in 2005. In addition, the positive trends regarding decreases in student bias were not reflected in bias related to race/ethnicity. In most cases, there was either no change or an increase in these types of incidents.”
This is particularly disturbing at a time when the presidential campaign is “producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported,” according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. When a presidential candidate repeatedly insults people with words like “dumb,” “dopey,” “disgusting,” and “loser,” and has often been called out for his bullying behavior, we as parents and teachers must work extra hard to show our children that such behavior is unacceptable, and that if they are the victims of such behavior, they have still self worth and recourse to support and protection.
Our personal and local actions against bullying must go hand in hand with our political actions, then, this year more than most. If you’re looking for actions you can take to stop anti-LGBTQ bullying in your school, check out GLAAD’s Anti-Bullying Resource Kits for Students and Parent and Educators, or the many resources from GLSEN. The StopBullying.gov website from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is also a good place to start for anti-bullying resources across many aspects of identity. And don’t forget to vote!
