The O ' Higgins Norman

Unfortunately although our society is working towards becoming more accepting of the LGBT community there still are plenty reports of bullying and harassment of LGBT adolescents in the public school system. According to Roxane Gay's essay “nine out

“A lot of kids are bullied because of their sexual identity or expression. It's often the effeminate boys and the masculine girls, the ones who violate gender norms and expectations, who get bullied” says Dan Savage. Throughout society, there are expectations for many of the people to achieve, but for many people, these norms can cause people to hide their true selves and become someone they are not. It can also cause unequal treatment to those who do not fit the same picture that society wants. Many individuals are filled with the fear that they will be outcasts in society, this fear can lead to unfortunate consequences and inaccurate judgements.

School psychologists must help create and foster an environment that educates administrators, teachers, and non LGBT students. Many lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender youth do not feel safe in school. Sexual minority students may suffer harassment (verbal and/or physical) from teachers and peers. As a result, they may experience more absences than heterosexual students. In addition, LGBT youth may turn to drugs and alcohol as a means of coping with the stressful school environment (Patterson 2013, p.192). Many will contemplate or even commit suicide.

Education is an important factor in life in order to thrive, but LGBT students face harassment in school due to their identity. According to a Human Rights report conducted in 2001, two million American students in the LGBT

Tyler Clementi was a freshman at Rutgers University who committed suicide after two other students posted a video of him having sex with another man. In the article, Against ‘Bullying’ or On Loving Queer Kids, author Richard Kim describes the many challenges people part

The abuse was both verbal and physical which brought about attempting suicide for many times, drop out from school and, unfortunately, run away. This case was recorded by the federal appeal court and marked as the first case that was raised Equal Protection Clause to support an openly gay student in The USA since then. It was resulted on a mandate to assure people not involve in bullying and respect homosexuality within the society. Yet, it does not mean the challenge was over because there are no guarantee that bullying behavior will stop, people still get away with bullying attitude over time and context. Writer interestingly addressed the reason why queer bullying was prevalent through the history by investigating its possible origin, the gender norms, the dichotomy roles of the media, the distressing reality about it, and the heteronormative atmosphere that bounding it. The writer noted that along the history there was a belief that homosexuality deemed as a form of deviant and unnatural behavior over some cultures, context and time and even in some cases they were punished to death due to this conservative beliefs. Some typical perception of boys within the society by assuming heterosexual as the normal and right thing to get alone with particularly bringing about queer bullying. Boys' perception functions through as if a boy lack of masculinity in the society, they then would be judged as ‘queer or homo'. To some extent, this particular conformity became a foundation for queer bullying. Moreover, the media also played out two integral rules which are in one side continue to intensify negative attitude against queer people by made queer not only tolerated but it is also normalized and in the other hand, it reframed and disseminated positive paces made on behalf of the queer

Most LGBT youth become happy with who they are which gives them room to thrive during their adolescent years. Attending a school that has a safe and comfortable environment for every student is especially important. Positive environments can help all youth achieve good grades and maintain good mental and physical health. However, some youths are more likely than their straight peers to experience bad health and life outcomes. Experiences with violence, compared to other students, come easy to LGBT individuals that can cause increased risks for unfortunate circumstances.‘Violence’ includes behaviors such as teasing, harassment, and physical assault. It is important that students at risk have access to resources and support to deal with any questions or challenges they may have or face as they mature. Surveyed LGBT students reported 10% were threatened or injured, 34% were bullied, and 28% were bullied electronically.

In response to the despairing LGBT kids who get bullied and harrassed in high school, Dan and Terry share their personal experiences and harsh memories when coming out to their friends and family. The YouTube video intendeds to send a message of hope for teenagers struggling with their sexual identity and telling them that life will get better. Dan tells us about his Catholic family background and how there wasn’t any LGBT kids at his school who constantly bullied him for liking musicals. Terry shares a more negative childhood with ‘kids beating him up, throwing him against walls, lockers, windows, stuffing him into bathroom stalls, and scratching his car.” School administrators were not very supportive to address these issues either. But, thankfully, Terry gives a positive note that life got better for him after high school and Dan added that “however bad it is now, it gets better and it can get great, and awesome, but you have to tough this period out and live your life so your around for it to get better.”

The authors of this journal examine bullying of LBGTQ youth from teachers perspectives. It is acknowledged that bulling is a concern for many children and teens, but as a LBGTQ youth the odds increase dramatically. It is important to get educators perspectives according to the authors because school environments are shaped by adults. Many LBGTQ students report bullying to educators, and do not see action, which creates a fear of confiding. A shocking fact in the article is how uncomfortable most teachers are dealing with LBGTQ based bullying, due to the fear of losing their jobs or reactions of parents. Teachers also feel unequipped to deal with LBGTQ subjects and lack training.

LGBT youth are most commonly targeted by bullying because society does not fully understand what these kids are going through in life. One of the main reasons for this is due to something that may set themselves apart from the norm and that includes sexual orientation. Gay and lesbian teens are two to three times as more likely to commit suicide than any other youths. Those who are rejected by their family are up to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers. About 30 percent of all completed suicide have all been related to bullying.

The current literature explains that the impression of anti- gay violence is socially acceptable and long- established when perpetrators who prey on victims of the LGBT community receive weightless verdicts or escape punishments altogether. Perpetrators recognize authority figures such as: parents, police, political and religious leaders who believe gays deserve such heinous treatment and will not treat the violence accordingly (Herek, 2004, p. 160). According to Wills (2004), hate crimes have origins that lead to intimidation, bullying, teasing, physical assault, rape, and murder causing victims to ultimately suffer the consequences of depression, psychological disorders, and suicide. Adults have, by now, further experienced the pressures of society because of their diverse sexuality. However, the stress placed upon teens and young adults, especially college students because of their sexual preference has lead to tremendous life-threatening

The common thought has been bullying is a normal reaction to school. Studies show that bullying is the result of underlying issues. Traditional bullying was a common thug trying to make a place for themselves, whereas now it has gone to new heights, it now includes physical trauma and even death. We find that bullying affects the bully as well as the victim. The victims tend to have more problems in school with attendance and achievements within the academic world. This is not just about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, it involves all students that don’t fit societies idea of normal then the person gets bullied. The amount of attention given to this issue is a direct result of this escalation in events within the school system from grade schools to universities. The most pressing problem with getting the bullying policies changed is the conservative communities that school boards serve and convincing them that these policies need to be

many who are homosexual would feel that something was wrong with them, having low self-esteem, as a result of being different from others. the statistics portal (2016) estimate that one in 100 American women and two in every 100 American men are homosexual (Statistic Portal, 2016). The percentage of the same-sex couples in household in the United States in 2014, was 75.7 percent (Statistic portal, 2016). Even today 84.6 percent of LGBT student report being verbally harassed, 40.1 percent report being physical harassed (Scout pride, 2016)). With the increased levels of bullying other students and people be unaccepting of a teenage homosexually, at least 30 percent have attempted or thought about suicide (Scout pride,

Marginalization may also be the explanation for the high risk of self-harm in gay, bisexual, transsexual teenagers who are 2 to 3 times more likely to self-harm than heterosexual young people, this groups results in regular absenteeism at school due to homophobic harassment. 50% of those reported bullied at school had contemplated self-harm, 40% of those had self-harmed at least once. A survey in 2000 to 2002 interviewed 2,430 lesbian women, gay men and bisexual men and women in England and Wales and concluded that there is a greater link between discrimination and mental health issues. (Truth Hurts, Mental Health Foundation 2006).

This narrative serves as an analogy for societies dehumanisation of the homosexual community. Through the monologues of the two characters in the text, their perspective on the treatment of gay people in society is examined. I used the setting of a school as I thought that this kind of interaction would occur more naturally in this setting. I intentionally had no resolution to the text, as there is often never any real resolution to being bullied, also I felt that a conclusion was unnecessary to drive the themes encompassed in the text.