Has anti-gay hate and violence reached a critical mass?

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The recent attack of a 14-year-old student on a Nassau BOCES school bus reminds us that anti-gay hate and bullying is as big a problem locally as it is across the country. The story of a boy cornered and beaten by three older students is tragic and shocking, but emblematic of the precarious situation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, teens in our schools.

Pride for Youth, a service and an advocate for LGBT youth founded by the Long Island Crisis Center in 1993, documented in 2001 that one in every 10 Nassau County students are physically harassed based on their real or perceived sexual orientation. In Pride for Youth surveys, anti-gay name-calling in school was reported as commonplace. Students were split in their attitude toward anti-gay harassment.

Sixty percent thought their school needed to be safer for LGBT students. The remainder didn’t think there was a need to address the problem, and many reinforced their opinions with hostile written comments about LGBT people.

Nearly 10 years later, you would think things would be better, and they are. Schools do more to address bullying in general and anti-LGBT harassment specifically. Some have adopted Gay/Straight Alliance clubs as a strategy for promoting safety and understanding. These efforts are laudable, but they are not spreading far and wide enough yet.

The cowardice of some school officials is a troubling obstacle. They are afraid that by taking steps to protect LGBT students, they will be accused of “promoting homosexuality” by parents, faculty members and religious leaders in their communities. This is not to say that their fears are groundless, but our schools are charged with providing a safe learning environment not just for the students who are deemed worthy of protection by popular consensus, but for all young people.

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