Monday, October 27, 2008

High School (Hate)ical


For most of us, high school was like a haunted house of our secret crushes, bullies, and pinned up emotions.

And for the most part, nothing has changed especially for the LGBT youth. Last week, GLSEN sent out their National School Climate Survey, which follows LGBT young people's experiences in school. What they found was not cute.

The survey of 6,209 middle and high school students found that nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students (86.2 percent) had experienced harassment at school in the past year.

The survey also found that three-fifths (60.8 percent) felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and about one third (32.7 percent) skipped a day of school in the past month because they felt unsafe.


Even with a more opened society and cultures. People are still treating our students like trash. Hopefully this will stop or at least change pace.

Kevin Jennings, director and founder of GLSEN, said: "Still, not enough places are doing the right thing to move the national needle. Only 11 states have comprehensive anti-bullying laws that include specific mention of sexual harassment and gender identity. And only 20 percent of students said they had any curriculum that dealt with LGBT concerns. As we've seen throughout history, more visibility brings more attacks."

2 comments:

Allan S. said...

Just out of curiosity does anyone know if there is an openly gay character in High School Musical? Or is it just chock full of posers and sterotypes?

I have to say that pic cracks me up. Look at those boys trying to look hard. LMAO

libhom said...

That was an inventive lead to discuss a serious subject, improving conditions for queer youth.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.