Not so news about LGBT teens. The study: Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools found out that LGBT kids of color have it pretty bad.
More than four out of five students within each racial/ethnic group, reported verbal harassment in school because of sexual orientation; about two-thirds reported harassment because of gender expression.
At least a third of each group reported physical violence in school because of sexual orientation.
More than half of African American, Latino, Asian and multiracial students also reported verbal harassment in school based on their race or ethnicity. Native American students were less likely than other students to report experiencing racially motivated verbal harassment.
About a quarter of African American/Black and Asian/Pacific Islander students had missed class or days of school in the past month because they felt unsafe. Latino, Native American, and multiracial students were even more likely to be absent for for safety reasons – about a third or more skipped class at least once or missed at least one day of school in the past month for safety reasons.
Native American students experienced particularly high levels of victimization because of their religion, with more than half reporting the highest levels of verbal harassment, and a quarter experiencing physical violence.
There's more, but I wanted to show some of the problems our youth are experiencing. It's scary to see our youth going through the mess we went through as kids. It needs to stop and we need to make a change for our future's sake.
On the other hand, maybe we'll be more desensitized with harassment and it won't bother us as much?
ReplyDeleteIt's not going to stop by itself. Those of us who lived through and then escaped this abuse should do something about it.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me sad that the more things change the more they stay the same. The same thing happened to me decades ago, and here we are in 2008/2009 and it's still happening.