Report claims bullying limits education of gays

by Will O’Bryan

GLSEN's Kevin Jennings says this study brings anti-gay harassment into discussions of school safety and educational access. (by Clint Steib)

A Texas student’s account of verbal harassment based on her sexual orientation by her algebra teacher is just one example of abuse and bullying that gay youths experience in U.S. schools, the topic of a report released this week by Human Rights Watch.

HRW, the largest U.S.-based international human rights organization and second in the world behind London-based Amnesty International, released the report Wednesday, May 30, condemning ill treatment gay youths face in American schools. The report, Hatred in the Hallways: Violence and Discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students in U.S. Schools, claims that bullying is so pervasive that it prevents gay youths from receiving adequate education.

"The U.S. school system gets a failing grade when it comes to providing a safe place for gay students to get an education," said HRW’s Michael Bochenek, who is openly gay and a co-author of the report, in a press statement. "Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender kids face a greater risk of bullying than any other students in American high schools. That has to stop."

In compiling the 203-page report, HRW interviewed 140 youths and 130 school administrators, counselors and teachers, and parents. Those interviewed represent the geographic spectrum of the United States, coming primarily from California, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Utah. The report is interspersed with first person accounts of abuse.

"Nothing was done by the administration," said Matt P. of New Hampshire, in one such account. "A guy screamed ‘queer’ down the hall in front of the principal’s office, but nothing happened to him. … The teachers could have seen what was going on. Nothing happened."

Dahlia P. of Texas offered her story. It reads, in part: "People would yell ‘dyke’ down the hallway. Someone slipped a card in my locker that said ‘KKK’ on it, and on the back it said, ‘You dyke bitch, die dyke bitch,’ I wouldn’t go to school for the whole week, I was so scared."

The story continues, adding that her algebra teacher was verbally abusive because of Dahlia’s sexual orientation, which affected her grades. "It really discouraged me from going to algebra class," said Dahlia. "I didn’t go, and I started failing. I really started slipping. … I started hanging out with friends who were doing drugs, doing all the things you weren’t supposed to do."

Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the country’s primary organization committed to ending anti-gay bias in schools, praised Hatred in the Hallways.

"This report changes the terms of the debate, bringing anti-gay harassment and abuse out of the closet and into our national discussion on school safety and educational access," Jennings said in a public statement.

While talking with the Blade, Jennings explained that GLSEN first approached HRW about 18 months ago to suggest the topic of the report. The group, said Jennings, further contributed to the report by aiding the report’s authors in reaching gay youths.

"I would sadly say I’m not surprised by the findings of the report," Jennings told the Blade.

He said he was encouraged, however, that if abuse of gay students is a reality, it is at least public. "What we have now is not ‘teasing,’" said Jennings. "It’s about people having their human rights violated."

The report, written from an international human rights perspective, charges that the United States is "in violation of its obligations under international law to provide protection from discrimination," adding that only California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin have implemented laws specifically aimed at banning harassment against gay students. The international violations are based in part on Article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States in 1992; and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified in 1994.

Another document the report enlists to make its case is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by the United States, but not yet ratified. This convention holds that youth have a right to be protected from "all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse," as well as other trespasses.

Bochenek told the Blade that despite HRW’s global reach, in essence, now is the time and the United States is the place for a concerted effort against the abuse of gay youth in school.

"I think that the fact that we’ve got so many jurisdictions and so much local control makes the U.S. very different [from other countries]," Bochenek said. "The legal environment is very different, social context is very different. This issue is now in the public discourse. Nobody can deny now that kids are being harassed."

To that end, the HRW report includes a long list of recommendations for schools and school boards, state governments and the federal government, as well as five key recommendations.

Among these recommendations is that state legislatures should enact laws to protect students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. HRW also recommends that the U.S. Congress enact federal nondiscrimination legislation that explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"Every adult needs to recognize that he or she is a taxpaying citizen in a school district," said Jennings. "Most of our community is not very engaged with what goes on in their schools because they don’t have kids in school. LGBT adults need to get out and support LGBT youth as though they were their own students, because often their own families don’t support them. … Education officials aren’t going to do the right thing until somebody makes them do it. LGBT adults and youth are going to be the ones who are going to make it happen."

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This article appeared in the issue of:
June 1, 2001