If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Recognizing the need to include LGBTQ identities in school approaches to diversity and inclusion is an important step forward in making schools more welcoming places, but some of the patterns in these efforts are troubling despite their good intentions.
My transgender daughter said recently that "stories move the walls that need to be moved." I hope that our Transgender Remembrance Day story will help others begin to "move the walls that need to be moved."
Many have called LGBT equality the civil rights issue of our time. I think they're right. And Mitt Romney doesn't only oppose marriage for gays, he finds the prospect of gay parenting to be anathema to all that's good and civil.
I still remember the letters Focus sent out to homes across America endorsing that idea if we wanted to become straight, it was just a matter of trusting Jesus. Those letters hurt me. They hurt Christian kids all across this nation.
The first time I remember contemplating suicide I was 9 years old. An awkward pre-teen raised in a small Montana town with a rough home life and an even rougher time at school -- I was a target of bullying in every aspect of my life.
Animal rights activists, opposed to the No Kill movement, recently threatened to kill Nathan Winograd's beloved pet dog. By comparison, the assault on me and my books is nothing and would not bother me except for its evidence that I am being targeted, obsessively, by a truly vicious group of people.
I feel sorry for every gay and questioning child who might have to listen to a potential president who believes he or she is not equal. It gives permission to every authority figure, every politician, every teacher, every bully on the playground to push you around. It is trickle-down bullying.
Gay-straight alliances enhance academic environments by decreasing bullying, increasing academic achievement and promoting social justice and respect for others. Students who participate in GSAs are less likely to drop out of school and more likely to enroll in college.
Most of us shared about the creation within ourselves of our own receptive self-bully. That bully is the most dangerous. Our self-bully says that we actually deserve the abuse they are doling out. But the bullies are wrong. All of them. And the bully within is the wrongest.
Six years ago, 13-year-old Steven Urry hanged himself in his bedroom closet after being tormented by bullies.
Lee's energy is so positive, energetic and even ebullient that it's hard to imagine his life being anything but charmed. So when he revealed that this play was inspired by his 6th grade diary entries, I was more than shocked.
Bullying is not an issue unique to the LGBTQ community, or one that can be addressed solely by ourselves. We have much work left to do, and today we reaffirm our commitment to do it. I am proud to be one of many wearing purple today on behalf of the effort to end bullying everywhere.
Oh, no. What was he going to do? He wouldn't kick her while she was down. Would he? I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and began making my way towards Amanda. I was in charge. I had to protect her from this humiliation.
Earlier this week the East Aurora School District passed a policy that would provide key supports to trans youth. Soon thereafter the Illinois Family Institute urged people to complain about the policy, and today the East Aurora school district might very well rescind that protective policy.
Clergy or lay person, LGBTQ or ally, now is the time. When you put on your purple shirt today, or send an anti-bullying tweet, you're doing something great. But tomorrow, when your shirt is not purple, and you're status has been updated, those kids' lives won't have changed by much.
My family has been bullied by anti-gay activists who want to take the protection and the promise of marriage away from my moms. Were it not for our allies, I might not have had the strength to stand up and speak out in support of my family back in January 2011.
