Pick On Someone Your Own Orientation

Walking down the hallway to my public school’s auditorium as a young seventh-grader, I could hardly contain my glee.  We had an assembly, a very rare and very exciting event, mainly because we got to miss multiple periods of class.  My frivolity abruptly stopped as an unassuming, middle aged man walked on the stage of the auditorium with tears in his eyes and introduced himself.  His name was John Halligan, and his son, Ryan, had recently taken his life in response to bullying after a false rumor was spread in his school that he was gay.

At the same time, 1,500 miles away in Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district, parents just like Halligan were grieving over the loss of their children whose lives were cut short by the same toxic bullying Ryan had endured.  In the course of two years (2009-2011), nine students in this Minnesotan school district committed suicide.  All of the deceased students either identified as members of the LGBTQ community or were perceived to be queer, and therefore bullied by their peers at school.  At one school in the district, a boy was called “fag” by three kids and assaulted in the hallway of school, as a teacher looked on and did nothing to stop the violence.  A middle schooler reported to the principal that multiple boys urinated on him in the public restroom.  The principal responded that it was probably just water.

How could these adults, these people expected to lead and exemplify good behavior, let these horrendous attacks happen without consequence?  The school district, before and through 2011, had in place a strict “neutrality policy” regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.  This policy declared that all teachers had to remain absolutely neutral on the topic of sexual orientation.  And, in my opinion, what this policy stated was fair enough – when teachers discuss religion or politics, for example, they are expected to remain neutral on these topics.  But the neutrality policy in action was a different story.  It obliterated any sort of safe space for students identifying as LGBTQ.  It provided no help or guidance to students grappling with their sexual orientations or gender identities.  And it gave the teachers permission to ignore any sort of bullying directed at the queer population.

In February of 2012, the district repealed the policy after the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a lawsuit at the school district on the policy.  The school instated a new policy.  Although still requesting neutrality from teachers on the subjects of gender identity and sexual orientation, this new policy allows open discussion of these topics, presented factually by the teachers.  This change gives students a safe space to voice their opinions and personal beliefs, if found appropriate to the subject.  The school district also instituted an anti-bullying task force.  Win, right? 

Wrong.  One of the adults on the board, Bryan Lindquist, is vehemently anti-gay, promoting “gay therapy” and leading an anti-gay hate group called “Parents Action League.”  So, the school district allowed a man aggressively anti-gay on the anti-bullying committee created solely for the protection of all students who identified as queer.  To me, it seems as if the district lacked any sort of commitment to actually protecting the rights of LGBTQ students.  Their change in policy seems more like a response to the legal action against the school than a genuine concern for this population.  Nine lives were lost, nine lives.  Is that number still not large enough for the school to feel the need to implement real protection for their students?

Recently hearing this news, I was brought back to my seventh-grade assembly.  The town where I lived was tiny and I didn’t know anyone who openly identified as anything other than a cisgender heterosexual, but even in this extremely homogenous town, my school found it necessary to dedicate a rare assembly to focusing on the struggles of teens who are bullied for their perceived sexual orientations or gender identities. Studies have found that between 30-40% of teens identifying as LGBTQ have tried to commit suicide at least once in their life.  And I truly believe that most important way we can reduce these numbers is by adding curriculum on the LGBTQ community to every single school system so that those who don’t understand and bully in response can be enlightened, and the LGBTQ youth can have guidance and acceptance in at least one of their formative environments.

-- Zoe Meyers