Eleven-year-old Marcel Neergaard of Oakridge, TN is leading a crusade against the proposed Classroom Protection Act, that prohibits “classroom instruction, course materials or other informational resources that are inconsistent with natural human reproduction.”
Neergaard, who happens to be gay, was bullied so severely in middle school that he is now home schooled. In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, he contends that the bill would have required teachers to respond to students trying to report anti-gay bullying by saying something like, “That subject is inappropriate for your age group.”
In a press statement Students First, an education activist group, called the Classroom Protection Act an “ill-conceived, harmful piece of legislation that would have represented a backward step for Tennessee schools and kids.” The bill has since died in the legislature.
You can read Neergaard story in full here.
LGBT
Despite steady growth in bullying research since the 1970s, the subject of gender and sexuality in relationship to bullying has largely been ignored. Yet this topic must be examined in order to make schools safer and more inclusive for all students.
The following are excerpts from the Prevention of Bullying in Schools, Colleges, and Universities Report conducted by The American Education Research Association on latest gender-related bullying research and how we can stop it.
Gendered harassment is any unwanted behavior that enforces traditional, heterosexual gender norms. It is related to, and can overlap with, bullying. Forms of gendered harassment include sexual harassment; homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic harassment; and harassment for gender-nonconformity (Meyer, 2008, 2009).
State of Knowledge
NIOS is publishing blogs with the voices of LGBTQ students, teachers and community members weekly starting with the Day of Silence in April through Gay and Lesbian Pride month in June. This is the third blog post in our series. Please share these stories on Facebook and retweet them for everyone to join the powerful movement of equality that crosses all races, religions and nationalities.
By Jordan Addison
I’m a big fan of being a wallflower. You know the type, there’s one in every crowd. A person who rarely speaks and is content to listen, to have the world ignorant to their existence. Having been bullied my entire life for being perceived as gay, I am very good at being a wallflower.
Community supports gay politician following assault
CREDIT: Advocate.com
Oklahoma’s first openly gay state politician is receiving vocal support from his community following an assault which he says was motivated by hate. Jim Roth, a Democrat who served on the Oklahoma Cortwas assaulted outside a bar by three men who called him anti-gay slurs during the attack, according to Policymic.
NIOS is publishing blogs with the voices of LGBTQ students, teachers and community members weekly through Gay and Lesbian Pride month in June. This is the second blog post in our series. Please share these stories on Facebook and retweet them for everyone to join the powerful movement of equality that crosses all races, religions and nationalities.
Learn why silence is a powerful tool forsocial change and direct action.PHOTO BY gslen.org
Davis, CA community supports victim of anti-LGBT hate crime
CREDIT: Davis Enterprise
Three hundred people in Davis, CA attended a candlelit vigil on March 16 for Mikey Partida, a Davis resident who was badly beaten earlier this month in what police are investigating as a hate crime.
A Clever and Informative Response to “That’s So Gay”
At Ignite Boulder, a night of presentations in Boulder, CO featuring speakers about their topic of choice, LGBTQ advocate Ash Beckham gave a hilarious and clever presentation about the proper usage of the phrase, “That’s so gay.” Ash creates a humorous flowchart depicting the proper situations to use the term “that’s so gay” in the hopes of creating a larger societal shift towards acceptance of the LGBTQ community. The overall message of her presentation is made even more clear when she says, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say, because the words that you choose matter.”
Bill in Iowa house addresses cyberbullying