LGBT Youth are Still Bullied for Being Gay, an article released today by NoBullying
London, UK (PRWEB) July 25, 2014 -- In today’s world, in spite of major efforts by the educational system and community groups to focus on tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people in schools, 92 percent of these LGBT teens and youth say they still experience negative messages about being lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender. The truth is, LGBT youth are still bullied for being gay in an article released today by NoBullying.
Nine of ten LGBT teens say they are “out” to their closest friends. When asked if their friends and peers have any issues with their being homosexual, seventy-five percent say their closest friends aren’t accepting the fact they are gay.
Unfortunately youth are twice as likely to be physically assaulted, punched, kicked or knocked around in school if they are perceived as homosexual. When it comes to homosexual bullying, 42 percent of LGBT teens live in communities that do not understand or accept their orientations. They are not tolerated or treated normally in public places.
In fact, the National School Climate Survey has shown that verbal harassment has actually increased to 84.6 percent in the last five years, towards LGBT teens.
Physical harassment and assaults on school property based on sexual orientation has also increased in the past few years. Offensive words are heard more often by 72.4 percent of LGBT children in public schools each day.
Worst still, nearly two-thirds of LGBT children surveyed report feeling unsafe in their schools because of their sexual orientation.
Reasons for these treatment barriers suggest homophobia, assumptions of heterosexuality in patients, lack of appropriate knowledge, over-caution and misunderstanding, lack of patient confidentiality, absence of LGBT specific healthcare, and lack of relevant psycho-sexual professional training.
Teenage lesbians are two hundred percent more likely to smoke tobacco than the same group in general populations. Increased usage of alcohol and drug abuse is tracked among all groups of LGBT kids, far surpassing the general teenage population statistics.
Bullying is unacceptable in any instance, but added to the effects of bullying of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-gender children, the lack of professional mental health and medical help they need causes increased numbers of suicides, and attempts that have doubled in recent years.
Proven student programs have deterred behaviors in other students when the peer groups stand for change and tolerance. Leadership gifted students have an unprecedented effect on the rest of the school body when they pro-actively approach student bullied for being gay issues with a plan of action for all students.
Macartan Mulligan, Co-Founder of NoBullying.com, said, “It is an alarming and heartbreaking fact that LGBT youth are still bullied for being gay.”
He added that parents and teachers should make a point to educate the younger generations about the sad outcome of bullying online and offline. According to Mulligan, it is quite imperative to press for more firm laws condemning all acts of bullying and harassment.
NoBullying.com features many pages dedicated to parents, teens, teachers, health professionals as well as posts related to cyber safety and the latest news about law making concerning curbing Bullying worldwide as well as inspirational Bullying Poems and famous Bullying Quotes.
The website regularly updates its bullying statistics and cyber bullying statistics as it is essential to understand how widespread the bullying epidemic is. It also regularly runs cyber bullying surveys and questionnaires to get recent updated statistics on everything related to cyberbullying.
He also added that anyone suffering from bullying in any form or way can always find advice and help on the NoBullying website – but if anyone is suffering from severe bullying or cyber bullying, the best thing is to talk to someone locally – a parent, teacher or local organization that has been set up to help with specialized councilors to deal with this topic.
Ciaran Connolly, Treze Ltd, http://www.treze.co.uk, 0044-289-581-0610, [email protected]
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