Jan 30, 2008Quickie Link: Gay Teenagers Regularly Bullied At School
By vanrozenheim
(UK) - A survey of 1,145 Gay and Lesbian secondary school pupils last summer by Stonewall found that almost two-thirds had been victims of homophobic bullying. Stonewall's survey found that 41% of respondents reported physical attacks, 17% had received death threats and 12% had been sexually assaulted. Sarah, 14, was physically bullied at her school. "Everyone knows and looks at me and threatens me and no one helps," she told researchers. "They push me in corridors and teachers have seen, but they act as if they haven't seen anything." "I have experienced bullying such as being verbally assaulted frequently, had scissors thrown at me, occasionally punched - sometimes directly in front of teachers," says Kevin, 16. Astonishingly, far from clamping down on homophobic bullying, half the respondents said the teachers themselves had made homophobic remarks.
