Why we need to get real about anti gay bullying in schools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-chasnoff/getting-real-about-bullyi_b_188043.html

thanks Debra Chasnoff for this excellent article on something that really got to me earlier this wk. Yet another beautiful young boy, who may or may not have been gay, many young people dont really know by age 11, was a victim of daily anti gay harassment in his school- you know the kind- probably "you're so gay" or "faggot!" like kids hear every day... and adults let them get away with it because they a) arent trained to deal with it b) arent supported by the school or their state doesnt ALLOW them to deal with it or c) they are unaware of the terrible damage it causes.

There is a picture of the boy in one of the articles on huffpo. He is a very good looking black athlete in a football uniform. Playing football still didnt help him escape the "faggot" epithet, apparently.

This child was I believe the 4th THIS YEAR- a middle school boy who killed himself over anti gay harassment in HIS SCHOOL- where he had to be by law, and where he was unprotected. He was not safe in his school. How tragic is that? And how many more of these kids have to die before we can deal with gay kids- or just the issue of gayness- openly in schools across our country?

School is where the homophobia runs rampant and unchecked, but clearly not without results. This happened in Massachusetts! How many states have laws, as Chasnoff says, that make it ILLEGAL to talk about homosexuality at all? So children die, and the adults who deal with them everyday are not even allowed to talk about why this happened.. isnt it time we started dealing in a more adult fashion with real life, and the presence of gay kids- as well as our own very narrow notions of what a "straight " man is, and why this is the only "acceptable " way to be? How much do we care about children's suffering?

How many more kids have to die by their own hand to end their suffering?

I hope the parents sue the school district into the ground for this. I hope other school districts hear about it and get smart, fast. But will it be enough to make up for the loss of this kid, and the others who are sure to follow?

How quickly can consciousness evolve, in this changing cusp time in which we are living? Change could happen in an instant, as we saw in VT this past few wks, if there is the stomach for it, the courage among our leaders to do their job in spite of the consequences. That is what leadership is about, isnt it?

A time in which Massachusetts can simultaneously be a haven for gay marriage --and a place where a child perceived to be glbt can still undergo daily torture --in front of adults--- and the adults around him or her just Dont Get It.