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ROUGHLY 50% OF LGBT+ students said they have heard homophobic or transphobic remarks from teachers and other staff members at school, according to a new survey.
The 2019 School Climate Survey was published today by LGBT+ charity BeLonG To. The results indicate that 73% of LGBT+ students surveyed feel unsafe at school, with almost half saying this is because of their sexual orientation.
48% of students surveyed said they heard homophobic remarks and 55% reported hearing transphobic remarks from teachers and other staff members at school.
CEO of BeLonG To Youth Services Moninne Griffith said this study should act as a “wakeup call” for government officials, schools and students to take immediate action on this issue.
“Despite misconceptions, growing up LGBTI+ isn’t all rainbows post-the marriage equality referendum. Our findings indicate the intense discrimination, harassment, isolation and stigma that LGBTI+ students experience in Ireland,” said Griffith.
Worse still, the research reveals that some staff members turn a blind eye to, and sometimes even contribute, anti-LGBTI+ remarks.
The report was launched today to celebrate a decade of Stand Up Awareness Week which began yesterday in secondary schools around the country and will continue over the next few days. The week invites people to take a stand against LGBT+ bullying.
‘They outed me to everyone. It was horrible.’
34% of LGBT+ students in the survey said they avoided bathrooms due to safety concerns and over 85% said they felt deliberately excluded by peers.
In anonymous responses to the survey, some students described their situations at school.
“I told my friends I was gay in first year and they outed me to everyone. It was horrible. People scribbled slurs on my photos around the school and wrote a slur on my locker in marker. I told my teacher and she basically told me I shouldn’t have come out then, as if it was my choice in the first place,” one student said.
“I was physically and verbally harassed while I was in school based on my sexual orientation and because I was more masculine than other girls,” another anonymous student said.
Seven in 10 said they weren’t taught anything positive about LGBT+ identities in school.
The study also found that around 77% of LGBT+ students experience verbal harrassment, 38% experience physical harassment and 11% experience physical assault due to their sexual orientation or gender expression.
Over two-thirds of LGBT students said they hear anti-LGBT+ remarks from other students and one-third feel that other students aren’t accepting of LGBT+ identities.
The students are also 27% more likely to miss school and 8% less likely to pursue third-level education. However, almost all of the students in the study had identified at least one staff member at school who was supportive of LGBT+ students.
788 students aged between 13 and 20 were included from every county in the Republic of Ireland in the study conducted online by BeLonG To Youth Services and Columbia University.
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Enough of this already!
@Mary’s Abbey: why? Should they just shush and get back in the closet?
@Mary’s Abbey: i assume you mean enough of people being homophobic or transphobic or are you actually that hideous?
@Adam: the latter
@Mary’s Abbey: oh you poor snowflake
@Mary’s Abbey: You want these people to suffer?
@Mary’s Abbey: advocacy group commissions survey that lo & behold finds that this group is needed more than ever. More funding please.
Sorry now but BS. 55% of students have heard transphobic comments from staff? 15 years + teaching and I can recall the topic coming up twice and only cos of the unique situation I teach in. It never came up when I taught mainstream class. Not saying it doesn’t happen but no way at that rate. What was the exact questions asked? Any student who hears something like this from a staff member should complain them immediately.
@GMCManning: in my work place I have definitely on multiple occasions have heard things that could be construed as transphobic for example joking about people identifying as inanimate objects etc (if there was someone from that community around I doubt it would have been nice to hear).. I work in a hospital
@geraldo: everyone is way to easily offended these days. It seems like they look for things to be offended by.. just flipin chill.. life’s to short
@geraldo: is your workplace a school?
@GMCManning: You are getting confused between the percentage saying they have heard them and those who made them which it doesn’t state. It may be only 1% of staff who have made these comments it’s just that it’s been heard by a greater percentage of students
@Darren Byrne: nope I’m not.
@GMCManning: Are you doubting what you are being told? That’s not like you Graham. But well done, it took a while but was worth the wait.
@GMCManning: I agree with you on a lot of things but whenever there is a criticism of the educational system you get very defensive (understandably). You are now using anecdotal evidence to try and refute this survey. Maybe you are right but you know as well as I do that many people use the ‘I’ve never seen/heard homophobic comments so they can’t be happening’ to counter the fact that these things do happen. Maybe the pool of people surveyed wasn’t large enough or accurately representative, or maybe those surveyed misconstrued some things they overheard as homophobic/transphobic due to a lack of understanding.
@geraldo: Who says they were “joking” about identifying as an inanimate object? It is a perfectly valid point and a person has a right to make it regardless of anyones feelings.
@Burn_the_Witch: hehe…wouldn’t generalise that too much kid. I doubt something I’m told when I’ve a valid reason to do so which in this case I do
@Diarmuid Hunt: as do I you. I defend the education system when I see it unfairly criticised but am more than happy to add my own criticism when it’s valid. I work in SEN and have, both in comments and articles written here, criticised the government and Dept on multiple occasions and will continue to do so. I agree my experience is anecdotal but it’s also 15+ years which isn’t nothing either. I never said it doesn’t happen I just don’t believe 55% of students have heard teachers make transphobic remarks given how infrequently the topic comes up. I’ve only ever discussed it myself in class cos of the unique situation in which I teach and never when I taught mainstream class. Completely agree with your last point.
@GMCManning: I’m not saying this applies in your case, but I think some teachers can sometimes have a blindspot with regard to some of this stuff going on among pupils. My mother is a teacher, and I went to school at the neighbouring boys school. I had the chance during transition year to take a couple of classes in her school. I heard a lot of homophobic comments even in the girls school, girls casually accusing others of being lesbians etc. My mother, a teacher at said school for decades, swears blind she never heard anything of the sort, and my telling her all about the homophobia both in my own school and in hers was complete news to her. I marveled at how this is possible, but sometimes I think teachers can either be totally naive, or deaf to the ‘rabble’ going on amongst the pupils.
@GMCManning: It was 55% of LGBTQI+ students – not the whole student body – so overall numbers would be a lot less. This also may be relevant, as it is possible that the topic of transgender people may come up more often for LGBTQI+ students.
What you’re doing is exactly what people do under articles about racism. Deny it ever happens that much because you don’t see it, despite people telling you their own experiences. It is not criticising you or your colleagues individually.
@gofreak: I’d agree. Not possible to hear everything that’s said in a class, on corridors or around a school. But the stat I’m questioning was in comments from staff not the students.
@Chris Judge: I know that’s the cohort the stats relate to. In their own social circles I’m sure the topic comes up more but they, for the vast majority, encounter teachers in class where this topic, increasingly, but v rarely comes up. And no that’s not what I’m doing. I’m denying nothing I’m simply questioning one stat that in my own, admittedly anecdotal but not insubstantial, experience seems inflated. Well aware it’s not specifically directed at me.
@GMCManning: You don’t hear what teachers say to students. Many teachers act with total confidence that a complaint about them won’t be believed or acted upon. Without severe bruising, an X ray or a video recording students don’t have a hope. Witnesses make no difference either. I was threatened with physical violence multiple times, regularly verbally abused and once booted up the arse full force in front of an entire class (which I can admit was funny, but really hurt at the time). I was just a stubborn, cheeky, lazy student who was small for my age. I’m sure any source of genuine prejudice would make it much worse.
@GMCManning: kid? Condescend much?
@Brendan Gordon: given my job I hear far more than most but obviously not what every teacher says all the time. And a student who complains about something a teacher said would most certainly “have a hope” especially if their classmates heard the same. When did why you describe happen to you? All of it should be immediately reported to a principal.
@Michael Burke: commonly used term in Cork without any associated condescension. That said I definitely can be, doesn’t make me wrong though.
@MaeVic: its getting silly now
People can identify as anything now and it’s ok, well it shouldn’t be Ur Gay or Not Gay why do you need so many identities, Nobody really cares anymore if ur gay or straight once ur a good person
STOP LABELLING YOURSELVES.
@GMCManning: It was reported. None of it was believed, or more precisely none of it was convenient to address, and what happened to me was by no means the worst of what happened to other people in the school. This happened in the mid 2000′s but that’s not that long ago. Teachers today may not be quite so brazen but I certainly wouldn’t dismiss these reports out of hand like you have. If a student read your comments would they have any confidence in you to make a complaint about another member of staff after you called it BS? How many do you think are getting nasty little barbed words on a daily basis and are staying silent because they know you won’t listen?
@Brendan Gordon: you’re correct it wasn’t too longs ago. apologies on behalf of my profession that it happened. I can guarantee it wouldn’t happen in my school or any I’ve worked in not that that lessens what happened to you. But I didn’t dismiss the report I disagreed with one stat from it and I still do. And my students know me well enough to know they’d get a sympathetic ear and action where necessary to anything they confided in me about.
Another survey found 87% of 73% exaggerate. Resilience is a key life skill.
@Tom Bout: And another survey said 5 out of 3 people can’t do fractions.
@Fred the Muss: I read a survey that said six out of seven dwarves aren’t Happy.
@Tom Bout: 47% of statistics are made up on the spot – 8 out of 2 people know that
@Derek Power: I don’t know where you are getting 47% from, I believe the true figure is nearer to 95 -96 % ,
Not a lot of people know that.
@Tom Bout: I recall being literally hammered by the Christian Borthers for being short and letting in a semi-final against our GAA rivals because of it. Then there was the issue of my blue corduroy trousers that didn’t sit well with the head honcho’s sense of fashion. Another ‘Brother’ leaned on me because my older brother had ‘leaned’ on him in a preceding stint. Life is not supposed to be the cakewalk that some protected species think it should be. That said, there is only one human race and we are all born equal, even if we don’t die as such.
@Tom Bout: if you had to spend one day in the shoes of an LGBT+ person of school going age, I think you’d quickly realise we’re pretty resilient. Educate yourself pet, it would do you well.
If you wear glasses have red hair or a big nose people will comment on it or if you are a culchie or can’t spell people will also comment on it .Its not right but that’s the way off things we will have to strive to do better
@FlopFlipU: yeah but are those people discriminated against?
@FlopFlipU: Not good analogs. If you’re a ‘culchie’ you can go home to your ‘culchie’ parents and seek support/solace. You’ve an inherently supportive/approving family background and set of alternative authority figures to which you can go to for affirmation – because your family is exactly the same as you. Gay people often do not have that at home, and end up hiding their bullying to avoid an even more potentially dangerous situation at home. The secrecy and inescapably creates a toxic situation. I don’t wish to diminish any bullying, but the dynamics involved in bullying someone for a trait where they have potentially nobody to turn to, out of fear of how others may also react, is completely different.
Mentioning homophobia and transphobia in the same sentence is somewhat of an oxymoron given that homosexuality is transphobic.
It’s utterly regressive to suggest that anyone is “born in the wrong body”. We cannot change our sex and it is so cruel to tell CHILDREN that their bodies are right or wrong based on their personality traits (ie masculine girls or feminine boys). Let children be children. Adolescence is an awful time regardless, and it’s hideous that adults are pushing the idea that any child’s body could be “wrong”.
@Veronica: you’ve obviously never met a transgender child if you think it’s parents pushing an agenda, it’s agonising for them to see their child struggle with who they are. In the days before girls were allowed to wear trousers in some schools I had friends whose child would have tantrums every school day as she refused to wear a skirt which was uniform for girls. Eventually the school allowed her wear trousers under the skirt. The parents were confused and concerned and couldn’t understand why she insisted on being called ‘he’ and wanting to look like a boy. Believe me the LAST thing those parents wanted was their child to be so unhappy; they were as confused as she was, in fact we all were as we’d no understanding of the issue, we thought it was just a phase she’d grow out of.He didn’t
@Veronica: Do you even understand what you say – homosexuality is transphobic??? …. does that mean hetrosexuals love transgenders ….
I’ve no dog in this fight but just let people do what they feel is right for them – how does it hinder your life.
@EillieEs: Have met many kids who didn’t know who they were But telling them their something that their not is hurting them. Many feminate young boys were just growing up.And if a young girl was a tomboy they were just growing up too And when they grew up they were just fine ,Others were just Gay ,Now it seems if a boy wants to play with a doll or a girl wants to play football all of a sudden their Trans ,
Their is a group in the uk now for people who transitioned but got it wrong too .Dont be in such a hurry everyone go slowly.
I went to school in the mid 80′s and I never once heard anything said by any teacher or staff member in my school about gay or trans people. Considering the time and the attitudes of that time I would be very surprised to think that this is going on today.
AS for the example given, well the person complains that her teacher said that she shouldn’t have come out. She then goes on to say that it wasn’t her fault “as if it was my choice in the first place”. Well it was her choice, she told her friends and they told everyone else. Now she obviously made a poor choice of friends and she shouldn’t be harassed or bullied over her sexuality however she should have known that it was bound to get out. Second level schools are a hotbed of bullying and harassment and perhaps it would have been more prudent to keep quiet until she got into 3rd level where peope are more mature.
It’s not an ideal situation but there is also no point in giving people ammunition to attack you with. In an ideal world this wouldn’t happen but it does so people need to use their head when deciding what information they want to share about theselves.
@CBD Suppliers: I’d suggest you didn’t hear about LGBT / Trans in the 80’s because it was still illegal.
@Paul: What are you on about? Being Gay or trans was never illegal that is the usual twaddle doled out by people ignorant as to what the laws actually were about, You can not make a persons sexuality illegal, only the act.
@CBD Suppliers: You’re very lucky then. I went to a CBS in Dublin in the late 90s and homophobia was rife, among staff and students. A student had to leave the school in fifth year because the school did nothing about his bullying – except to send around the chaplain during religion class to tell us ‘if you’re gay, keep it to yourself until you leave school at least’.
@CBD Suppliers: that is quite a bizarre first paragraph. If you didn’t notice 1980’s Ireland was a Catholic controlled conservative society where you kept your mouth shut and hid anything that might be seen as not following the herd firmly hidden away in an air tight cupboard to never be seen until you emigrated to London our New York.
@J: You’re missing the point. If homo and transphobic comments weren’t doing the rounds in that sort of atmosphere then I doubt they are now prevelant in a more enlightened society.
@CBD Suppliers: “You can not make a persons sexuality illegal, only the act” ……. ah well thats alright then. Not sure about you but being a heterosexual I’d be a little bit annoyed if i was allowed to be one but couldn’t do the act. Did you live your live celibate?
@Pablo: You seem to be misssing the point. Paul stated that being LGBT Trans was illegal. It was not, The act was for males, there was no legislation for females and trans. Can you point out where I am wrong in stating those facts? The laws were wrong and their repeal was the right thing to do but this whole victimhood of ” Oh I would have been a criminal back in the 80′s” is complete BS and attention seeking.
As for me being celibate or not I don’t know what that has to do with anything. If it was illegal for me not to have sex then do you know what I would do ? I wouldn’t get caught or go around telling all and sundry that I was riding the young one next door.
@CBD Suppliers: really that was your point? So it’s all lies then.
What the guck is the + about?
@Ole dan tucker: It saves having tho write all the other letters of the alphabet.
@Ole dan tucker: It’s short for LGBTIP2SQQAPKA, which it itself is a shortening of 27 genders – according to the State of New York where there are 27 official genders.
@jacquoranda: queer, intersex, asexual there ya go
@Adam: …and what about pansexual, 2-spirit, questioning, you hateful bigot?
Quick, somebody shame this person.
@jacquoranda: K for Kinky
@jacquoranda: pansexuality is generally covered by bi+ two-spirit isn’t generally included as as far as I know it’s in relation to native Americans only? Questioning falls under whatever the person is questioning. Anything else you want me to clear up :)
Whilst someone has every right to identify as thry want to without repeecussion or judgement, they alao need to be more thick skinned and accept wholly who they are with pride and just get on with it. As someone mentioned earlier years ago it was red heads, big noses etc. right down to tbose wuth bowl cuts, theres always a bully out there for something and growing a thick skin and just living your life and embracing who you are instead of constantly shouting about it wont work and just draws more attention and then that person(s) wonder why they’re not left alone to get on with their lives.
@Lydia McLoughlin: If you’re red headed, big nosed etc.- this bullying can be equally damaging, but I would point out one big difference – you can more readily go home and talk to your parents about that. It’s exceptionally difficult for most gay people to simply talk to their parents, or anyone, about homophobic bullying – there’s no guarantee of a sympathetic ear at home, and because of what is implied in terms of potentially outing yourself. It’s not really apples to apples comparisons. Homophobic or transphobic bullying is particularly vicious and dangerous because oftentimes the child is left with nowhere they feel they can safely turn to – encouraging an inescapable, toxic shame.
@Lydia McLoughlin: this isn’t kids being mean, this is the people who are responsible for their education and safety undermining their existence. This wasn’t people shouting about it, this was a confidential survey to find out what people are going through. People like you are the exact reason why people are terrified to complain, and why when they do complain it is dismissed.
It’s a tough old world out there, so long as people know life changes depending on how they deal with it.
@Stephen Devlin: good man Stephen are you gay? Didn’t think so.
@J: I think your intention is to have an argument but your missing my point.
@J: strong reaction to what was basically a harmless observation on the fact that people DO react differently to you depending on how and who you are
@Stephen Devlin: my LGBT+ friends are the most resilient people I have ever had the pleasure of coming across. If you don’t know what it’s like to fear for your safety for being who you are; to be terrified of being kicked out of your home or shunned by your peers, to miss out on opportunities for fear of not being accepted, should you comment on this? To force a smile when colleagues/schoolmates/teachers make homophobic or transphobic remarks for fear of being in danger? The people who love to call us snowflakes fail to realise we’re stronger than f*cking diamonds.
@it col me: couldn’t have said it better
@Stephen Devlin: my intention was to make it obvious that you hadn’t had direct experience and hence your opinion doesn’t have the same weight.
Sorry everybody listen to me because I’m offended.
@Gavin Lynam: it’s One week where we ask people clue in to LGBT+ bullying in schools. One week. Can you handle it Gavin? I pray you would give your children the support at home should they ever encounter it.
Nobody has or will ever be born in the wrong body. That’s utter pseudoscientific nonsense. Conditions during childhood, abuse or BPA’s in the diet are what causes the intense feelings of dysphoria for these clinically sick people. The LGBTQ people will never ever be comfortable or happy in society no matter what is legislated for them because they all have the victim mentality to some degree in which they thrive as it puts them at the centre of everything and appeases their narcissistic ego’s. If they have a right to identify as whatever they choose, we have a right to identify their delusions for what they are, delusions and we have the right to not play along with them. Think about it, if a 15 year old male tells you that they are female and you play along with their delusion until they end up getting the operation, YOU are part responsible for their self mutilation, for enabling them.
@KingBongoHead: BPAs in the Diet causing feelings of dysmorphia of course isn’t pseudo science? Jebus wept.
@J: Polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT and other pesticides, and plasticizers such as bisphenol A are endocrine disruptors, toxic to humans and found in everyday products including plastic baby bottle caps, metal food cans, detergents, food, toys, cosmetics, the list goes on. We cant avoid them. They mess up the hormones of people who’s natural immune system cant fight the toxins resulting in the overproduction of false oestrogen and blocking of testosterone in males, for example. Contrary to popular belief, no one is born that way, they’re bio-conditioned with poisons.
@KingBongoHead: so trans people did not exist before plastics were invented? Jebus wept even more.
@KingBongoHead: … orrrr….. it’s because we’ve finally relaxed as a society and given people a bit more space to be who they are and not conform?
@KingBongoHead: As an atheist I accept nature appears functional. But there is no such thing as unnatural. Anything is possible and some do report they are in the wrong body. The real issue is that there is no natural and nature should not be afforded any moral clout.
@KingBongoHead: what absolute rubbish
@Test Religion: Stating your atheist religious belief system as a foundation for any debate isn’t very wise, as atheism is indeed a religion. For example, you believe in the abject impossibility of absolutely nothing exploding for no reason whatsoever and creating everything. The first and only explosion to create rather than destroy leading to a haphazard cosmic sequence of completely random coincidences resulting in the two of us tapping away on keyboards to each other. Atheists have a self perception of higher social intellect over believers in God, whereas everything they think they know has been taken from a book or from men in a white coats speaking on TV or in a college. The wiser statement to make would be that you’re agnostic, meaning you don’t know, because you don’t, meaning that everything else you said means nothing.
@KingBongoHead: brilliant
And? I’m 51, when I went to school some of the comments from teachers included gems such as, you’ll be lucky to get a job as a binman, you’ll amount to nothing, you’ll end up in and out of jail. All it did was thicken my skin and teach me not to take too much notice of what other people think. Like they used to say, Sticks & stones etc etc
@MunsterPI: when are you picking up my bins?
@MunsterPI: LGBT youth are four times more likely to commit suicide. But sure sticks and stones and thicken your skin etc.
Anyone that thinks these figures are exaggerated needs to remember that virtually all state-funded primary schools, almost 97 percent, are under church control, as are the majority of secondary schools. Separate Church and State Now.
@Nicky O’Donnell: the 55% have heard staff make transphobic comments is exaggerated. 15+ years teaching and my schools patronage has never once influenced my teaching or what I will or won’t say in class.
@GMCManning: of course its exaggerated, its about funding for this group.
@GMCManning: maybe you’re in denial that there’s a problem in your industry?
@GMCManning: so people from the LGTB+ community aren’t to be believed because you personally haven’t encountered it?
@Seamus Mac: no it’s not. Grow up
@J: never said
@J: apologies. Never said there wasn’t a problem, though I’d see it as more societal than a solely school issue. Just questioned one stat that from my, admittedly anecdotal though not insubstantial, 15+ years of teaching seems exaggerated.
@EillieEs: i never said I hadn’t encountered it. I questioned one stat that seems inflated from my own experience which, anecdotal though it may be, is not an insubstantial basis for an opinion.
@GMCManning: I am much less likely to hear derogatory language about ANY group because I’m vehemently solid and outspoken in my support for equality. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen. Work on your blind spots.
@GMCManning: but you didn’t question it, you stated it was exaggerated.
@Michael Burke: never said it doesn’t happen. And while I’m sure I’ve blind spots this isn’t one of em. Thanks for advice though.
@EillieEs: which is questioning its accuracy.
there was a report on a uk news program last night about children as young as FIVE becoming addicted to prescription antidepressants , according to the report it said that over 50 % of 5 -8 yr olds on antidepressants had ‘issues’ around sexual gender !! just who the hell is pushing this stuff onto kids that young ? parents are going to their gp telling them that their child has a ‘gender identity problem’ and the kids are getting put on medication for it !! i think this is much more about the parents than the kids themselves – how many 5 -8 yr olds actually know what ‘gender’ means ? let alone what it actually is ! parents are pushing these issues on to their children just so they have something to write ‘a blog ‘ about or something to tell their .mummy club’ friends about at the weekly ‘prosecco and gin ‘ meeting ! stop pushing this agenda onto your kids !
@Eric Davies: can mmmm TF down you paranoid snowflake. Literally the report is about kids who are being mocked/excluded/feeling physically unsafe because their gay. Your diatribe about this being some sort of liberal identity agenda that were foisting on to kids is ridiculous. They’re teenagers who are experiencing bullying. It’s not that outlandish a concept.
Listening to the harrowing stories on Liveline all week about young people taking their own lives because of bullying online and offline these bullies don’t care if you are Gay or not , any excuse will do and it’s a disgrace.
Y A W N
Anyone who shames a child, directly or indirectly, for something they cannot change should not be in teaching. It’s child abuse, fullstop.
Everyone gets insulted, it’s a part of life. Learn how to deal with it.. This crowd will never stop moaning.. they have equality in the West. If they were serious about their movement they’d be in Islamic countries protesting their injustice…
I know a pansexual teen who told that didn’t exist…by her school’s LGTB group. Where does she complain?
@Mary Morrisey: Pansexuality is just another makeyup name for being bisexual.There seems to be a constant race to find a newly made-up “gender” or “sexuality” so that the person expressing that made up concept can be more special than everyone else. It is a constant need for people to stand out from everyone else that is driving this stupidity along with some failed “gender studies” academics desperately trying to justify wasting their lives studying a non-subject and trying to stay out of having to work in McDonald’s instead of doling out their drivel to naive Millenials.
It’s also driven by celebrities like Pitt/Jolie, Charlize Theron, Megan Fox etc. It used to be cool to have a gay/lesbian kid but now that no one gives a monkeys about that any more people are going down the trans child route in a bid to outdo everyone else. Theron said of her adopted child “I thought she was a boy too,” Charlize told the Daily Mail in April 2019, “until she looked at me when she was 3 years old and said, ‘I am not a boy!’” . I told my parents that I was an astronaut but they didn’t immediately ring up NASA and start walking me around in a spacesuit!
I would also question why it is that these celebrities seem to have such a high level of trans children considering that prevalence of gender dysphoria in society. The incidence of GD is tiny yet these celebrities all seem to have beaten the odds by having trans children. Its more about gaining attention than being or having a genuine GD child. These people are not only abusing their children but they are also doing an immense disservice to people who are genuinely struggling with GD. It is also encouraging other parents to engage in this attention-seeking behaviour to the detriment of the childs mental and physical health.
@CBD Suppliers: someone peddling snake oil probably shouldn’t comment on this
Not surprising really. People like to pretend homophobia/transphobia is a thing of the past but the amount of shite you’d overhear even in the workplace sometimes would make you sick.
Lots of people are homophobic. But they should never abuse anyone for their choices. I am slightly myself, just the way I feel but I would never insult something just because that’s how I feel.
@Clarissa: honest comment.
Ah God love them. I am shocked to be reading this. Mammy that boy called me names. Son grow up and just get over it if that boy called you names then he is a bold boy.
What’s the stats for just LGB…?
Live and let live
To those comparing this to teasing people about their hair colour or their accent – a better comparison is with something like left-handedness. Unlike being a girl, or a boy, or having a kerry accent, there was a time when left-handedness – like homosexuality – ticked the three boxes of inescapable, toxic shame – parental disapproval, school disapproval, religious disapproval. It’s that trio that gives kids no harbour, and it’s not common to all types of bullying. I hope we all understand how distinctly destructive shaming over left-handedness was when presented on multiple fronts like that – the lasting psychological effect it could have on kids, symptomatic in consequences like stammering etc. It’s the same with sexuality. This is not a case of ‘sticks and stones’.
LGBT+ people across Ireland deserve to live happy lives free from prejudice. For that to happen, we must all step up to help bring #homophobia, #biphobia and #transphobia to an end.
If you see it, #call #It #Out
LGBT + bullying hurts so much for Catholic culture does not grant them true equality. The overall context is why any name calling is so serious. LGBT wouldn’t be allowed to be a priest or nun if they were going to demand proper acceptance even of divorced and remarried and admit Jesus was a man of his time whose opinions should not count today
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