It seems to have become a fad to be mean to people. Somehow my generation slept through or otherwise mocked the truly important phrase "Do onto others as you would like them do onto you." I have witnessed bullying, taunting, and teasing as a source of laughter more than I could have ever imagined considering how much we are taught to do the opposite.
The Rainbow Families annual conference was this weekend. It is a convocation of resources for GLBT families all over the Upper Midwest. There are workshops about legal protection of partners and children, artificial insemination, transgender parenting issues, saving for college, and adoption, just to name a few. I've gone to the prospective parent workshops before, so this year, I decided to do the educator track. What I learned about the school conditions of GLBT youth was upsetting. It hasn't gotten much better in the ridiculously huge number of years since I graduated from high school.
On March 30, 2008 eight teenagers severely beat a 16 year old honor student named Victoria Lindsey. These 8 teenagers, 6 of them girls and 2 of them boys, are being charged with kidnapping, battery, assult, unlawful imprisonment, ect... they are being tried as adults and could potentially serve 20 years to life in prison.
One important facet of anti-bias education is teaching children about bullying. In anti-bullying lessons, students are taught to identify bullies, targets, bystanders, and allies. Kids are encouraged to be allies who stand up to bullies and aid the target. It's a nice idea, but look around at the grown-ups you see in the world, both the famous and the unknown, and how many allies do you see?
My life has been difficult because of my gender identity. I was born with a female body. This works great if your mind is also of the female persuasion; however, mine wasn't. I grew up In Salinas, California -- a VERY conservative area. I nor my parents didn't know about transgenderism or transsexualism. I wouldn't be what I wasn't; I stole my brothers' clothes & toys.
I just received a phone call from a dear friend of mine. She and I are both lucky enough to have been selected out of a large list of applicants to sing in the school talent show next Friday, and we both were incredibly excited...
Now she's thinking about backing out, because some of her so-called "friends" have made fun of her incredible singing voice.
I think this will be my last words on bullying because I have worn out the topic and also I can’t think of another kind of bullying at the moment. I have so far covered gossiping, physical harassment, and now I bring up the third and last type internet bullying.
I have a previous post about bullying that deals with gossip if you care to read it however this post I would like to talk about another kind of bullying that I think is equally as bad. The physical kind I don’t mean like physically harassing someone. However, I mean like throwing someone’s shoes over telephone wires or hanging someone’s underwear from the flag pole.
