From Anonymous = “For saying that, I got abused by many (at least 10) homosexual students from my school, leading to verbal and at times physical torment every day at school and online.”

StraightGrandmother = Tip off here is the use of the word “homosexual”. This is the preferred word of right wing Christians who condemn homosexuality. Teenagers rarely use this term. The style of writing is not that of a young person.

From reeama = “i would lie on my bedroom floor and cry like crazy, begging God to not let them jump me. we told the teachers but they told us to “grow up.” my best friend killed herself with C02 bc she was too scared and humiliated to show her face.”

StraightGrandmother = Why I think this is also not credible is your use of the word God. You are saying you come from a God Fearing family and were bullied by kids who are gay, in fact your friend took her life because of it.

If this were true we would have heard about it because your parents and your friends parents would have been screaming this from the rooftop. Evangelical and Catholic and Mormons are very quick to condemn sexual minorities. Your account is a “man bites” dog attempt.

reema = “my best friend and i were bullied by a group of gay teen boys. i’m sure everyone would like to think it’s because we were homophobes or deserved it but no”

StraightGrandmother = this sentence is also suspect. “gay teen boys” does not ring true to me to how young people write. This sounds like a mother writing this not a young person. Also the use of the word “homophobes.” Very suspect that a young person used that word.

I have to say that your story has some holes in it. I tried googling about a girl committing suicide because of gay kids bullying her. Didn’t find anything, zero, zip nada. If this actually happened and the story brought out teh Radical Religious Right would be all over it! I would be a HUGE story! It would be their crown jewel in their arsenal of claiming gays want “special rights”.

And you’re assuming that the people here wouldn’t be willing to stand up for you. That’s completely wrong. All you need to do is identify your school and I assure you hundreds of people who read this site would be deluging the principal’s office telling him to do something to halt the attacks on you. And if you posted it on a Christianist web-site you’d have legislators from your state calling for laws and punishment. My junior high and high school years were a living hell and I strongly support protecting ALL kids from harassment.

I don’t think anyone has a view that “Gays would never bully or torment a heterosexual person due to the strife that they have gone though themselves.”

There are some pretty nasty people of all stripes, wouldn’t you agree?

But it is absolutely right and appropriate that when considering bullying and establishing policy that extra consideration be given to those who are most often bullied and who are bullied to a greater extent.

This might feel “unfair” to you, but think of it this way: if there is a traffic accident, the paramedics respond to the person who is suffering life-threatening injuries. And they do not pay as much attention to the person who got a bruise.

Even though the gay population is small, over the past few years there have been quite a few gay kids who have been bullied so badly that they killed themselves rather than continue on. So that is where we need to focus attention and resolve the problem.

If it had been Lutherans or left-handed people or kids with red hair, then I’d say we focus there. But it hasn’t been. It’s been gay kids.

When you say you disapprove of this focus, please know that it suggests that you don’t care about the problem. You may want to think about what is a priority for you.

I have seen what gays go through as I have very many gay friends of my own and I do stand up for them if any bullying occurs.

Yes, I have gone to the school and told them all about it, but as there are quite lot of homosexuals within my school, they feel as if it isn’t an important enough issue.

I have respect for the GLBT community, because as I said, quite a lot of my close friends are a part of it and proud, but I just disapprove of the view that states “Gays would never bully or torment a heterosexual person due to the strife that they have gone though themselves.” and that homosexuals should automatically be given compassion and understanding compared to a straight person.

If you received verbal abuse, that’s a terrible thing to go through. Without question, I denounce any abuse. I suggest you go to your school authorities and get it to stop.

However, your brief and limited experience with abuse should have caused you to gain empathy for those gay kids who experience constant and unrelenting taunting gay in, day out, year after year.

You did not. And that is to your shame.