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Thank you eQuality Giving for this panel. On behalf of Campus Pride, the nations only LGBT national nonprofit organization for LGBT students and campus groups at colleges and universities, I would like to see greater representation and visibility of how the issue of harassment and bullying impacts our college campus communities. Campus Pride recently conducted the most comprehensive national research on this topic titled the "2010 State of Higher Education for LGBT People." We found that only 6-7% of four year public and private institutions actually have institutional support for LGBT issues. Less than 12% have sexual orientation in nondiscrimination statements and less than 6% have gender identity protections. Nearly a quarter of LGB students, faculty and staff encounter harassment on a college campuses and even a greater percentage of our transgender students, faculty and staff face harassment. A third of transgender youth fear for their physical safety on campus. I think this panel did not paint the picture accurately of the tremendous work to be done still on college campus communities and that most colleges lack basic protections for LGBT youth. The assumption that is repeated by many is that the majority of colleges are safe places for LGBT youth and that just by picking a college "It Gets Better." That is not true. A small number of colleges are doing this work when you consider the overall number of colleges/universities (2500 approx four year public and private and even more 2 year colleges). I would suggest the co-sponsors of this bill contact Campus Pride for research to support the Tyler Clementi Act and the NDSA bills respectively and to work with college campus communities directly. More information about LGBT college programs and services can be found online at www.CampusPride.org and the Campus Pride research is available online at www.CampusPride.org/research.
RESOURCE ON CONNECTION BETWEEN GENDER AND HOMOPHOBIA Thank you all for the thoughtful comments about how gender issues and homophobia connect. I wanted to share a resource that GroundSpark offers for helping schools and communities think about and work on these issues. Our film Straighlaced--How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up is in use nationwide. It features more than 50 youth from diverse backgrounds talking about issues and intersections of gender and sexuality in their lives. More info can be found at www.groundspark.org/straightlaced. Amy Scharf, National Program Director, GroundSpark
So. Poverty Law Center recently reported that there are now more than 1,000 hate groups in the USA which is a large increase. How can we make it better in our community?
As the victim of severe bullying in school I saw first hand how so-called "zero tolerance" policies can be harmful to both the victim and the bully, and perpetrate a culture of violence. I saw on CNN last night that an 11 year old boy who was terribly bullied for years, and whose parents spoke up to the school, was arrested for saying he wanted to shoot his classmates. Is there any work being done to encourage schools not to have "zero tolerance" policies, but rather have more comprehensive approach?
I would like to know from Congressman Polis how he intends to "make it better" for LGBT's when he associates with bloggers and activists who use the closet as a weapon against other gays and source individuals whom the SPLC has certified as anti-gay hate groups.
For Eliza and Charles -- Many believe that much of today's homophobia and transphobia is rooted in fear of the gender non-conforming. This includes trans persons, but also gender non-conforming gay and straight children and adults. How can we move forward and make that clear? The default presumption of most non-involved Americans is that this relates to gay people only, and we are, as a community, to a large degree responsible for that. These projects give us an opportunity to focus on those most in need, who are often marginalized in our advocacy work. Are you committed to making those distinctions explicit? And if yes, how do you think we can use the success of this project to bring many straight and cis-gendered Americans along with us on the road to full equality?
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