Anti-bullying Legislation
Senate co-leaders Mike Gronstal and Mary Lundby have written a letter supporting anti-bullying legislation.
The letter says — quote — “We can no longer afford a ‘sticks and stones’ attitude.”
According the letter, about 83 percent of gay and lesbian students in Iowa are verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, and more than 33 percent are physically abused.
The article is here.
GenderPAC has plenty of information on bullying.
I have heard so many stories of the ways that people’s lives and self-image were altered because of bullying focused on sexual orientation and nonconformity to gender presentation stereotypes.
Jen also blogs at Transcending Gender and A Life Less Convenient. Her book is available here.
Everyone is welcome to comment here. Nice to have you here.
Bullies might continue bullying anyhow, but at least the law could provide a penalty, which may act as some deterrence. As it stands, people can look the other way, as you said, or pretend words that act as threats and intimidation are “only words.”
Although I am not homosexual and my children are not, I hope I can post here. I’m not sure unfortunately that a law will work. We are talking about people who don’t follow many laws anyway. Nobody deserves to be hurt for being different in anyway! I have a son who has Asperger’s syndrome, and he is bullied almost everyday. The district does nothing, because this particular bully has a Mommy who is involved with EVERYTHING in the school, so they just look the other way, also in my state (Texas) I think people think it is some right of passage here. I do have one idea to make the schools do more than talk, maybe people should have the option of leaving the school and “taking their tax money with them!” That would probably do the trick.