Is "bullying" the right word for what's happening to GLBT kids in school?

[Smarmie Doofus]

I don't think the word adequately describes the phenomenon we're seeing. I'm leaning right now toward "conspiracy of silence"... to which conspiracy we are *all* parties , albeit to varying degrees. In addition, "negligent homicide" is an existing criminological category that comes close . "Criminal negligence" will, for now, round out the nominees.

"Bullying" , correct me if I'm wrong, is universal. When I think of "bullying" it think of the mischievious Tom Sawyer dipping Becky's pigtails in the inkwell. Or the Darwinian hierarchy that seems to spring-up every year like dandelions ( i.e whether we want 'em to or not) among junior high school age boys. There's pain, winners and losers, perpetrators and victims. Teachers... and other adults ....tend to theses things ( i HOPE) and try to at least mitigate the damage.

I don't think any adults that have been around kids a lot believe that they are going to "eliminate" bullying... as represented by the above examples. But they can mitigate it. And minimize the damage done. As a consequence , kids generally don't jump off a bridge over lunch money extortion. People ... (kids... skinny kids, uncool kids, unattractive kids, bottom of the pecking-order kids...) tend to muddle thru JHS and HS and manage to graduate with their bodies and psyches essentially intact.

There are tragic exceptions: the young lady who immigrated from Ireland to western Mass. last year and was literally hounded to death ( for no reason that i could ever discern; other than that she was new and spoke with an accent.) And there are plenty of examples in the media of "cyber bullying." ( I'm glad I'm not a HS student today. Jesus.)

Here's my point: "bullying" can't be avoided and can be ( and often IS) addressed and remediated; its damage *mitigated.*

What's happening to GLBT kids is of another order entirely. To begin with: 98% of public schools *lie* about homosexuality BY NOT TEACHING ABOUT IT.

1. The vast preponderance of the scientific data indicates that homosexual behavior is universal to all animal species and to all human societies.

It is therefore a naturally-occuring ... and presumably healthy.... human variant. Burden of proof would seem on the "negative side" if there is any dispute on this point.

So... what % of public schools teach the SCIENCE of homosexuality? Pretty close to ZERO, I'd wager. Again: NOT TEACHING it is a lie to the same degree that teaching that H is unnatural and pathological is a lie. Either we're dealing with science or we are NOT.

Either we are presenting scientific consensus objectively or we are DISTORTING it. NOT teaching the scientific consensus is tantamount to distorting it. DRAMATICALLY.

2. Homosexual human beings have existed throughout human history. They have contributed greatly... some would say disproportionately... to human history and development. Their sexuality is well researched and confirmed by historians. Again: a consensus in the appropriate academic field. Well-read adults know this. It is not in serious dispute.
So: where are the schools who do not hide this information from their students?


Point: if we have "schools" that systematically lie by omission about an entire class of human beings... members of which class exist in every student body in every school in the United States, and thereby DEFAME them, can we legitimately claim innocence when members of said group are stigmatized, ridiculed, harassed.

Isolated, damaged, threatened, driven to drop-out? Driven to suicide?

I don't think this is "bullying". This is something closer to "criminal negligence" ... and it looks to me like we are ALL at least complicit if not just plain *guilty*.