Young people need respect, protection for their sexual orientation

By Noa Mendelsohn Aviv

On Sunday, we mark Universal Children's Day, a day to promote the rights of young people. Here are the stories of some young people and how they have experienced their rights in Canada's schools.

When Jamie Hubley was in Grade 7, teenagers on a school bus tried to stuff batteries down his throat because he was a figure skater. Jamie Hubley, as many Canadians sadly know, was the 15-year-old Ottawa youth who took own his life just more than a month ago. From what he wrote and what's been stated, he took this drastic and tragic measure because of depression, because he was the only openly gay student at his high school and because he had been the target of homophobic bullying at school for years. In his final blog entry, he expressed concern that life might not get better and that he could not endure the hurt for another three years.

It is difficult to know which part of the school bus batteries story is most shocking: the fact that the aggressors were teenagers bullying a seventh-grader; the sheer viciousness of the assault; the fact that Jamie was victimized because of figure skating and because of perceptions about figure skaters and because of homophobia; or the fact that he was on a school bus at the time, presumably surrounded by students who should have known something was wrong, and at least one adult who should have been informed and able to help.

Sadly, Jamie Hubley was not alone in his suffering, nor in the tragic end he chose. According to researchers, approximately 32 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual youth contemplate or attempt suicide (compared to seven per cent of all youth) — not because of their sexuality, but because of the stigma, the suffering and the discrimination that they face. A recent study by Egale Canada documents the high levels of homophobic bullying, physical and verbal harassment and homo-, bi- and transphobic comments that are routinely heard in many of Canada's schools, in some cases, coming from teachers, themselves.

The study's authors, along with many educators in Canada, have emphasized the need for policies and measures in our schools that are explicitly anti-homophobia, anti-biphobia and anti-transphobia. Policies that do not address these specific issues — such as general safe school or human rights policies — are not effective in improving the climate at these schools for LGBTQ students, the study found.

In addition, school student clubs that are LGBTQ-positive, such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs) or rainbow clubs, are seen by educators as pivotal in creating school communities that feel more supportive of LGBTQ students, and less homophobic. This is not difficult to understand. For LGBTQ youth, their sexual orientation or identity will be different than that of most of their peers and others around them.

Read more at The Montreal Gazette...