Discrimination and bullying of LGBTQI+ students (Reading)

The turbulent period of adolescence usually brings various challenges, especially regarding identity development, and it can be very tough for some students. A growing body of evidence shows that it can get especially tough for LGBTQI+ students. Since we live in a heteronormative and cisnormative society, when a young person realizes that he/she/they are attracted to persons of the same gender, the process of accepting themselves can be very challenging. Young LGBTQI+ persons go through the same “stress and anxiety of growing up” as their peers, but they also have to deal with the acceptance of the identity that carries strong stigmatisation, social exclusion and other negative consequences. Even the usual teenage behaviors like forming friendships, dating or developing an intimate relationship are not possible in the same manner as they are for their heterosexual and cisgender peers. When forming friendships, there is a constant struggle of having to hide a big part of one’s self in order to avoid consequences like judgement, abandonment and social exclusion versus the need for being open and being able to share every aspect of their lives with a friend. Also, when forming intimate relationships, because of a general view on “immorality and abnormality” of same-sex attraction, LGBTQI+ adolescents are often forced to explore their sexuality secretly. This can cause them to develop a negative or “dirty” sense of themselves and their sexuality.

Besides the confusion and the struggle inside, for LGBTQI+ youth there is also an everyday “outside struggle” to survive. Research shows that LGBTQI+ students are at a disproportionate risk for stigmatizing and discriminatory experiences in schools, including alarmingly high rates of school-based bullying, harassment and biased language (Harris Interactive & GLSEN, 2005; Kosciw et al., 2014, as cited in Kull, Kosciw et. al. 2017). Evidence shows LGBT-identifying students are bullied three times more than the general population in schools. The most common is verbal violence in the form of teasing, name-calling, use of derogatory terms, inappropriate jokes, spreading rumours about one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity and gay-bashing. Other forms of homo/bi/transphobic violence include:

• Nonverbal violence such as offensive gestures, mimics and body language
• Social exclusion of the person because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity
• Prohibiting a person from engaging in certain school activities
• Thefts, destruction of property
• Cyberbullying via email, social networks, chat groups, mobile technology etc.
• “outing” a person without their consent, or blackmails and threats that their LGBTQI+ identity will be revealed
• Unwanted physical contact (including sexual contact), attempted rape or rape
• Threats and physical abuse and assaults on a person (shoving, pushing, hitting, inflicting injuries etc).

In most cases such bullying and violence occurs on the basis of perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and can be related to gender expression, especially when a person does not comply with traditional looks. Some of the typical “clues” that people use to label someone as a “lesbian”, “gay” or “trans” are:

• short hair for females, especially “undercut”
• gestures (a man who is more “feminine”, a girl who is more “masculine”)
• wearing colourful clothes (especially rainbow colours – that are traditionally used as a symbol for LGBTQI+ persons) or non-standard clothes (for example – narrow jeans or pink shirt for men, wide pants or ties for women)
• wearing make-up (for men)
• wearing some symbols of LGBTQI+ associations or movement (badges, stickers, etc.)

It is important to recognize that a person does not have to be LGBTQI+, but it is enough to be perceived as LGBTQI+ in order to be bullied and exposed to homophobic, biphobic and transphobic violence. Also, for LGBTQI+ persons, it is not uncommon that their friends, family members and others who support them also get victimised. The story is similar also for children that come from “rainbow families” (families with same-sex parents) – they also experience these kinds of homophobic violence, despite the fact that they might be straight and cis gendered.

It is no wonder that LGBTQI+ students often feel unsafe in the school environment and skip school for safety issues. A hostile school climate affects students’ mental health and academic success. The consequences of such bullying and victimization are serious and include psychological distress, lower self-esteem, higher levels of anxiety and depression, social isolation, poorer school performance, substance abuse, sexual risk-taking and suicidal behaviour. Also, this population is very vulnerable since, in most cases, they do not receive the necessary support in their families. Unfortunately, the situation is quite the opposite; the parents themselves are often perpetrators of violence. There are numerous examples where a young LGBTQI+ person is being punished or emotionally and physical abused by the member of their family in order “to correct” their sexual or gender identity.

Although the consequences are very serious, most of the LGBTQI+ students do not report bullying, harassment and other discriminatory experiences when they occur. The reasons for not reporting are different:

• fear of being “outed” as being LGBTQI+ to staff or family members by reporting it
• belief that the school staff will do nothing about it
• belief that the school staff‘s handling of the situation will not be effective
• belief that reporting will not change anything or that it will cause additional problems
• fear of being deprecated and rejected even more
• fear that the school staff is homo/bi/transphobic, not having “a person to go to”
• belief that the harassment was “not a big deal”
• concern for their safety (retaliation, violence from perpetrators/bullies)
• not wanting to be perceived as a “snitch” or a “tattle tale”
• feeling too embarrassed or ashamed to report it
• fear that they would be blamed or would get in trouble for the harassment

One of the important reasons for not reporting LGBTQI+ bullying could also be an unsupportive school environment. Research shows that school personnel often do not respond when the bullying occurs. For example, the results of the latest research on the experience of LGBTI+ students in Hungarian schools showed that in 52% of cases when a student reported victimisation to the school staff, school staff advised the student “to ignore it” (Háttér Society, 2019). These results are especially disturbing, because their silence supports discrimination and sends a wrong message to LGBTQI+ students that it is OK for them to be bullied. The reasons for not reacting are different and include:

• it happened so often that they got accustomed to hearing anti-gay remarks, so they let it slide
• they do not know how to react (what would be the appropriate way to react)
• they feel that they do not have support from the principal and other school staff to tackle the issue
• the fear of backlash from parents or school administrators.

On the other hand, research also shows that having supportive educators has positive impacts on LGBTQI+ students (they feel safer in their schools, they experience less victimisation, they report greater psychological wellbeing and have better academic outcomes (Singh & Kosciw, 2017).

Asplund (2018) summarises four major protective factors identified by previous studies: GSAs, supportive school staff, LGBTQ-inclusive curricula, and comprehensive bullying prevention policies that include enumerations for LGBTQ youth. The results of Kosciw, Palmer, Kull and Greytak (2013) showed that having supportive adults at school had the strongest positive influence on the school environment and LGBT students’ well-being. Roe’s qualitative research (2013) on the role of school counsellors in providing support to gay and bisexual youth concluded that most students believed that school counsellors are supposed to be supportive by virtue of their job title. Students believed that, for a school counsellor, being accepting of all students is one of the job responsibilities. However, in the same study, many LGBT students either did not disclose their sexual orientation to their school counsellor for fear of being judged or fear that their relationship would be negatively altered in some way.