(Click on the graphs to see them full size.)

GLSEN has released a new research brief based on data collected for its 2009 school climate survey, which found that 9 out of 10 LGBT students had felt unsafe in school at some point because of their identity. The new report (aptly titled “Teaching Respect”) examines the impact when a school offers a curriculum that is LGBT-inclusive — that is, that it includes positive representations of LGBT people, history, and events. Resoundingly, such curricula can greatly reduce the levels of anti-LGBT victimization while improving levels of peer acceptance. In addition, students with such programs feel safer coming to school and are more comfortable talking to their teachers about LGBT issues. Here are a few of the effects an inclusive classroom has on students:

• They are half as likely to experience high levels of victimization based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• They are 20 percent less likely to feel unsafe in school because of their identities.
• They are half as likely to miss school because they don’t feel safe attending.
• They are 20 percent more likely to feel comfortable discussing LGBT issues with a teacher.
• They are 24 percent more likely to report that their classmates are accepting of LGBT people, and are thus less likely to hear homophobic language.
• They are twice as likely to report that their peers intervene when they hear homophobic remarks.

In 2009, only 13 percent of students reported that they had an inclusive curriculum in their school. Surely, the passage of California’s FAIR Education Act last year could help increase this number, but proposed “don’t say gay” measures in Tennessee and Missouri threaten threaten to make classrooms even less welcoming for students.

Students’ physical and mental health hang in the balance. Negative community attitudes, bullying, stigma, and victimization can lead to depression, substance abuse, and suicidal thinking that can last a lifetime. In contrast, students who are supported when they come out experience significant emotional benefits, and gay-straight alliances in schools can enhance the effect. Conservatives insist that young people must be “protected” from homosexual indoctrination, but the research is clear that acknowledging and supporting LGBT students is what’s best for them.

On Friday, LGBT students and their allies will participate in the GLSEN-organized Day of Silence as a form of protest for the anti-gay and anti-trans bullying abuse that takes place in schools every day. Tomorrow, however, is the conservative Christian response, Focus on the Family’s ironically-named Day of Dialogue (formerly “Day of Truth”), which encourages students to express God’s condemnation of homosexuality to their gay peers. Over the past week, various anti-gay groups have promoted the Day of Dialogue’s harmful message while decrying the Day of Silence as anti-Christian intolerance that children shouldn’t be exposed to. Here are some examples:

• A coalition of anti-gay groups promote a Day of Silence Walk Out because “homosexuality and cross-dressing are immoral.”
• The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins said the Day of Silence should be banned because it’s a “cover for the promotion of homosexuality.”
• The Liberty Counsel encourages parents to remove their students from school on the Day of Silence, and the group’s chairman, Mathew Staver, described the day as “a radical and forced agenda of homosexuality.”
• The American Family Association sent out an alert to its subscribers, encouraging parents to pull their students from school because GLSEN promotes “controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.”
• Truth in Action Ministries described GLSEN’s efforts as using bullying to “promote and essentially indoctrinate children” into the “deadly lifestyle” of homosexuality.
• Barb Anderson (Minnesota Family Council), Peter LaBarbera (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality), and Laurie Higgins (Illinois Family Institute) condemned the Day of Silence as”evil propaganda,” “brainwashing,” and “child abuse” comparable to the Nazi Party and slavery.
• The Manhattan Declaration, a document committed to anti-gay values even if it means violating laws, promoted the Day of Dialogue as a mean for students to “express a Biblical viewpoint in a loving and Christ-centered way.”
• The Alliance Defense Fund hopes the Day of Dialogue “shatters the silence,” countering messages that homosexuality is unchangeable.
• Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) is encouraging students to hand out fliers encouraging students to believe their homosexuality can —and should — change.

Indeed, all of Focus on the Family’s materials on the Day of Dialogue encourage students to use the Bible to condemn homosexuality as “broken” and promote ex-gay therapy that is known to be traumatic and ineffective. Given the overt antipathy encouraged against any LGBT-inclusive information, the day is perhaps better described as a Day of Monologue. This is a concerted effort to paint blatant in-school evangelism as welcome free speech and the stark silence of LGBT awareness as indoctrination, intolerance, and an unprotected disruption to school activities.

The Day of Dialogue is nothing short of encouragement to bully. Even if DoD participants do not attack or harass their targets, the stigma they encourage through condemning homosexuality helps maintain an unsafe climate for students with consequences that can last a lifetime. Students who have experienced prejudice-motivated bullying and victimization are more likely to attempt suicide, become clinical depression, or contract a sexually transmitted disease by early adulthood. In fact, simple exposure to stigma can increase the chances that LGBT teens experience suicidal thinking throughout the rest of their lives. Even living in a community that generally has socially conservative anti-gay attitudes can increase the suicide risk not just for gay, lesbian, and bi teens, but their straight peers as well. Minority stress also contributes to higher rates of substance abuse in the LGBT community, one of many negative consequences that can be mitigated by having gay-straight alliances in schools.

The Day of Dialogue is a direct attack on our nation’s youth, a campaign to impose not just religion in schools, but harassment, shame, and a lifetime of consequences. Not only do social conservatives oppose visible day of silence, they don’t want there to be a place in our schools for LGBT students at all.

Candi Cushman (left) debating GLSEN's Eliza Byard (right) on CNN (September, 2010)

Candi Cushman is Focus on the Family’s so-called “expert” on education and bullying, which made her a prime candidate for GLAAD’s new Commentator Accountability Project (CAP). She regularly promotes ex-gay therapy in schools, opposes anti-bullying initiatives, and claims that the LGBT movement is trying to indoctrinate students by “sexualizing” schools. But she’s not happy about CAP, which she mistakenly calls a “blacklist,” because she think it promotes hate against Christians:

“Hate” is wrong. So let’s talk about “hate,” “extreme rhetoric” and “animus.”  I submit for your review just a few of the comments we’ve received from those who disagree with our stance on marriage and sexuality. Normally, we wouldn’t subject our audience to this sort of language, and please consider this a warning, but I think it’s necessary to expose the irony here.

• “You *expletive* tyrannical theocRAT heterosupremacist gay bashers. Take your gay-bashing, kill-the-Jews Bible, stick it down your Jesus koolaid drinking throat and choke on it.”
• “YOUR *expletive* BIBLE IS ALL …HEARSAY”
• “the bulk of bullying comes from what kids learn in Church about hating others…”
• “You are murderers… You are evil, murderous sons and daughters of *expletive*”
• “Expect retribution on a biblical scale”

It’s worth noting that the first three comments listed were posted to the Day of Dialogue® Facebook page—which, keep in mind, has an audience comprised mostly of students, ages 13-17. What exactly was the purpose of those comments? To intimidate teens from sharing about Jesus with their friends? It’s also interesting to note that the only comments that ever mentioned “hate” on that student-oriented page appear to have come from adult, gay activists.

She is trying to compare a few inappropriate reactionary Facebook comments to a spokesperson spreading harmful misinformation on national television. And of course, she doesn’t bother to mention why the Day of Dialogue encourages teens to “share Jesus with their friends.” Its whole premise is to respond to the Day of Silence, the GLSEN-organized protest against anti-gay bullying, by motivating children to be vocal in their Biblical condemnations of homosexuality as “sickly and weak” and something gay students “struggle” with. Though Cushman claims to oppose bullying, all of her actions and rhetoric serve to reinforce a dangerous climate for gay students.

GLAAD’s project is not an “intolerant” call for “censorship,” but an attempt to hold harmful rhetoric like Cushman’s accountable. In schools, bullies can sometimes get away with their actions by claiming their victims started the fight, but in the age of accountability, the real bullies’ actions are well documented.

A new study released today by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) takes an in-depth look at the climate of elementary schools in relation to bullying. The results demonstrate how important it is to be talking with young people about LGBT issues, as homophobia is clearly already playing a big role for the 3rd-6th graders who were surveyed. It’s also clear that teachers need to be better empowered to speak about LGBT issues and same-sex families so they are prepared to interrupt bullying.

Here are some of the key results from the survey:

• 45 percent of students and 49 percent of teachers hear “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” used negatively sometimes, often, or all the time. This was trumped only by anti-ability comments like “retard” and “spaz,” which were heard more often by students (51 percent).
• 48 percent of teachers hear students make sexist remarks at least sometimes at school, such as comments about what a boy or girl should do or wear.
• 26 percent of students and teachers hear “fag” or “lesbo” at least sometimes.
• 75 percent of students report that students in their school are called names, made fun of, or bullied with at least some regularity, with 36 percent saying they have been the target.

Bullying has a big impact on students’ experiences in the schools:

• They are less likely to say that they get good grades (57 percent vs. 71 percent).
• They are less likely to say they’re happy in school this year (34 percent vs. 69 percent).
• They are four times as likely to not want to go to school for safety reasons (33 percent vs. 8 percent).
• They are less likely to get along with their parents (61 percent vs. 75 percent).
• They are less likely to say they have a lot of friends (33 percent vs. 57 percent).
• They are three times as likely to say they feel stressed (15 percent vs. 4 percent).

Less than half of teachers feel comfortable responding to questions about gay, lesbian, and bisexual people (48 percent) or transgender people (41 percent). Only 37 percent of teachers have received professional development on gender issues and even less (23 percent) have been trained to talk about families with LGBT parents.

Anti-LGBT bullying is clearly underway among students as young as 3rd grade, even if they do not fully understand the terms they are using. Stemming the bullying epidemic and its many negative consequences requires intervention at a young age, and any attempt to censor LGBT issues — such as Tennessee’s proposed “Don’t Say Gay” bill or Anoka-Hennepin’s “neutrality” policy — would only exacerbate the harm.

A new study from the Family Acceptance Project published in the current issue of Applied Developmental Science details many important benefits for middle and high school students who have access to a gay-straight alliance (GSA) in their school. Of note are the ways LGBT students benefit from the mere presence of a GSA at their school, even if they do not actively participate. Though the study has a limited sample size, it demonstrates the significant impact GSAs can make:

• Students at a school with a GSA were less likely to experience depression and more likely to have higher self-esteem.
• Students at a school with a GSA were less likely to drop out and more likely to succeed in higher education.
• Participation in a GSA was associated with fewer problems with substance abuse, depression, and lifetime suicide attempts.
• Having a perception that a GSA effectively promoted school safety was associated with less depression, fewer problems with substance abuse, and greater college attainment.

The study also finds that GSAs have limitations. In school environments with high levels of LGBT victimization — including violence, verbal and physical harassment, and other forms of bullying — many of the GSAs’ benefits were effectively canceled out:

So, while GSAs make a very big difference for LGBT youth, they do not solve all problems. The study suggests that in addition to supporting the formation of GSAs, “school administrators and personnel should consider additional policies and programs that are associated with safer schools for LGBT students,” such as anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies.

Nevertheless, creating visibility and support for LGBT youth in schools clearly contributes to many positive outcomes. GLSEN found similar GSA benefits in its 2009 National School Climate Survey with adolescents. This new study from the Family Acceptance Project shows how the benefits of GSAs during adolescence affect LGBT young adults as well.

Two weeks ago, a the Family Research Council, along with MassResistance (both hate groups), released a video attacking the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for distributing to minors the “Little Black Book,” a safe sex guide geared toward adults that GLSEN had nothing to do with. GLSEN responded with a cease-and-desist letter for the false and defamatory statements. Well, FRC has arguably complied, but not with any apology. The group dubbed the old video with a music soundtrack and instructed viewers to click through to an “updated video.” The new video still pairs GLSEN with the pamphlet, but clarifies that GLSEN did not approve of its distribution. To compensate, FRC head Tony Perkins rehashes several other long-since-debunked attacks against GLSEN, such as “Fistgate.” Watch:

GLSEN advocates for young LGBT people to find affirmation and understanding in their identities in resistance to a violent bullying culture in our schools. These groups’ attacks against GLSEN, combined with their smears of the “It Gets Better” project, are nothing short of a pro-bullying campaign. (HT: Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters.)

Last week, SPLC-certified hate groups MassResistance and the Family Research Council attacked the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for distributing an adult-oriented same-sex pamphlet called the “Little Black Book,” which GLSEN had nothing to do with. Watch the smear video — still hosted on FRC’s YouTube channel:

The anti-bullying organization has responded today by sending a cease-and-desist letter to FRC demanding that any publication of false and defamatory statements come to an end:

This morning, GLSEN’s attorneys delivered a cease-and-desist letter to the Family Research Council (FRC) demanding that FRC cease distribution and publication of a video clip containing false and defamatory statements about GLSEN, as well as any other similar false and defamatory statements that may be contained in a longer video associated with that video clip.

The false statements in the FRC video can do real and lasting harm to our work. FRC has made those false and defamatory statements in an obvious effort to raise money, undermine GLSEN’s work and maintain the status quo: school systems where LGBT students face unacceptable levels of harassment and violence and where anti-LGBT bias is a weapon of choice for bullies. We must respond forcefully and aggressively to defend our ability to fulfill our mission, and to protect ourselves and our partners in this critical work – the countless people in school communities across the country who work with GLSEN and our chapters to ensure safe and affirming schools for all students, utilizing our resources, attending our trainings, advocating with us for urgently needed change to make a positive difference in schools.

An affront against GLSEN, such as the false and defamatory statements by FRC, is an affront against every educator who places a Safe Space Sticker outside their door to encourage a student who may face despair; every Gay-Straight Alliance member who takes part in the Day of Silence to raise awareness about anti-LGBT bullying; every person who intervenes when a student calls another an anti-LGBT name; and so many dedicated education professionals – teachers, administrators and other school staff – who do their best to bring positive change to our schools and our future every day.

Anti-gay groups target GLSEN because it is an organization that reaches out to LGBT youth. FRC regularly refers to anti-bullying efforts like GLSEN’s as “indoctrination programs” that attempt to “recruit children.” These scare tactics ride on the decades-old myths and stereotypes that homosexuality is evil and amoral, that children can be “recruited” into a homosexual “lifestyle,” and that homosexuals are pedophiles. It is exactly this kind of demonization that earned FRC its “hate group” label.