With so much recent news coverage on suicides of LGBT youth, those of us who work on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender safe schools issues have a lot on our plate. We're trying to figure out how best to respond to the needs of LGBT youth, as always. But we're also thinking about how to use the current media attention to these issues as a teachable moment to get the public to understand the importance of school anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and laws that include gender identity and sexual orientation. Those topics and more were part of the discussion at last week's convening of the National Safe Schools Roundtable, a coalition of organizations that work to make schools safer for LGBT students, which I attended in Minneapolis on behalf of the ACLU LGBT Project.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:19pm
Last Thursday, the White House released what is perhaps the most important submission to date for the It Gets Better Project. In a three-minute long video message to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth — far too often the victims of unrelenting discrimination and harassment in their schools — President Obama conveys his support and encouragement to these young people. President Obama says:
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:10pm
September was a hard month for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, especially for some of its youngest and most vulnerable members.
In Greensburg, Indiana, 15-year-old Billy Lucas was found by his mother in the family's barn after he had taken his own life. Late last week, Asher Brown, of Houston, Texas, died after shooting himself. On Tuesday, 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, California, passed away after spending nine days on life support after he hanged himself from a tree in his backyard. On Wednesday, the body of 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi was pulled from the Hudson River in New York, days after he was allegedly humiliated and outed to other students by his roommate. And just this morning we learned that on the same day, 19-year-old college student Raymond Chase hanged himself in his dorm room in Rhode Island.
