Source+5

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/lgbt-bullying-in-school_n_862170.html

> Phrases such as this one, used dismissively by teenagers in what is often a casual, offhand way, can impair the health of LGBT youth long after classes end, a new study shows.
 * “That’s so gay.”
 * It found that LGBT- targeted bullying related to gender expression or sexual orientation during school years led to increased young adult depression, suicidal thoughts, social adjustment issues and risky sexual behavior.
 * The report also found that young adult GBT males are targeted more frequently than their female counterparts, and that the amount of bullying a boy receives in school can help predict the health issues he will face later in life.
 * LGBT young adults that reported high levels of anti-LGBT victimization as teens were 5.6 times more likely to report suicide attempts than those victimized less frequently.
 * The term is so pervasive, in fact, that an earlier survey found that 90% of American youth have heard “gay” used in a negative way.
 * The Safe Schools Improvement Act would prohibit LGBT discrimination in public schools and forbid schools themselves from discriminating against students based on gender identity.
 * The Student Non-Discrimination Act would seek to end LGBT bullying with a focus on online behavior.
 * When those policies are on the books, they’ll be a deterrent for people who might want to bully LGBT kids,” Krehely said. “They also give kids who are bullied a way to fight back and stand up for themselves.”
 * Advocates hope that these concrete numbers that show that the pain of LGBT victimization extends beyond students’ school years will give policy initiatives more bite.
 * The effects of LGBT- targeted bullying, she said, are more serious and lasting than people think. “It’s not about special rights,” she said. “It’s tied to the human right of having an education and going into an educational environment that supports them.”
 * In other words, evidence of the long-ranging effects of bullying makes policy initiatives more important.
 * A new report by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University traced the effects of LGBT- victimizing bullying in school -- including unintentional epithets like “that’s so gay,” more direct verbal harassment, and physical violence -- beyond their initial sting in school hallways.
 * They were more than twice as likely to report being clinically depressed, and they were more than twice as likely to report having been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease by young adulthood.
 * “Schools sometimes minimize victimization related to young people, saying boys will be boys. But it’s more than that.”
 * Effects may be happening in the present, but it also affects LGBT young people in the future.”