Youth In Harm's Way

This was in the Meriden Record Journal this morning…

Youth in harm's way
Robin P. McHaelen, MSW, is Executive Director, True Colors, Inc. in Manchester.
Visit: www.ourtruecolors.org for more information.
05/15/2009

"Daniel" was called a "faggot" every single day of his life in middle school - not because of his attractions, but because he "acted like a sissy." "Jude" got kicked out of her foster home because she refused to wear "girl clothes" to family functions and her foster parents were "embarrassed." From the time he was a toddler, "Jamie's" family tried to "man him up" with beatings. But Jamie knew right from the beginning that she was a girl. It took the rest of us until she was eleven to figure it out.
…
GLSEN's National School Climate Survey, a 2008 report on the experiences of more than 6,000 students, tells the story in stark terms: Almost all transgender students have been verbally harassed in school in the past year (87 percent). Over half of all transgender students have been physically harassed (pushed or shoved) in school because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. Over a quarter of these kids have been physically assaulted.
This must end - and it must end now.
…
At the same time, I am horrified by the experiences of the youth and adults among us who continue to be excluded from full participation as citizens. Over the last 15 years, I have borne witness to the discrimination that transgender and gender variant youth and adults experience on a daily basis. Thirteen other states have successfully passed legislation to legally protect these individuals - but Connecticut has not.

Youth across Connecticut who don't fit neatly inside the "norms" of masculinity and femininity are routinely harassed, name-called, and subject to various levels of violence at school, abused by family members and the community at large at home, and if relegated to out-of-home care, are likely to be re-victimized once in the system.

Too many leave school without graduating, opt out of services that are abusive and culturally incompetent, and end up on the street, couch-surfing, drifting through young adulthood with no place to go, and no one to turn to. This is tragic not only for them, but for our society as a whole. Who knows what human gifts have been lost, what talents wasted, for lack of simple, equal treatment under the law?


It is time that we end this bullying and discrimination and pass a gender inclusive anti-discrimination law and enforce the anti-bullying laws!