“We’ve got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up. It’s not,” President Obama said in a written statement. “We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. Every single young person deserves the opportunity to learn and grow and achieve their potential, without having to worry about the constant threat of harassment.”
The Administration was quick to mention that this effort is not part of “new policy” but rather simply making more of an effort to police schools who may be violating extant civil rights statutes that were created between 1964 and 1990, as well as expanded statutes that cover gender identity and sexual orientation created in some areas in recent decades. The Administration went so far as to threaten Federal funding for those schools who do nothing to protect their GLBT students. Naturally, Candi Cushman, an “education analyst” for the Focus on the Family organization (right wing Christians), reports that anti-bullying measures are really the work of gay rights advocates who are using the issue to “introduce their viewpoints” and belittle the views of conservative Christians. Because when you think of belittled and oppressed minorities who are in dire need of a group defense, you think of conservative Christians.
It’s a politically savvy move, for the President, who has been savaged in recent weeks for his Administration’s filing an appeal against the repeal of DADT, and for dragging his metaphorical feet on a litany of gay rights issues since taking office.
In 2008, while he was candidate Obama, he went on the record as being opposed to gay marriage, but we couldn’t help watch him and think that he was doing so with his fingers crossed… with a wink and a nod, as if to say “No, really gay America, I actually DO support you, but I can’t say that or McCain will win!”… and we accepted that. We made peace with his having to play a political card to get elected, but as he hits the half-way point in his first term nearly two years later, we’re losing patience, and need to start seeing our support justified.
Now, I’m not one of those people who expect Obama to fix eight years of George W. Bush’s arrogance, avarice and flagrant disregard for humanity and civil liberties in less than 2 years, but I do think we need to at least hear something from the top that says he’s hearing us.
This anti-bullying measure seems to be a good start for the Administration… and big props to Dan Savage and the folks at the “It Gets Better Project” for lighting a fire under the issue, and giving it traction. It’s just a shame that kids had to get so desperate that they started taking their own lives before communities really started paying attention.
Personally, when I was growing up, I got a reasonable amount of bullying for being gay (or at least appearing to be gay), but I had two things going for me – 1) I knew how to fight, and I had no compunction about whipping the shit out of someone who tried to beat me up, and no bully wants his ass beat by a fag. And 2) I knew that once I got out of high school (and away from the knuckle dragging rednecks), I would be free. I knew that the bullies from high school would live sad miserable lives and one day end up on an episode of COPS, and I would enjoy a free happy life doing whatever I wanted, because I wasn’t hindered by the narrow, sheltered perspective and probable abuse that kept them weighted down with whatever misery made them bullies in the first place.
To paraphrase, I knew that it would get better.
And it did.
