Too Young

        The website created by GLSEN is full of strongly opinionated articles and links. Their mission is to strive to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. After looking over this website for over an hour I have come to realize that this statement is true. One link on this website is www.ThinkB4YouSpeak.com On this link there are tips on how to support LGBT issues and the opportunity for visitors to take a stand against anti-LGBT language. This site informed me that this can be done through an interactive pledge form that will allow teens to "say something original" by writing other catch phrases to say instead of things such as "that's so gay." By giving teens a place to put their feelings in the open there is a chance for change. I personally do not use the phrase "that's so gay." I feel that it is not the correct term to use to describe something, not only because that is not the true meaning of the word but also because people get offended by that. Just because someone is a homosexual does not mean that there is anything wrong with them and to associate the word "gay" with an issue that upsets someone or puts it into a negative statement is unacceptable in my eyes.
        There was an article related to this issue that stood out to me from the rest. It was about suicide and harassment that goes on in schools, elementary school, middle school and high school. There was an 11 year old boy who committed suicide by hanging himself. He did so because at school he was being bullied and some of the comments being made were accusing him of being gay. This event took place in Springfield Mass. in the year 2009. 11 years old means that you most likely in fifth grade. There is an obvious problem in society if students this age are harassing others over sexual orientation. The teachers do not know how to react to situations like these so there might be a time where the students are not reprimanded for their actions or the situation is not handled correctly. This article gave statistics from the year 2007. "9 out of 10 LGBT youth [86.2%] are verbally harassed, where 44.1% have reported being physically  harassed and 22.1% said they were actually physically assaulted." This is a survey taken from more than 6,000 LGBT students. These numbers are shocking, students tease each other all the time, especially in middle school and high school. However when they are in middle school it is difficult for some students to decipher the tone the students are using, they may be kidding but they may be serious, either way those are not the right words to be messing around with. An 8th grader Lawrence King was shot and killed by a fellow student in Cali, because he "was gay." This website also gives 4 helpful hints to help solve bullying problems. Which can be found at this link, http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2400.html If one by one we change how we talk others around us will pick up on it and hopefully we can change how others think and speak.