I thought I’d post this to help give a little bit of context to the recent gay-bashings in Canada.
Catherine Taylor, a professor of education and communications at the University of Winnipeg, and University of Manitoba sociology Prof. Tracy Peter are conducting a Canadian national survey of homophobia in schools. And the results are turning out to be you’d think:
“Kids are being tormented and terrorized, and very little is being done about it,” [says Taylor] . . . the vast majority of gay and lesbian students who responded to the survey reported verbal homophobic attacks in their high school — sometimes physical abuse — and could identify areas of their school where they don’t feel safe, such as washrooms, gym change rooms and hallways.
In a school environment where teenagers freely use pejoratives such as “fag” and “queer” to browbeat anyone seen as different, few students are brave enough to step forward and condemn the abuse, said Taylor.
. . . The national survey of homophobia in Canadian schools is providing a database remarkably similar to surveys in the United States and United Kingdom.
The second phase of the study will involve straight students, and the third teachers.
