Prop8 harms the kids in school

Think of the children! The GSAnetwork, which helps Gay-Straight alliances in schools, reports,

Specifically, we asked if attitudes toward LGBTQ people at school "got better", "stayed the same", or "got worse" during the fall election season and after Prop 8 passed. The results were that 20% said the climate got worse, 41% said it stayed the same, and 39% said it got better. In a typical school year, the numbers are quite different. For instance, the year before, 52% of respondents said the general environment for LGBTQ students at their school got better and only 4% said it had gotten worse.

What's sad is what the kids say.

• “More people were singled out for being LGBTQ as the school seemed to divide between those who opposed and those who supported Proposition 8.”


• “People have told me that since the government says we can't get married, their religion was right and we don't deserve to be treated as full people.”


• “I think it made people think that because the majority of California voters chose to revoke the rights of citizens, it would be okay to make their homophobia apparent in social settings.”


• “After the election, there seemed to be students that didn't have as much of a fear to say anti-LGBT slurs at school. It seemed like when Prop 8 passed, it reassured them that its okay to say those things.”


• “Generally, language in unsupervised settings (the hallways, etc.) got worse and people seemed to feel like it was OK to speak negatively about LGBTQ students in general.”

Why is it that the haters never remember that GLBT have kids, and that some kids are GLBT? Can you imagine being a gay kid in a household of hate?