Bullying

President Obama has thrown the full weigh of administration behind a pair of bills that would help protect LGBT students against bullying: the Student Non-Discrimination and the Safe Schools Improvement Act. [ Read more → ]

Education Secretary Arne Duncan ducked a question Friday on whether the Obama administration was prepared to endorse LGBT anti-bullying legislation as the White House prepared for a screening of the movie “Bully” in the afternoon. [ Read more → ]

PRIMGHAR, Iowa -- The family of a gay Iowa teen who committed suicide over the weekend, is speaking out, and say that anti-gay bullying is the reason Kenneth Weishuhn Jr., took his own life. [ Read more → ]

PRIMGHAR, Iowa -- Authorities in O'Brien County, Iowa are investigating the death of Kenneth Weishuhn, Jr., 14-year-old gay teen who committed suicide late Saturday night. [ Read more → ]

GLEN BURNIE, Md. — Kenneth (“Kenny”) Wolf, a 14-year-old freshman at Old Mill High School in Millersville, Md., died Friday at Baltimore Washington Medical Center following a suicide attempt Thursday night, LGBTQ Nation has learned. [ Read more → ]

I have a hair-trigger sensitivity for the protection of LGBT youth. Even if an action is wrapped in heart-themed paper and tied with a Jesus-loves-you ribbon, when there is something rotten inside, I can smell it. There is something very rotten at the core of the Day of Dialogue event sponsored by the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family. [ Read more → ]

LOS ANGELES -- After weeks of conflict with the Motion Picture Association of America, the controversial film "Bully" will be released with a PG-13 rating, in time for the film's April 13 expansion to 55 markets, according to an announcement by the Weinstein Company, the film's distributor. [ Read more → ]

When my son, Kyle, was fourteen years old, I asked him point-blank if he was gay. He admitted to me tearfully that he was. We hugged and cried together, and I let him know in no uncertain terms that it made no difference to me whatsoever. We began an adventure together that day, mother and son, that has been wonderful and heartbreaking, joyful and painful. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. [ Read more → ]

I have hated you almost every day since we first met. But for different reasons altogether than you might expect. I still remember the terror I felt, every time I approached the soccer field. It was junior high, a difficult time for almost everyone, but for me, especially so. You see, I’d always known I was gay... [ Read more → ]

PHOENIX -- An Arizona teen who spent several weeks in Washington last year to lobby Congress to make schools a safer environment for LGBT youth, is now working in the Phoenix mayor's office to help raise awareness about bullying and diversity. [ Read more → ]

WELLSVILLE, Ohio -- An Ohio teenager was in a coma Friday in the intensive care unit at Akron Children's Hospital, a week after he tried to end his own life. Austin Rodriguez, 15, a student at Wellsville High School, told his parents last Thursday that they "didn't know what was going on his personal life." [ Read more → ]

Today, less than seven percent of schools offer institutional support to LGBT students, such as an LGBT student center or programs director. Eighty-seven percent of schools fail to include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies. Protection for transgender people is even lower; only six percent of schools include gender identity in their non-discrimination statements. [ Read more → ]

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A bill that would have expanded Kentucky's anti-bullying laws by linking harassment to sexual orientation, race and other characteristics, died in the House Education Committee on Tuesday after facing opposition from Republican lawmakers. [ Read more → ]

A group of 70 organizations is asking President Obama to build on his work against bullying in schools by endorsing legislation pending in Congress that would prohibit harassment of LGBT students. [ Read more → ]

COON RAPIDS, Minn. -- The Anoka-Hennepin School District on Monday night voted to accept a settlement agreement with six former and current district students who had filed two lawsuits over a policy requiring staff to remain neutral on topics related to sexual orientation. [ Read more → ]

For those who missed it, last week's controversial mid-season finale episode of "Glee" may have shocked fans, but one LGBT youth advocacy group has seen a number of benefits as a result. [ Read more → ]

LOS ANGELES -- The Weinstein Company has lost an appeal of the "R" rating given to upcoming documentary "BULLY" by the Motion Picture Association of America -- the film, an urgent and intimate look at America's bullying crisis by award-winning filmmaker Lee Hirsch is scheduled for nationwide release this Spring. [ Read more → ]

COON RAPIDS, Minn. -- Just weeks after denouncing a Rolling Stone article on bullying and teen suicide as a “brutal and distorted attack,” the Superintendent of the Anoka-Hennepin School District in suburban Minneapolis now says "there can be no doubt that in many situations bullying is one of the contributing factors" to suicide. [ Read more → ]

COON RAPIDS, Minn. -- The Anoka-Hennepin school board, which oversees the state's largest school district, has adopted a new policy that replaces a policy that required teachers to stay neutral in matters relating to sexual orientation -- a policy critics called a “gag rule” that constrained teachers from dealing with harassment and bullying of LGBT students. [ Read more → ]

LA CRESCENTA, Calif. -- During a busy lunch break on Friday, where hundreds of students milled about at Crescenta Valley High School, sophomore Drew Ferraro, 15, took a running start and leaped off a three-story classroom building into the courtyard below, ending his life. [ Read more → ]