I’m currently in high school and I’m a lesbian and I have a girlfriend, we were trying to keep it a secret but someone found out and spread it around school, I’ve recently been receiving hate notes, verbal abuse, and physical abuse from other students, I’m too scared to take it to a teacher because I don’t want anyone (or my family) to know. What should I do?
Val
Thanks for the question. Here are some resources for you to check out. www.stopbullying.gov/ is a good one from our own government on actions to take if you are being confronted with a bully. www.glsen.org/ is another good link because it lists other places you can find help. If you are feeling depressed, there is a link for The Trevor Project. All students have a right to attend school in a safe environment. If the abuse is physical as you mentioned, then you may have no other choice but to confide in an adult who can help end the problem, or law enforcement to handle the matter. You may want to talk to a teacher, school counselor, or principal and let them know that your expectation is that they stop the problem in a confidential manner. If all else fails, you have the absolute right to live your life free of harrasment because of who you are, so you can contact the ACLU at
www.aclu.org/, Lamda Legal at www.lambdalegal.org/, or The National Center for Lesbian Rights at www.nclrights.org. All of these organizations litigate cases that stem from discrimination such as yours.
Here is a reprint from The National Coalition of Lesbian Rights website:
FEDERAL LAW
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (applies to public schools)
All students have a federal constitutional right to equal protection under the law. This means that schools have a duty to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students from harassment on an equal basis with all other students. If school officials failed to take action against anti-LGBT harassment because they believed that the LGBT student should have expected to be harassed, or because they believed that the LGBT student brought the harassment upon him or herself simply by being openly LGBT, or because the school was uneducated about LGBT issues and was uncomfortable addressing the situation, then the school has failed to provide equal protection to the student.
1 Title IX (applies to all schools that receive federal financial assistance)
So it is absolutely your right to have a girlfriend, and not be harassed and bullied by anyone at your school.
Good luck and if you have any more questions, please post them again.
Leave a Comment