YOUTH AND SCHOOL BULLYING

At the bottom of this page, you’ll find a listing of some of New Jersey’s finest support groups for LGBT youth – groups we at Garden State Equality know well. But first, some background on a huge problem facing LGBT youth today: Being bullied at school.

Day in and day out, LGBT and straight youth are the targets of anti-LGBT slurs and violence. Too many children and teens are bullied because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. They become victims in the very schools charged with keeping them safe.

If you are an LGBT student who has faced bullying or anti-LGBT discrimination at school, or you are a parent of any such student, email Garden State Equality at Schools@GardenStateEquality.org with your name and phone number, or call us at (973) GSE-LGBT. Garden State Equality is keenly active in the fight to combat bullying and other discrimination against LGBT students.

According to the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), 85 percent of LGBT students will be bullied, and 20 percent will be physically assaulted. Nearly nine out of 10 transgender students have experienced verbal harassment at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. More than half of transgender students have experienced physical harassment because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. And more than a quarter of transgender students have been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Source: GLSEN

Though New Jersey enacted a Safer Schools and Anti-Bullying law in 2002, the harassment has not ceased. The mission of the new law was to help students would learn better and achieve more in an environment free of harassment, intimidation, and physical and verbal assault. But the law established weak, overly flexible guidelines rather than requiring schools to take action and holding them sufficiently accountable.

To combat the continuance of school bullying, Garden State Equality has been working closely with our state’s legislators. In 2008, Garden State Equality conceived and wrote a law establishing the creation of the New Jersey Commission on Bullying in Schools, empowered to recommend to the Governor and legislature how to strengthen New Jersey's approach to school bullying.

Among other fortifications to anti-bulling protections, the new law passed in 2008 adds “gender identity or expression” to the list of protections, as well as “national origin,” which had been not explicitly stated in the old law.

The new Commission has discovered that schools have refused to implement consequences for bullies. Even worse, schools have told students to “toughen up” in the face of anti-LGBT hate.

Indeed, there is much work to do to make New Jersey’s schools free of bullying not just for LGBT youth, but for all youth. An exceptional website detailing the problem of bullying in schools across the state is that of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness and Prevention.

To read several reports in their entirety on bullying in schools, including reports devoted to transgender students and LGBT people of color, visit GLSEN.

LGBT YOUTH SUPPORT GROUPS IN NEW JERSEY

If you are a student or parent who wants action in response to anti-LGBT bullying or anti-LGBT discrimination at school, email Garden State Equality at Schools@GardenStateEquality.org with your name and phone number, or call us at (973) GSE-LGBT.

New Jersey is home to several exceptional LGBT youth support groups and a superb LGBT parent group. They include:

HiTOPS in Princeton in Central Jersey promotes adolescent health and well-being. HiTOPS’ First & Third program is the organization’s educational and social support group for LGBT youth. It meets the first and third Saturdays of each month, from 2:30 – 4:30, at HiTOPS, 21 Wiggins Street, Princeton.

The Pride Connections Center in Jersey City in North Jersey hosts its YouthConnect Drop-In for LGBT youth ages 13 to 18 every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and every Friday and Saturday from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The Center is at 32 Jones Street in Jersey City. The Center also hosts a support group for HIV+ people ages 13 to 30 every Monday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

The Project WOW! Youth Center in Newark in North Jersey is a support group specializing in providing HIV prevention services for young men of color who have sex with men.

The Camden Area Health Education Center’s Keeping it Safe program in Camden in South Jersey educates, encourages, and supports young gay young men make informed decisions that will reduce their risk for HIV, while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The group meets every Wednesday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Camden Area Health Education Center, 514 Cooper Street, Camden.

Finally, if you are an LGBT parent raising a young child or children, Rainbow Families of New Jersey provides social and educational events where kids can have fun, parents and prospective parents can meet and network with one another, and children can see other families like theirs.