American sociologist Michael Kimmel and American psychologist Gregory Herek write that masculinity is a renunciation of the feminine and that males shore up their sense of their masculinity by denigrating the feminine and ultimately the homosexual. Some researchers suggest including youth questioning their sexuality in any research on LGBT bullying because they may be as susceptible to its effects as LGBT students.Ī research study of 78 eleven to fourteen-year-old boys conducted in twelve schools in London, England between 19 revealed that respondents who used the word "gay" to label another boy in a derogatory manner intended the word as "just a joke", "just a cuss" and not as a statement of one's perceived sexual orientation. Graffiti found on school grounds and property, and its "relative permanence", is another form of LGBT bullying. ĮGALE, along with previous research has found teachers and school administration may be complicit in LGBT bullying through their silence and/or inaction. This finding relates to research done in the area of empathy gaps for social pain which suggests that those not directly experiencing social pain (in this case, bullying) consistently underestimate its effects and thus may not adequately respond to the needs of one experiencing social pain. Further, EGALE found that students not directly affected by homophobia, biphobia or transphobia were less aware of it. 58% or about 1400 of the 2400 heterosexual students participating in EGALE's survey found homophobic comments upsetting. The final report of the survey, "Every Class in Every School", published in 2011, found that 70% of all students participating heard "that's so gay" daily at school, and 48% of respondents heard "faggot", "lezbo" and "dyke" daily. Bullying of LGBT youth Įgale Canada conducted a survey of more than 3700 high school students in Canada between December 2007 and June 2009. Bradlee said, "There was a lot of time spent investigating" these allegations, "although no one came close to proving it." No reputable McCarthy biographer has accepted it as probable. Using rumors collected by Drew Pearson, one Nevada publisher wrote in 1952 that both McCarthy and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn, were homosexuals.
Johnson concludes that Senator Joe McCarthy, notorious for his attacks on alleged communists in government, was often pressured by his allies to denounce homosexuals in government, but he resisted and did not do so. Many people believed that the two groups were working together to undermine the government. And both groups were considered immoral and godless. Both groups were thought to recruit to their ranks the psychologically weak or disturbed. Both groups were perceived as hidden subcultures with their own meeting places, literature, cultural codes, and bonds of loyalty. In popular discourse, communists and homosexuals were often conflated. The Lavender Scare helped fan the flames of the Red Scare. Homophobia in the United States was widely documented in the press in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when many gay people were forced out of government by boards set up by Presidents Harry S. Homophobia and gay bashing are longstanding and current issues, and have been officially documented worldwide for as long as gay people have been documented.
Similar terms such as gay bullying, lesbian bullying, queer bullying, and queer bashing may also be formed. It also might take place in a political forum and include one or more common anti-gay slogans.īullying of gay/LGBT people involves intentional actions toward the victim, repeated negative actions by one or more people against another person, and an imbalance of physical or psychological power. A verbal gay bashing might use sexual slurs, expletives, intimidation, and threatened violence. Physical gay bashings have involved extreme violence and murder, such as the fatal gay bashing of Matthew Shepard. This can also include abuse, bullying or assaults perpetrated against a heterosexual person whom the attacker perceives to be LGBT.Ī " bashing" may be a specific, violent incident, with the verb form being used: to bash (e.g. Gay bashing and gay bullying is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.