I've never really completely understood the reason that a higher education has to be so damned expensive. It's getting to the point where you'd have to be rich in order to attain a higher education so that you can become rich! I think that the government should intercede and take over distance learning, or education online. They should make education a right and definitely not a privilege, as it's getting damned near impossible to find employment without any post high school educational certification. They could usurp online education, perfect it, and then make it unversally accessible throughout the country. They could also make various educational videos featuring master teachers, who teach specific lessons related to their subject matter. They could also feature the best narrators for such topic as history, archaeology, anthropology, astronomy, etc.. I know that I'm most probably just dreaming, but something clearly has to be done! Otherwise, at the very least, it would be nice to have more LGBT friendly institutions of learning. Especially more high schools! * Our transgender dropout rates are far too high and the general bullying that goes on against gays rages on!
last I checked, colleges are generally LGBT-friendly places. Obv not if it is a very conservative or religious school, but on the whole, college students tend to be more open-minded. In any case, not all subjects lend well to online education, so it will never truly be a complete replacement for in-classroom instruction. There's also more to the college experience than just classroom learning. I'm not sure how having the government intervene would help, either. An education to grade 12 is a right, and public elementary, middle, and high schools aren't exactly terrific in many places. There's also rampant bullying in some, as you've noted.
Hi there RedStormRising! www.eqca.org/site/app/n/net/content2.aspx?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=499010g&ct=11204919 No. College campuses are absolutely not generally LGBT-friendly, in particular. Remember Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University, just to name one LGBT fatality. However, this type of result, has been historically quite common for LGBT students. All across the United States, and throughout our entire lifespan, LGBT people are routinely discriminated against and bullied. Certainly the college campus has been no exceptional barrier to this type of treatment. This is the very reason why it has become necessary for Assembly member Marty Block to introduce legislation to prevent bullying on college campuses, in the state of California. I know that I personally, have been victimized by this type of harassment all of my life. Much of it took place on school campuses and some of it was even facilitated by so-called "educators", themselves. Of course, generally speaking, the harassment and bullying is at the hands of our brutally apathetic social peers. When was the last time you checked? References: Gay bullying in the spotlight after recent string of suicides - TimesDaily.com BLOCK BILL TO REDUCE BULLYING ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES PASSES COMMITTEE | East County Magazine Cyberbullying remains an issue on campus | USA TODAY College ---------- Post added 1st Sep 2012 at 08:15 AM ---------- Data Error
Most universities are becoming increasingly aware of the need to create safe spaces for their LGBT students. Some are better at this than others, small liberal arts colleges tend to be among the best, but pretty much any school at this point should have an anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policy.
I agree. It's so nice that we now have laws and legal policies in place. Now only if could shape people's attitudes, so that can abide by these laws, we could then make serious progress. At least schools and universities now have the teeth with which to enforce these laws. However, in most cases, I get the feeling that the majority of offending youth will only be referred to counseling, and will remain upon the college rosters.
^Naw, most Universities and colleges are usually really good when it comes to diversity. You might have one or two cases where the school officials are bigots, but I would say most if not all Universities are very liberal and accepting. Now, high schools are still a whole other animal. School boards in general are just 2 generations behind it seems like -_-
mango, i went to rutgers and so did my sibling. between the two of us, we have eight consecutive years of personal experience with the school. what happened to tyler clementi, while horrific, is absolutely not representative of the general environment on campus. unfortunately, there will always be a bad apple or two in any school, even one that is generally as diverse and accepting as rutgers.
TheEdend says: Naw___! I don't think human nature can change so quickly. Just ten years ago, a daughter of a friend of mine, was evicted from her dorm room after her roommate snooped into her personal belongings and found a love letter to another girl, who was a mutual friend of theirs. That meant that her snooping outted two girls and nothing was done about it! When my friend' daughter returned from the campus cafeteria, she discovered her clothes packed in front of the dorm's elevators, with a letter attached to the top garbage bag filled with clothes. The letter was basically explaining how her roommate was not going to share a room with a lesbian. The RA then, switched her bedroom to a small study room that had no windows. She felt like an outcast for the remainder of the year. Her friend transferred to another nearby university. After her parents complained of the ill and unfair treatment, the university decided to revoke all charges for the entire year, after my friend's lawyer filed charges against the university. They then settled out of court for lawyers fees. RedStormRising, Based upon the following report about Rutgers, I'd say you were pretty much out of the loop: Rally calls attention to safety of gays on Rutgers campus - NorthJersey.com In general, people don't change so quickly...
wow, dismissive much, mango? i lived on campus for four years, and my sister lived on campus for the four years after that. we also obviously had numerous friends on campus with us, some gay, some not. no one felt unsafe or particularly discriminated against. since you weren't there, citing one article is not going to trump personal experience. i should note i also went to law school at rutgers, albeit on a different campus, and was still attending when the tyler clementi incident happened. everyone was absolutely appalled that something like that had happened at our school, which my classmates and i had felt was a safe environment. so, you can make that twelve years' total personal experience with rutgers. i don't appreciate you claiming i must have been "out of the loop" because my experiences, my sister's experiences, and that of my friends and classmates dont jibe with what you read in an article. i'm tired of you acting like you know everything because you posted links to a couple of articles. i'm not sure how old you are, but you come across as teenage-minded, in the stage where you think you know better than everyone else. hopefully in time you will come to understand that reading an article about something does not mean you are thoroughly well-versed in the subject, and that one article may not represent the reality of something.
I don't know what to tell you. I live in Florida and in one of the most conservative counties in the state. My county doesn't allow planned parenthood in, we teach sex ed from an abstinance only point of view, and same-sex couples are forbidden from proms in high school. But that being said, I haven't had one single incident in college at all. And its not like I'm a quiet person about my sexuality. I was the GSA representative on campus for two years, I did LGBT panels for different college classes, I wore LGBT theme shirts, and I was also the Vice president for the SGA on campus, which allowed me to help professor set up the Ally program on campus that has trained 80 professors the last time I checked about how to deal with students coming out to them and how to help them find resources that can help them. Not to mention this is all at a community college. On top of that, I am now going to the second largest university in the country and we are beyond inclusive here. We have a gay fraternity, a GSA, and the LGBTQ Services office which deals with discrimination and advocacy around campus. I never got insulted, bullied or discriminated against at a university. Things have changed a whole lot. Yes, things are far from perfect yet, but to say that universities across the country aren't LGBT friendly is plain wrong.
I'm quite a bit older than you are, RedStormRising... I grew up at a time when getting your ass beat was just routine, if you were outted. Had I not learned to box and defend myself at an early age, I would have been beaten quite a bit. I live in a city where there is a large presence of the LGBT community. We all are well aware of the negative sentiment that sweeps across our nation. The bigotry is thick and it is pervasive. Sure things are getting much better for the LGBT community, but we are far from out-of-the-woods just yet. I've lived long enough to know that just because you pass a few civil rights laws, that in no way prevents racial, religious, or age discrimination. Just because you pass a few laws crafted to protect the LGBT community, that does not free you from being gay bashed, bashed in the head, or the psychological effects of being continually discriminated against. Thus far, you seem as though you've been issued a free pass. You haven't experienced discrimination in quite the same manner that I have. However, I can guarantee you that the majority of EC members have faced some sort of discrimination based upon their orientation, if it's known. I have never claimed to know everything about discrimination against sexual minorities. However, I do know quite a bit. I try to keep up with current events and I'm somewhat of an activist when it comes to LGBT issues, because I have participated in a variety of LGBT protests and I am a card carrying Stonewall Democrat. I am therefore, well connected to the issues at hand and I pretty much know which politicians are for us and which ones are against us. If I don't know about a specific politician, I can find out within a moments notice. I know how two faced, politicians, ministers, priests, rabbis, lawyers, teachers, professors, judges etc..can truly be, because I've dealt with them, personally. IMO, this country is filled with all kinds of bigots. We even have bigotry within our own LGBT ranks. There are plenty of gays and lesbians who don't like blacks, hispanics, or transgenders. Some don't like or trust bisexuals, either! If bullying and gay bashing wasn't a pervasive problem on college campuses, the so many state governments wouldn't have just recently passed laws against it. There wouldn't be so many testimonies about the degree and depth of campus bullying. My personal account speak volumes to me about the world of academia and its slant against the LGBT community. Here's aother lovely link you might enjoy: The Truth About Bullying in College | Her Campus There's simply no excuse these days for ignorance about one's own community. Afterall, we've got the INTERNET!
I imagine that chance plays a huge role in discrimination received, some people might just so happen to run into super bigots, other people might just so happen to never run into any at all.
Bullying is a problem, and always will be a problem, at the university people. Students don't get along, they act like little kids and drama ensues. But, most of the bullying, including in your link, isn't related to anything having to do with being LGBT. Its just people that don't like each other for various reasons. And like the article said, there are various ways to handle said situations. What usually happens is that the people being bullied aren't able to stand up for themselves or seek help from either the police or the university. And all of that said, it still doesn't speak about how LGBT friendly a university is. You are taking for granted the experience of multiple people and labeling them as rarities, when it fact its normal practice for people to not have any problems at the university level when it comes to their sexuality.
TheEdend, Our nation has been fed a consistent diet of homophobic BS ever since before its day of inception. Homophobia has become indelibly impressed into the deep recesses of the American mind. When fueled by testosterone and indignant ignorance, bullying becomes the natural vehicle of expression. Most heterosexual men respect certain characteristics in other men that they view as honorable. They look for alpha characteristics in their leaders. To them, there is nothing alpha or respectable about men who have sex with other men. The average American male is not going to look forward to accepting a gay male into his clan, his clique, or his lodge. The most that he will do is render you safe passage, as he is required to do by law. Most American males do not want to work next to a gay male nor do they desire to share their lunch table with one. Their preference will always be to bond with other heterosexual males. Heterosexual males draw strength from other heterosexual males. If the candidate is a transgender woman, that image is ever so repugnant to most American males. If our society had no laws against murder and lynching, I do solemnly believe that the LGBT community would be its first victim. The LGBT community is truly hated here, in a America. However, there are two subgroups within the LGBT community whose members are the most hated of all. Those members belong to the effeminate gay male and transwomen subgroups. There are very few places in our society where these two subgroups will find comfort. For these two groups even receive smirks and insults from the pulpits of the United States, as a routine American tradition. Our discrimination is validated on Sundays, then vindicated and executed throughout the week. I almost wish I could say that this type of discrimination takes place at our workplaces. However, I can't because most of us have no work places. Many of us have even dropped out of high school due to the severe harassment. For those of us who have parents who remain supportive and loving, we've been able to secure degrees of higher learning, but no place to demonstrate our skills, due to blatant discrimination. Most of us have traversed the gates of hell as we pursued our college degrees. I have personally witnessed several suicide victims who have obtained advanced degrees with no promise of employment, afterwards. I can assure you, there are far more than just a few colleges and universities who tend to look the other way when we are socially molested. If the LGB community is bashed once, the transgender community is bashed ten times more. Don't think that for one moment, that transgenders can eat at the college commissary, without many raised eyebrows and negative comments. Don't think for one moment that the effeminate male can walk from the cafeteria cash register to his seat without the perched lips, gawked eyeballs, and the supplemental negative comments. Many of the comments are deliberately overstated and quite easily overheard. Then finally, on the night before Sunday's sermon, the boys decide to return home from the partys and bars. They then observe a late returning effeminate male or transgender woman on their way back to the dorm. Please, don't think that all is well and they won't be either verbally abuse or physically assaulted... There's still much work to do and much discrimination to fight against. Our swords must not stop swinging until the last bigot's last drop of ignorance falls unto this morally barren earth to serve as a fertilizing reminder of a path we, as a society, must not ever traverse again. References: Higher Education News | Inside Higher Ed Assembly Passes Anti-LGBT Bullying Bill for Colleges and Universities - Equality California
Phew, okay. You are all over the place here, but I will still touch on things that you mentioned. You are not only generalizing a huge group of individuals, but you are also taking their ability to learn and evolve as things change. Yes, some guys are not and will probably never be comfortable with homosexuality, but to imply that ALL straight guys are unable to befriend homosexual men is wrong in so many ways. From EC alone I can tell you that straight males being close friends with gay males is not a rarity. It is quite common and there are no problems between the two. There are also gay guys who relate to straight men easier than anyone else. I personally have 2 straight guys who I can call my best friends and they are wonderful people. They couldn't care less if I was gay or not. Not to mention the many people who I have worked with closely that don't give a shit. I am in fact very insulted with what you are implying about straight men. You are saying that all the wonderful people out there fighting for our right, who are also straight men, simply don't exist and will never want to be close to us. Bullshit. Yes, sadly, trans and more effeminate guys have it harder than most of us. Its a tragedy and its something that we are working towards fixing. But, as cheesy as it sounds, things are getting better and they will continue to get better. Yes, stares and looks are common for most of us, but that is a HUGE improvement to what previous generations had to go through. But all of that still doesn't make most universities anit-LGBT in any way. Most universities protect gender identity, they train their professors, they offer gender neutral bathrooms, and they act when serious incidents occur. There has also been a huge improvement in the LGBT community overall when it comes to handling trans issues. Not quite as fast as I would hope for, but things are changing. The possibility is out there because bigots are everywhere, but again, it does not speak of how LGBT friendly a university is or is not. How they handle and prevent those instances is what counts.
I'm the one who feels insulted! I keep saying, "most", then you keep twisting it into "ALL"! Only report what you read. There are very few absolutes in life... However, my calling most men homophobic, is spot on! They're just a reflection of our society. However, these days, I've found that most people (including men), do have sympathy for transgender children. However, transgender women, seem to have another effect upon them, altogether...
Say what you will. I'm done here. You are clearly set on believing that the world is not changing around you and that everyone is against us, and it doesn't seem like it will change any time soon so this is pointless. Have a good night.
To your credit, TheEdend: http://www.gallup.com/poll/135764/americans-acceptance-gay-relations-crosses-threshold.aspx It would appear that American males are indeed improving... Good night! (*hug*)
