Feds To Hold Bullying Hearings

Submit your personal accounts of anti-gay bullying here.

NBC Universal - It Gets Better

MSNBC On "Don't Say Gay" Bill

Once again, MSNBC's midday team gives the proper attention and reaction to an issue involving LGBT youth.

FLORIDA: Anti-Gay Group Launches MTV Boycott Over Transgender Character

The Florida Family Association has launched an advertiser boycott against MTV because the network's Degrassi series positively portrays a young transgender man. Degrassi airs on MTV's Teen Nick channel. FFA chairman David Caton (left) writes in a letter to the show's advertisers:

It is very concerning that your company would knowingly advertise during a television show that condones and promotes transgender lifestyles to an audience that is almost exclusively watched by young teens and children. You would think by the number of episodes that MTV devotes to including the relationship between a female to male transgender high school student and a bi-sexual lesbian student that such relationships are a common occurrence in America’s high schools. The odds of this bizarre relationship occurring in high schools are extremely rare. Yet, MTV feeds this salacious and irresponsible propaganda to an audience made up of almost exclusively young teens and children as if it were common place. MTV airs a free promo for PFLAG on DeGrassi which directs kids to an organization that will encourage our youth to embrace a different sexual identity that may stay with them for life. Will your company continue to advertise on this irresponsible show?

RELATED: World Net Daily publicized the boycott today in a lengthy article that repeats Peter LaBarbera's unfounded charges about GLSEN's Facebook page.

CNN On Tyler Clementi Case

MSNBC Interviews Author Of Oregon Study On LGBT Teen Suicide Rate

Poetry Slam On Trans Identity

(Via - Bilerico)

May 3rd At NYC's LGBT Center: Community Forum On Youth Homelessness

Via press release from the Ali Forney Center:

We'd like to invite you to attend a forum on May 3rd at New York City's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (208 West 13th) which will examine the struggle to protect the thousands of youths who have been rejected by their families due to homophobia, and seeks to articulate a vision of equality for LGBT families which incorporates protecting youth as a more central focus. The need to examine this has been made more urgent by the recent budget put forth by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, which cut funding for homeless youth services by 50 percent. These cuts risk the closure of a number of youth shelter beds, putting vulnerable youth on the street, and disproportionately harming vulnerable LGBT youth.

The forum starts at 7pm and speakers include Cathy Renna, Tobias Wolff, and AFC executive director Carl Siciliano.

Gay Kids In Supportive Communities Have Lower Rates Of Suicide Attempts

A new study out of Oregon indicates that gay kids that grow up in a supportive environment are 20% less likely to attempt suicide. We knew this, of course, but now there's some science behind it.

About 1400 -- or between 4 and 5 percent -- of teens surveyed identified themselves as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Of those students, almost 22 kids out of every hundred said they had attempted suicide in the past year. That compared to about 4 of every hundred teens who identified as straight and said they had attempted suicide. Suicide attempts were more common in LGB teens who reported being depressed and binge drinking, as well as those who had been victimized by their peers or physically abused by an adult. But even accounting for all those factors, teens' social environment made a difference too. Those who lived in counties that scored poorly on measures of social environment were about 20 percent more likely to have attempted suicide than teens from high-scoring social environments.

Factors that positively affect the gay teen suicide rate: "Teens living in counties with a high proportion of gay and lesbian couples, and those who went to schools with gay-straight alliances and anti-discrimination policies." An abstract of the study is here, subscription is required to read the full report.

Seriously?

The popular Cult Of Mac tech blog is polling its readers as to whether Apple should have allowed its employees to make an It Gets Better video. This is too asinine to even call for a freeping, but hit the link if you want to bother.

(Tipped by JMG reader JM)

MassResistance On The Day Of Silence

The SPLC-certified hate group MassResistance has today published the below editorial on at least a dozen right-wing sites and blogs.

Welcome students. Today is the big day. Today is your chance to take a stand against the forces of bigotry and homophobia that unfairly targets our brothers, sisters and others in the gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual and gender optional community. By your very presence here, you signify your complete acceptance and approval of alternative lifestyles, sex on demand and the right of all to engage in whatever sexual practices feel good at the moment. You should be proud. And you may all now officially consider yourself enlightened. And empowered. I want to thank all of you for not bowing down to the fanatical and intolerant Christians who hate sex. I want to acknowledge your bravery, tolerance and dedication to the concept of gender neutrality and the right of every man, woman and others to choose whichever sexual orientation they prefer. [snip]

Because this is a national day of silence, I'd like to suggest some excellent visual opportunities. I have several tubes of lipstick for any of you guys out there. Having you boys wear lipstick is a great way to banish the remaining stereotypes of manly men. For you gals, we have these cute buttons with pictures of manly women and effeminate men. (Yes, Henry, you can have both lipstick and a button.) I'd like to thank all of you for your support. I'd also like to stress that your participation in this momentous event is mandatory. We'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to your parents. Believe it or not, some parents would object. I know, I know. But take heart in the fact that pretty soon they'll see the light. NAMBLA has a table right over there that offers lots of good information that should come in handy should you need to educate your parents.

Read the full hate manifesto.

Apple Employees: It Gets Better

VIRGINIA: Schools Block Pro-Gay Websites, Allow "Ex-Gay" Hate Sites

The ACLU has given Virginia's Prince William County two weeks to respond to their demand that schools stop blocking pro-LGBT youth websites.

The ACLU recognizes the need to screen out the heavy-duty adult stuff, their Virginia executive director Kent Willis said Tuesday. “But if you’re going to allow the Key Club and many other organizations to access the Internet, then you have to allow the gay and lesbian clubs to do so too.” The ACLU’s letter to Prince William says their system blocks out sites such as the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, Day of Silence and It Gets Better, which provide support and resources for homosexual students. But it allows access to sites such as People Can Change, Exodus International and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays, which all advocate for changing from gay to straight.

The ACLU has sent the same letter to school districts in Michigan, Texas, and Pennsylvania - all of whom use the same blocking service as Prince William County.

The View On "Pink Toenails Boy"

PhoboQuotable - Randy Thomasson

"School administrators have frequently denied sponsoring, participating in, or allowing the 'Day of Silence,' but are nonetheless allowing students to be silent without consequences. Even some teachers will 'go silent,' writing pro-homosexuality messages on boards, and setting up classroom displays to teach impressionable children that aggressive homosexual activists are 'victims,' that more laws promoting their agenda are needed, when there are already numerous laws prohibiting physical harassment of students; and that homosexuality is natural and healthy, when it is actually unnatural and unhealthy.

"Parents who are hearing about 'Day of Silence' are appalled this immoral takeover is happening. They don't want their children subjected to in-your-face sexual indoctrination, so they're keeping their kids home. Because school districts are allowing this brainwashing during the entire school day, morally-sensitive parents are counter-protesting by removing both their child and the child's ADA funding on Friday." - Randy Thomasson of Save California, in a press release that includes links to NARTH.

Focus On The Family Explains How To Harass LGBT Kids On "Day Of Dialogue"

Focus On The Family's Stuart Shephard hosts anti-gay activist Candi Cushman and her ratty hairpiece to explain how Christianist students are going to harass LGBT kids in the loving name of Jeebus. The Focus-sponsored "Day Of Dialogue" is this Monday. Up until last year, this annual bashing-fest was run by the "ex-gay" liars at Exodus International.

Remembering Ali Forney

Today NYC's Ali Forney Center remembers the birthday of their namesake, Ali Forney, who was brutally murdered on the streets in 1997. The Ali Forney Center opened in 2002.