GLBT bullying across nation not lost to IU community

Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi’s fatal jump from the George Washington Bridge two weeks ago brought an end to an already tragic month for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community which saw a number of teens commit suicide in part because of anti-gay bullying and harassment.

And these deaths have not gone unnoticed by officials at IU.

GLBT Student Support Services coordinator Doug Bauder said the deaths are not indications of a disturbing new trend in bullying, but a problem many gay teens have faced for years.

“A year ago, someone kept urinating on a student’s door,” Bauder said. “Someone would write ‘faggot’ on the door and then piss on it. Other students that year were repeatedly harassed by phone. The point being, that nasty cases of harassment have happened and continue to happen on this campus.”

Bauder said as far as he knows, there has not been an IU student who has committed suicide because of anti-gay bullying in recent years, but incidents such as these have led to IU students transferring to other schools.

Statistics compiled by IU Incidents Teams, which work with students and faculty to resolve bias-motivated harassment, indicate that the number of sexual orientation and gender identity related cases have steadily declined over the past five years.

Forty-seven cases were reported to the GLBT Anti-Harrassment Incident Team last school year, down from the 90 cases reported five years ago.

But the number is still too high, said Nancy Stockton, director of Counseling and Psychological Services.

“By and large young people are less homophobic than their parents,” Stockton said. “They tend to be more welcoming. There’s a shift in the attitude. But what the University should do, and is doing, is looking at not only individual civility, but also creating a more civil atmosphere.”

Dan Murphy, a GLBT SSS advisory board member and assistant director of the Office of First Year Experience, said the responsibility for ending bullying and harassment does not solely lie on the shoulders of campus groups.

“Offering support and resources is one thing, but having a campus community full of people who don’t tolerate that kind of thing is a huge first step that needs to be taken.” Murphy said. “We have to put an end to jokes and passing comments that people don’t think have an impact. Those comments may be eating away at someone who
is closeted.”

One way the GLBT SSS hopes to begin improving the campus atmosphere, Bauder said, is with its “Positive Space” initiative.

The program is offering free stickers to be placed on doorways, windows and personal items to show support and let students know where they can go when in need of a friendly face.

Bauder said simple things such as stickers and buttons can accomplish more than one would think.

“If a student sees that, it can cut through some of that despair,” Bauder said. “It lets them know that, ‘God, I at least have one friend on this campus.’”

Robert Clayton, president of the campus GLBT group OUT, said his organization has a similar program called “Safe Zone.”

“Where ever you see a place with a ‘Safe Zone’ sticker, you know that it is a place where bigotry is simply not tolerated,” Clayton said.

Creating this sense of safety is key to helping decrease tragedies similar to Clementi’s, Bauder said.

A more inclusive community could encourage students to talk to student groups, culture centers, CAPS or report harassment to an Incidents Team.

Clayton said the problem is ultimately one of civil rights that will take the whole the nation to fix.

“If a kid sees that two gay men can’t get married or that a gay person cannot serve openly in the military, why would that kid think we’re equal?” Clayton said. “Why would they think that we were human?”