Homophobic Bullying

Homophobic Bullying...

• is the second most common kind of bullying in the UK. 
• can affect anyone, whether they are actually LGBT or not.  
• hurts more deeply than other kinds of bullying because it targets someone because of something they can’t change about themselves.  
• should not be tolerated in schools. The government says that schools have to take homophobic bullying just as seriously as other kinds of bullying. 

Think you might be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender?

 - Lesbian / Gay Woman
A lesbian / gay woman is a woman who is attracted to other women.

 - Gay
A gay man is a man who is attracted to other men.  

 - Bisexual
A bisexual person is someone who is attracted both to men and to women (though not necessarily at the same time!) 
Being lesbian, gay or bisexual or straight is your “sexual orientation”. This phrase means who you are attracted to. 

 - Transgender
Transgendered people were born with a condition called “gender dysphoria”, which means that they were born in a body of the wrong sex. That is, they know in their heart that they are male, but they were born with a girl’s body --- and the other way round. Gender dysphoria is due to things that happen during pregnancy. Being born transgendered just happens --- it is not due to anything your parents may or may not have done.

It can be very confusing, and feel strange if you are growing up as a transgender young person. ABC has an anti-homophobia worker you can talk to if you think you could be trans.

Your sexual orientation is not something you can choose, it is just something everyone develops, usually during their teens. (Don’t forget, being straight is a sexual orientation too---it just means you are mainly or wholly attracted to people of the other gender from your own). 

You can’t do anything to change the sexual orientation you happen to have grown up with. 
Some people say that people are lesbian or gay or bisexual (LGB) because they have had a bad experience with someone of the opposite sex or because they are going through a phase. There is no evidence that this is true and, although it is really common for young people to experiment a bit while they are growing up, people who are LGB do not usually ‘grow out of it’, or ‘change their mind’. There’s no connection between how you are brought up, or whose offspring you are, and what your sexual orientation turns out to be.

You can be LGB and still have really good friendships with people who are straight, and people who have a different gender to you. 

Stereotyping can be a real pain. Some people expect LGB people to behave in a certain way ---they think that all boys who are gay like musicals and playing with dolls and that all girls who are going to be lesbians will only wear jeans and like to play rugby and hockey. 

It’s nonsense. In fact, LGB people are as various and diverse as all the rest of the population. People who are lesbian, gay and bisexual do all kinds of different jobs, have successful relationships and go on to achieve exactly on a level with a similar group of straight people. 

Coming Out

Coming Out is when you tell people that you are, or think you might be, lesbian or gay or bisexual. Some people find it very easy and can be really confident with who they are. More people find Coming Out to be pretty stressful and sometimes upsetting. 
This can especially be the case if you are Outed against your will. This usually happens when one person finds out that someone is LGB and tells everyone else. This can make young people feel very isolated and let down by the people around them. 
Some young people find that the people in their lives are absolutely fine with them being LGB. They often say that they ‘knew anyway’. Great! But it is sadly true that some young people find that people’s reactions are more negative. Some families find it very hard to accept that their child is LGB, and some people do lose friends because they have Come Out. 

Coming out is an incredibly brave thing to do, whether you are 14 or 40. If you choose to do so, you should be proud of yourself for being happy to be you. Everyone deserves the freedom to be themselves, but not everyone lives in an environment where it’s possible to do so. Some young people say that they had a negative response, at first, but eventually important family members and friends have got used to it. Other young people say they are still disappointed to be coping with the loss of friends or family members.