What a Facebook Event to Kill All Gays Illuminates

Massachusetts may be home to marriage equality, home to a ton of openly gay and lesbian legislators, and heck, even home to a bunch of gay Republicans. But it's also home to a school district where a student thought it would be appropriate to create a Facebook event to "Kill All Gay People."

And if you think that's bad, it gets even worse: Five people signed up to attend.

The school district in Chelmsford, Massachusetts was quick to act, not only identifying and reporting to police the author of the event -- a 15-year-old student -- but using morning announcements to talk about the horrors of anti-LGBT bullying, and anti-LGBT hate speech.

Still, the whole fracas illustrates a pretty jarring point: LGBT students all over the country face routine acts of violence or violent threats on a day-to-day basis.

The Gay, Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN) estimates that across the country, upwards of 86 percent of students who identify as LGBT reported being harassed or teased because of their sexual orientation. That's tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of kids. If that's not an epidemic, what is?

Beyond that, 60 percent of LGBT students don't feel safe at their school. To Chelmsford's credit, the school district there acted fast, acted appropriately, and engaged their student body in a discussion about anti-LGBT violence. That's hopeful. As the principal of the school said, "The fact that our students won't tolerate this and will take a stand, shows that we have done a great job in our school of showing how to end such disrespect to others."

But hundreds of other school districts haven't been as proactive. And the results can be tragic -- from higher drop-out rates for LGBT students, to higher rates of anxiety and depression, to higher rates of suicide. (The Trevor Project indicates that LGBT young adults attempt suicide at a rate four times higher than their heterosexual peers.)

Meanwhile, the right-wing tries to paint efforts to end homophobia in schools as abominable. They attack President Obama's Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, as wanting to teach students about deviant sexual practices or indoctrinate them with homosexuality. That not only shows ignorance on the right-wing's part about Jennings' record, it also fosters a school culture that will lead to violence.

We need political figures who are able to recognize that public schools have a duty to be safe places for all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Because if this Facebook event tells us anything, it tells us that in even the bluest areas of the country, we've got work to do to end homophobia.

Meanwhile, if you want to vote for GLSEN in a fundraising contest run by Chase Community Giving, click here and show the organization some love.

Photo credit: kmohman