A Tragic Lesson in Anti-Gay Bullying

By Joleen Hanlon

If you were taunted with words like “fag” and “dyke” daily in school, to what extent would this affect you? Perhaps the experience would keep you hiding in the closet for years, send you into a depression, or lower your academic achievement. Maybe the homophobic culture of your school would convince you that gay people are inferior, and you might start using the ubiquitous phrase “that’s so gay” to describe every unfavorable person, place, or thing.

Or, if the bullying were unrelenting, perhaps you might do the unimaginable: commit suicide.

That was the tragic consequence in April for a 6th grade Massachusetts student named Carl Walker-Hoover, a victim of anti-gay bullying. People who knew Carl described him as flamboyant and effeminate. He defied gender expectations. Although he did not identify as gay, students harassed Carl daily, calling him names and saying disdainfully that he...