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Queer Bullying
EGALE Canada conducted a survey of more than 3700 high school students in Canada between December 2007 and June 2009. The final report of the survey, “Every Class in Every School”, published in 2011, found that 70% of all students participating heard “that’s so gay” daily at school, and 48% of respondents heard “faggot”, “lezbo” and “dyke” daily. 58% or about 1400 of the 2400 heterosexual students participating in EGALE’s survey found homophobic comments upsetting. Further, EGALE found that students not directly affected by homophobia, biphobia or transphobia were less aware of it. This finding relates to research done in the area of empathy gaps for social pain which suggests that those not directly experiencing social pain (in this case, bullying) consistently underestimate its’ effects and thus may not adequately respond to the needs of one experiencing social pain. EGALE, along with previous research   has found teachers and school administration may be complicit in queer bullying through their silence and/or inaction. Graffiti found on school grounds and property, and its “relative permanence”, is another form of queer bullying. Some researchers suggest including youth questioning their sexuality in any research on queer bullying because they may be as susceptible to its’ effects as queer students. A research study of 78 11 to 14 year-old boys conducted in 12 schools in London, England between 1998 and 1999 revealed that respondents who used the word ‘gay’ to label another boy, intended the word as “just a joke”, “just a cuss” and not as a statement of one’s perceived sexual orientation. American sociologist Michael Kimmel and American psychologist Gregory Herek write that masculinity is a renunciation of the feminine and that males shore up their sense of their masculinity by denigrating the feminine and ultimately the homosexual. Building on the notion of masculinity defining itself by what it is not, some researchers suggest that in fact the renunciation of the feminine may be misogyny. These intertwining issues were examined in 2007, when American sociologist C. J. Pascoe described what she calls the “fag discourse” at an American high school in her book, “Dude, You’re a Fag”.

Effects of Queer Bullying
Queer bullying may make some victims feel sad and unsafe in the world. Bullying will have an impact on a student’s experience of school. Some victims might feel paralyzed and withdraw socially as a coping mechanism. Other victims of queer bullying may begin to live the effects of learned helplessness. Queer or questioning students may try to pass as heterosexual in order to avoid queer bullying. Passing isolates the student from other queer or questioning students, potential allies, and support. Adults who try to pass also may feel the effects emotionally and psychologically, of this effort to conceal their true identities. Queer and questioning youth who experience bullying have a higher incidence of substance abuse and STI and HIV infection, which may carry through to adulthood. Queer bullying may also be seen as a manifestation of what American academic Ilan Meyer calls “minority stress”, which may affect sexual and ethno-racial minorities attempting to exist within a challenging broader society.