Form only becomes a problem when those in authority do not recognize that the more benign forms such as name calling should not be tolerated because it may be a precursor to something worse.

If belief indoctrination is of concern … local parent groups [should be] convened to find solutions that work at the local level

This point is a bit vague, though, and seems to bypass the issue. Aren’t anti-bullying programs by definition a sort of indoctrination? It’s just a question of whether or not it’s the sort of which people approve. If parents feel it’s appropriate to insult, threaten or assault gay persons — or disapprove of such behavior but are too ill-disposed to homosexuality to speak against it — then any program combatting anti-gay bullying will fail to pass muster. Given the outcry against school library books that portray gay persons and families in a positive light, I don’t see how this conflict can be resolved to general satisfaction.

He’s a man right after Candi Cushman’s heart.

http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-greensburg-student-suicide-091310,0,1101685.story

He was a teenager who didn’t quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different.

The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him.

“People would call him ‘fag’ and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he’s different basically,” said student Dillen Swango.

Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy’s mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself.

How does Candi Cushman sleep at night?

He’s a man right after Candi Cushman’s heart.

http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-greensburg-student-suicide-091310,0,1101685.story

He was a teenager who didn’t quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different.

The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him.

“People would call him ‘fag’ and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he’s different basically,” said student Dillen Swango.

Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy’s mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself.

How does Candi Cushman sleep at night?

It is genuinely funny for me to read about FOTF’s emphasis on the problem of bullying based on personal appearance. FOTF has been around for 33 years. In all that time, they never lifted a finger to prevent looks-based bullying in schools. Despite 33 years of existence, thousands of employees and volunteers, hundreds of thousands of members and listeners, and a 9-figure annual revenue stream, they have done precisely nothing to systemically protect kids from being bullied based on appearance. No attempt to lobby school boards or legislatures in CA (their first home) or CO. Not one outreach effort. Not one white paper on the subject from their public policy division. Certainly no expensive state-wide public campaigns of the sort they have funded against gay rights in CA, CO, and ME.

It is only when they need to come up with some tactical maneuver to thwart the gay agenda that their great concern for the the fat and ugly kids of the world manifests itself. Their position is essentially what any interest group does when trying to stave off unwanted legislation. You quickly get in front of the issue by proffering some alternative that you know will be as weak as water, and will supplant the legislation you want to avoid. The tobacco and insurance industries regularly do the very same thing to kill unwelcome legislation and ballot initiatives.

FOTF couldn’t care one iota whether an omnibus approach to bullying prevention actually spares fat kids further torment or is wholly ineffective. The goal – the only goal – is to negate what the gays want, regardless of what they want. Whatever happens to those fat kids after they win is immaterial; they will have served their purpose.

Second point: I think it highly unlikely that the data on this fully reflect anti-gay bullying. At least some of this data is culled from face-to-face interviews, in which the grade school kid is asked whether he was bullied based on his sexual orientation. If I were back at that age, I would never answer that question truthfully. To admit that you are regularly being called faggot is to possibly admit that you are one. No one has any incentive to lie about being racially harassed. But there is every incentive to conceal that others perceive you as gay.

Further, the data seem to ignore the fact that an anti-gay patina can and is overlaid on ordinary bullying. If a bully is honing in on a victim because of appearance, personality, bookishness, etc., it is a good bet that that victim will also be called “fag” or “c*cksucker” at some point during the ordeal. Bullying of this nature, in which homophobia is present as a secondary element, likely would not show up in the “sexual orientation” category.