Ninety-one percent (91%) of LGBTQ adolescents in a US survey report at least one experience of bias-based bullying, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. This number is more than double estimates from previous studies with predominantly heterosexual youth.

By the time they reach middle school, sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents are at heightened risk of suicide, depression, sleep troubles, and eating disorders. These health consequences often stem from the distress of being stigmatized for their sexual and gender identities. Based on this knowledge, researchers wanted to learn whether being mistreated for other reasons (such as their weight, race/ethnicity, religion, disability status) also contributes to their health.

“When considering approaches to reduce health risk, we need to better understand the wide range of bias-based bullying experienced by SGM adolescents,” says Leah Lessard, postdoctoral fellow at the Rudd Center and lead author of the study. “Given that multiple forms of bias-based bullying can worsen negative health behaviors, it is critical to understand how school-based interventions, such as Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs), may be able to reduce targeted bullying.”

The study reports findings from the LGBTQ National Teen Survey, a comprehensive survey conducted in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign to assess victimization, health behaviors, family relationships, and experiences of LGBTQ adolescents across the United States. Researchers asked participants ages 13-17 questions about school-based GSAs, their experiences of bias-based bullying, and health risk indicators, including stress, sleep problems, depression, and unhealthy weight behaviors.

Key findings include:

• 73% of SGM adolescents surveyed reported experiences of bias-based bullying for reasons beyond their sexual or gender identities, such as being bullied because of their body weight (57%), race/ethnicity (30%) and religion (27%).
• Each type of bullying was positively related to health risk, including depression, sleep problems, stress, and unhealthy weight control behaviors.
• The presence of a Gay Straight Alliance at school was associated with less bullying of students for their weight, gender, religion, disability, and sexuality.

Given these results, GSAs have positive implications for not only students facing LGBTQ-related bullying, but also for those who experience other types of bias-based bullying. By reducing rates of targeted victimization, these organizations may help lower the risk of unhealthy behaviors in vulnerable adolescents.

“The harmful effects and wide range of bias-based bullying experienced by SGM youth calls attention to the importance of promoting broad-reaching inclusion and acceptance within schools, ” said Lessard. “Due to the breadth of stigma-reduction across multiple social identities, our results underscore GSAs as a promising avenue to support healthy outcomes for SGM youth.”

These findings are particularly important as schools face new challenges in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As smartphones and social media usage increase, the possibility for bias-based cyberbullying does too. Educators and student leaders can host virtual GSA meetings and utilize online learning platforms to continue to foster social inclusion for adolescents at risk for victimization in the absence of in-person meetings.

Study co-authors include Leah Lessard, Rebecca Puhl, Ryan Watson of the University of Connecticut.

Religious beliefs have shaped societal attitudes toward sexual minorities, with many religious denominations vocally opposing expanded sexual minority rights. Because of this stigmatization, lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals are less likely to affiliate with a religious group – but research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Old Dominion University suggests they are not abandoning their faith altogether.

In a study, sociologists Brandi Woodell and Philip Schwadel found that emerging adults – from adolescence to early adulthood – with same-sex attraction are twice as likely to disaffiliate from organized religion than their heterosexual peers, but there was little change in prayer.

“I think that is something we expected, that there’d be a difference between affiliation on one hand and prayer on the other,” said Schwadel, Happold Professor of Sociology at Nebraska. “In the previous research on adolescent religion, in particular, and in later adolescence or early emerging adulthood, we see a lot of declines in the organized aspects of religion, but we see less of a decline in prayer. Prayer is something people can often do on their own at home or wherever they want.”

And, not in an environment that may be stigmatizing toward sexual minorities, the authors wrote in the paper.

The scholars used two longitudinal surveys, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, and the National Study of Youth and Religion to examine — for the first time — these declines in religiosity over time for sexual minorities in emerging adulthood.

“Almost all previous research was cross-sectional, only looking at, ‘do people who identify as gay or lesbian – are their religious activities and beliefs different?'” Schwadel said. “It didn’t look at how they change over time, especially during this stage of the life course, when individuals are really figuring out who they are.”

The study also showed a significant difference in religiosity declines between gay and bisexual individuals, further demonstrating that sexual minorities are not a monolithic group.

Woodell, a 2018 Nebraska alumna and assistant professor of sociology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said this study joins a novel line of research examining the differences between bisexual, gay and lesbian individuals.

“Past research has most often combined sexual minorities into one group, and that was largely due to a lack of data that separated them, but some newer research has suggested there are differences, which led us to separate the groups out,” Woodell said. “We found that those who identify as bisexual show a greater decline in their religious attendance than gay and lesbian individuals.”

This difference could be explained by some research that has found bisexuals are less likely to be accepted than their gay counterparts, even in affirming denominations, Woodell said.

“There is newer research showing that bisexuals have experienced stigmatization in their congregation because their sexuality is viewed as a choice,” Woodell said.

While the study found little change in prayer among the sexual minority groups, there was a small decline among bisexuals. Schwadel and Woodell said they are pursuing this research further, breaking down differences among gender.

“We’re currently looking at how these things differ for men and women,” Schwadel said. “We know that gender is strongly related to religiosity, and we expect that gender plays a role in terms of how sexuality is related to religious change.”

Further research is also needed, they said, to examine how these declines in religiosity among lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals continue to change in later adulthood.

Showing people how their peers feel about diversity in their community can make their actions more inclusive, make members of marginalized groups feel more like they belong, and even help close racial achievement gaps in education, according to a study.

Drawing on strategies that have worked in anti-smoking, safe-sex and energy-saving campaigns, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers decided to try to change behavior by showing people that positive feelings about diversity are the norm.

“In any other domain of public health — saving for retirement, sustainability, eating healthy — it’s the key thing to communicate: It’s the right thing to do, your peers do it, and your peers would actually approve of you doing it as well,” says Markus Brauer, the UW-Madison psychology professor whose lab designed the pro-diversity intervention.

It’s an effect that’s reflected in attitudes about ongoing protests over Black people killed by police officers. Exposed to larger crowds, more frequent news coverage and the opinions of friends and neighbors, more people have expressed support for Black Lives Matter groups and activities.

“People are heavily influenced by finding out what their peers have done,” Brauer says. “But in the diversity domain, we haven’t been trying this.”

The researchers, who published their findings today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, conducted extensive focus groups with UW-Madison students.

“We asked them — students of color and white students, students of the LGBT+ community: What actually is it that decreases your sense of belonging? What are the kinds of behaviors that hurt your feelings, that make you feel excluded?” Brauer says. “And then please tell us, what are the behaviors that would make you feel welcome?”

The non-white students felt like they were kept at a distance from white students — not included in class groups or projects, not included in activities, not invited to participate in simple interactions.

“When we asked about what decreased their sense of belonging, they didn’t complain so much about racial slurs or explicit forms of discrimination,” says Brauer. “It was the distance, the lack of interest, the lack of caring that affected them.”

Brauer, graduate student Mitchell Campbell, and Sohad Murrar, a former graduate student of Brauer’s who is now a psychology professor at Governors State University in Illinois, used what they learned to choose their messages.

“We used a social marketing approach, where we identify a target audience, we decide what our target behavior is, and then we show people how their peers support that behavior,” Brauer says.

They designed a relatively simple poster, covered in students’ faces and reporting actual survey results — that 93 percent of students say they “embrace diversity and welcome people from all backgrounds into our UW-Madison community,” and that 84 percent of them agreed to be pictured on the poster. They also produced a five-minute video, which described the pro-diversity opinions reported by large majorities in other campus surveys and showed real students answering questions about tolerance and inclusion.

In a series of experiments over several years, hundreds of students were exposed passively to the posters in brief encounters in study waiting rooms or hung day after day on the walls of their classrooms. In other experiments, the video was shown to an entire class during their first meeting. Control groups came and went from waiting rooms and classroom with no posters, or watched videos about cranberry production, or other alternatives to the study materials.

Then the researchers surveyed subjects to assess their attitudes about appreciation for diversity, attitudes toward people of color, intergroup anxiety, their peers’ behaviors and other measures.

“When we measured 10 or 12 weeks later, the students who were exposed to the interventions report more positive attitudes towards members of other groups and stronger endorsement of diversity,” Brauer says.

The differences for students from marginalized groups went further.

“The students belonging to marginalized groups tell us that they have an enhanced sense of belonging. They are less anxious in interactions with students from other ethnic groups. They tell us that they’re less and less the target of discrimination,” Brauer says. “They evaluate the classroom climate more positively, and feel that they are treated more respectfully by their classmates.”

The researchers tested the effectiveness of their diversity intervention in a series of UW-Madison courses in which white students have historically received better grades than their non-white peers. In course sections that viewed the 5-minute video during their first meeting — classes including more than 300 students — the privileged and marginalized students’ grades were equal in the end.

“We know the marginalized students experience discrimination; we know their feelings are valid. But we know, too, from the campus climate surveys and our own extensive surveys, that their fellow students report real appreciation for diversity, and tell us that they want to be inclusive,” Brauer says. “They stay socially distant, though, because they worry about putting themselves out there. Our experience is that this intervention is changing those perceptions and experiences, and possibly the behavior, of both groups.”

It may be the first result of its kind for such a long-running study with so many participants, and the researchers are hopeful that future work will help better reveal whether students actually change the way they treat each other.

“Promoting inclusion and dismantling systemic racism is one of the most important issues of our times. And yet, it turns out that many pro-diversity initiatives are not being evaluated,” says Brauer, whose work was supported in part by funding from the office of UW-Madison’s vice provost and chief diversity officer. “We really need evidence-based practices, but for a long time we’ve had no idea whether the things we do in the diversity domain actually have a beneficial effect. We’re hoping to change that.”

#JusticeForRobynJangLucero

Social media is ablaze now with the news of the demise of Robyn Jang Lucero. Founder of the Bi Chapter Piston Club and member of the Bisexual Confession Files (BCF) Tam-Bi-Yan, she drove a car-for-hire for a living.

Initial reports leaking to the social media state that Robyn may have been murdered around 10.00PM of June 28 along a bypass road in Brgy. Maunong in the City of Calamba in the Province of Laguna. Barangay personnel reported an accident to the Philippine National Police (PNP) assigned to Brgy. Bucal, but they were informed that this was already in the jurisdiction of Brgy. Maunong. Calamba’s PNP eventually called for a team to investigate.

Robyn had multiple stab wounds on her chest.

Tracing her social media posts, Robyn was heading back to Laguna and was looking for would-be passengers.

Robyn seemed aware of the dangers faced particularly by LGBTQIA people – e.g. a June post asked for her “LGBT friends” and “kin” who are wary to consider hiring her.

In a statement provided to Outrage Magazine, Gee Francisco – co-admin of Robyn at Bi Chapter Piston Club – stated: “Bilang kagrupo sa isang bi/les riders na siya mismo ang bumuo, at kahit ilang sandali lang kahit sa GC (Group Chat) lang namin sya nakakausap, naging mabuti syang founder sa amin at kaibigan. Sana makamit nya yung hustisyang nararapat sa kanya. Para sa mga nakakakilala kay Robyn, wala ka masasabi sa kanya talaga. Sobrang ma-miss namin siya. 😞 HUSTISYA PARA KAY JANG! 💪”

Francisco added that “lahat kaming ka-grupo mo at binuo mo na (Bi Chapter Piston Club) ay nakikiisa sa paghanap ng hustisya sa iyo, Jang. Hindi ka nag-iisa sa laban na ito.”

Only 10 months ago, in September 2019, another crime involving a member of the LGBTQIA community was reported in Pangasinan, when the lifeless body of Jessa Remiendo was found on the shore of Patar in Bolinao. Remembered as kind and hard-working, Remiendo’s case highlights how “hate crimes can just be committed against people like us,” Noreen Barber, overall president of the United Pangasinan Association LGBTQ+, said at that time.

At that time, Barber cautioned that the gruesome murder should signal other LGBTQIA people to be cautious because “hate crimes sa mga katulad natin ay walang pinipili. Hanggat di pa naipapasa ang SOGIE Equality Bill tayo ay mananatiling the most unprotected and neglected sector sa ating komunidad (hate crimes can just be committed against people like us. For as long as the SOGIE Equality Bill is not passed, we will continue to be the most unprotected and neglected sector in our community).”

No official report has been released yet on Robyn’s murder.

Outrage Magazine also reached out to the first responders at the scene of the crime, as well as to other people who knew – or may have known – Robyn, but no responses have been received as of press time.

Pride in the midst of Covid-19.

Bayan ng Macalelon in the Province of Quezon held a one-of-its-kind Pride parade to mark June as LGBTQIA Pride month, with the event doubling as an opportunity to give “ayuda” (support) to the local LGBTQIA community.

“Wala pang ni isang konsehal na nagbigay ng sapat na attention sa mga LGBTQIA people ng aming bayan,” said councilor JJ Glifonea Aquivido, who helmed the event. And so since getting the chairmanship of the Committee on Health, Sanitation and Social Services, “I still made it a point na kahit may Covid-19 crisis, Macalelon’s LGBTQIA community will still be able to celebrate Pride month. Hindi man magarbo ang mahalaga nandun yung pagkilala sa ating mga LGBTQIA community members.”

A parade was held, yes; but the LGBTQIA community members also received “ayuda” (support) through the office of Fourth District of Quezon Rep. Dra. Helen Tan.

A hundred LGBTQIA people benefited from the “ayuda” (of food supplies), though “we are targeting at least 150 to 200 LGBTQIA beneficiaries,” Aquivido said. Another round of giving is slated only for LGBTQIA community members in the locality.

This is the first time in the history of Macalelon, Quezon that Pride was marked. And “we are able to show that no matter what circumstances we’re facing… we prove that this pandemic can’t ruin the talent and creativity that we LGBTQIA people have,” said Xiantal Abelilla, a local LGBTQIA community leader in the Bayan ng Macalelon. “We also show that even in this pandemic, we can continue to spread the positivity and happiness to our fellow Macalelongin and also the world.”

Aquivido is also a nurse, so infection control was a “major concern during the celebration.” The participants were mandated to wear masks/face shields for the entire program; observed physical distancing; and used alcohol.

“LGBTQIA people should never be left behind. Madami kasi ang hanggang ngayon discriminatory pa din ang tingin sa mga LGBTQIA people, but for me, LGBTQIA people have great contributions to the community most especially in the economic sector. Sa bayan namin ngayon, LGBTQIA members ang hataw pagdating sa online selling at iba pang raket. Kaya naman malaki ang pasasalamat ko personally sa kanila because even in time of pandemic like this, they always find ways to survive not just for themselves but for their families,” Aquivido said.

WANTED: EQUAL TREATMENT

According to Abelilla, Covid-19 has been difficult for everyone – including LGBTQIA people.

“Karamihan sa amin ay rumaraket bilang mga choreographer, make-up artist, at event organizers. Pero dahil sa bawal ang malalaking pagpupulong, hindi namin yun magawa. Walang raket ang karamihan. Walang turo ng sayaw. Walang nagpapa-make-up,” she said.

Many of them took this as a challenge.

“Hindi kami dapat tumigil humanap ng pagkakakitaan. Gaya ng karamihan, kanya-kanya kaming paandar at pabonggahan sa social media, kanya-kanyang produkto ang mina-market para kahit papano may mapagkunan. Diskarte ang sagot. At some point, nakakapag-adjust naman kami,” she said.

This – all the same – doesn’t mean that LGBTQIA people do not need support.

“Sa aming munting bayan ng Macalelon, Quezon, kilala ang mga LGBTQIA bilang mga produktibong mamamayan. Gaya ng mga lalaki at babae, kami ay nagtatrabaho na mayroong minimum na kita. Gaya ng mga lalaki at babae, kami ay nagbabayad ng buwis na siyang nagiging pondo ng ating bansa. Kaya kung ano mang serbisyong naibibigay sa lalaki’t babae ay siya ring serbisyong dapat naming matamo,” Abelilla said. “Para po sa akin, pagdating sa mga insentibo at ayudang ibinibigay ng pamahalaan, walang lalaki, babae o bakla; ang mayroon lang, Pilipino. Sapagkat pareho-pareho lang tayo ng buwis na binabayaran, kung ano ang ambag mo’y ambag ko rin, maging lalaki ka man o babae, bakla ka man o tomboy.“

MOVING FORWARD

Moving forward, Aquivido said he eyes to help formalize the LGBTQIA community to have an organization recognized by the local government. This way, “they can receive fundings to start livelihood programs.”

“Siguro kung meron man akong message for the LGBTQIA community in this time of pandemic, yun ay isang genuine na salamat. Salamat sa lahat ng contribution nila sa community. Despite of being unappreciated by many; they still choose to be positive and happy all the time,” said Aquivido. “Their attitude of ‘laban lang‘ is a great encouragement to people who are losing hope in this time of crisis.”

And in the end, “to all LGBTQIA people, laban lang sa hamon ng buhay because you are all wonderful creations of God.”

“Isa sa pinakamahalagang bagay na gusto kong sabihin sa lahat ng LGBTQIA ay maging matatag sa panahong ito,” Abelilla said. “Ngayon natin gamitin ang personalidad ng pagiging isang LGBTQIA community member na palaban at positibo sa lahat ng bagay. Panatilihing masayahing nilalang na sa simpleng paraan ay makakatulong tayo sa iba… Ngayon natin kailangan ang isa’t isa kaya sama-sama nating isigaw: LGBTQIA tayong palaban, Covid-19 lang yan!“

When call center agent Jimuel Arceo saw the rainbow flag used as part of the branding of SIP Purified Water (a bottled water company) during June 2019’s commercialized Metro Manila Pride, he said he actually “did feel great because… this company is celebrating with us.”

He was “excited because I once saw that bottle (with the rainbow used as backdrop of the brand’s logo) on an ad on Facebook,” so he “actually did look for that specific bottle since it’s limited edition and available only through select 7/11 stores.”

SIP has partnered with Metro Manila Pride even as early as 2017.

Arceo added that initially, and “to be honest”, the rainbow wasn’t a come-on for him since “I know its just a regular mineral water”. But then “when I saw that limited edition bottle design, I actually did make sure that I’ll have it, because I feel like if I had that specific bottle design I can flaunt my identity, and show my support for the LGBTQIA community.”

And this is exactly the sentiment rainbow-bearing companies – whether they actually support the LGBTQIA community or not in practicable terms, not just in marketing – are trying to elicit. A case of “Buy us, we support you.”

In an email interview, and when asked if SIP has actual pro-LGBTQIA efforts (not to do with marketing), Charles Lee, who helms (as president) the company, said to Outrage Magazine that “we mostly sponsor (LGBTQIA) related events. We are a start-up company so our budget isn’t as big, but we help in ways we can.”

Pressed on pro-LGBT policies (e.g. same-sex benefits) within the company, Lee said: “Internally, our core value includes equality, so we hire anyone regardless of sexual orientation, race or religion. We haven’t discussed yet what benefits to give as we are a start-up, but we can look into that in the future.”

Many companies that surface during Pride month are scrutinized – even criticized – for co-opting LGBTQIA Pride for profit.

On this, Lee said that “as a company we always believe that a progressive society begins with progressive people. We’re doing our part in whatever (way) we can to make the (LGBTQIA) community more visible to the public by featuring the Pride flag in our labels during Pride month. We also sponsor events throughout the year related to the LGBT community. We try to help as much as we can given our limited budget as a start-up.”

Lee similarly said that “if we have the capabilities and resources,” they would support: A) Pushing for anti-discrimination bill/law in the Philippines; B) Pushing for marriage equality in the Philippines; and C) Pushing for gender recognition law in the Philippines.

A related issue particular to SIP is the use of plastic, which may seem to go beyond SOGIESC but similarly affects LGBTQIA people as… humans. And the presence of SIP’s plastic bottles in past Pride parades/festivals was apparent.

“We are looking at ways on how to improve on this. For instance, in Spartan events, we provided a large water tank and customers can use paper cups or their own containers to fill water up. So we might adapt the same future Pride events,” Lee said, adding that “wWe are also looking at ways on how we can re-use plastic materials to convert them to bottles again. This is an ongoing project with our suppliers.”

In the end, for Lee, businesses can help promote the human rights of LGBTQIA people by: “Honestly, educating the public (in whatever format or media channel we can educate them). Educate them (about) the struggles of the (LGBTQIA) community and educating them (on) the importance of equality. It could be a challenge and there might be resistance, but our society is slowly progressing; we are seeing changes in comparison to the generation(s) before us. We have to keep up this momentum.”

For his part, Arceo agrees with educating the public on LGBTQIA issues.

He said that it may seem unfair that there are companies that “are taking part (of) celebrating Pride month, and it feels like a bandwagon thing, I just hope that if they celebrate with us queer, that they create some initiatives like… (educating) people on the importance of why we celebrate Pride month,” as well as “support some fundraising activities for LGBTQIA community since (they’re) using this celebration on their ad campaigns.” Of course, there’s the practical step of implementing pro-LGBTQIA policies within the company, too – e.g. “To stop job discrimination of our brother and sisters from the (LGBTQIA) community.”