Homophobic Bullying Harms Straight People Too.
Aye, there’s the rub. Often it’s not until straight people are harmed by the actions of homophobes that people take notice or care, and sometimes even then people don’t notice or care–so long as gay people are kept second class citizens. This time the victim is a 15-year-old boy who has been harassed mercilessly by his peers for the past three years. He’s not gay, but that doesn’t matter to them. They accuse him of being gay in person, behind his back and online. They subject him to myriad forms of abuse based on the mere perception that he’s gay, regardless of how many times he protests that he is not.
A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to the oblivious Billy and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead.
The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back, lanky arms flailing. But the screams of his sister stop things cold.
The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home, again. It’s not yet 8 in the morning.
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The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”
It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain sex toy, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.
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In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”
According to Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the school district, the principal notified the parents of the students involved after Ms. Wolfe complained, and the parents — whom he described as “horrified” — took steps to have the page taken down.
Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek.
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The Wolfes are not satisfied. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.
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This is the sort of toxic, dangerous environment people like Sally Kern, Peter LaBarbera and James Dobson perpetuate under the guise of their “deeply held religious beliefs” or “God’s Word”. But it is nothing more than religiously justified bigotry, plain and simple.
Homophobia, Bi-phobia, Transphobia–they hurt everybody. Help put an end to them now and forever.
Tags: Billy Wolfe
