Many people will try to excuse verbal bullying saying it has no effect. But that’s not true. While sometimes all people have is hurt feelings, sometimes the results of anti-LGBT taunting can have devastating effects:
On April 6, 2009, an 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hanged himself after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother's weekly pleas to the school to address the problem.
It was at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying during the 2008-2009 school year.
Schools nationwide can be unsafe environments for students that identify as or perceived to be lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender (LGBT). A distressing majority of middle and high school students have reported being verbally or physically harassed at school:
86.2% of lgbt students reported being verbally harassed at school
44.1%of lgbt students reported being physically harassed at school
60.8% of lgbt students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation
22.1% of lgbt students reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.