"'I feel like no-one': Girl, 12, dies in father's arms from mystery condition after being tormented by school bullies"
from @stonewalluk
The key information for Stonewall's interest here was that the bullying included calling the girl a lesbian.
When I picked my kid up from junior school yesterday, two boys jogged past me. They were taunting each other with "You're gay!" "No, you're gay" in dull voices, as if it was a routine they were both bored of but neither were willing to stop because the other would claim victory and be proved right.
It annoyed me, a lot. I wanted to stop them both in their tracks and say something, anything to make them think. ("You say 'gay' like its a bad thing" .. I tend to overestimate most kid's ability to understand my one-liners.) But they were glassy-eyed, barely aware of what they were saying. Maybe if their parents were there they woudn't have been shouting it. Maybe their parents were the ones that led them to believe that 'gay' is bad and using it as an insult is just harmless fun, either by using such taunts themselves or by allowing it to go un-commented previously. I still aren't sure whether it was a good thing or not that their parents weren't there. I don't know if I could have stopped myself from saying something to them.
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