Religious Responses to the Bullying of Queer Youth

LGBTQ youth are very often the target of attack by bullies. Many times, bullying behavior is influenced by conservative religious invective against LGBTQ individuals which uses religion and  scripture to justify castigating queer youth. At times this leads to violence. Religious condemnation of LGBT folks as sinful, as ‘abominations,’ as enemies of Christianity reinforces bullying behavior. In addition to the use of legal and social remedies to stop bullying, particularly the bullying of queer youth, individuals who profess a progressive religious attitude need to forcefully  argue on religious grounds against those who justify bullying on the basis of religious and ideological animus. For several decades religious scholars and activists have worked to open up the sacred scriptures, to demonstrate the inaccurate scriptural condemnation of homosexuality, and to look to the scriptures for a more positive message for queer people of faith

Another way in which individuals who are religiously conservative assist bullies is by arguing for broad ‘religious exemptions’ that would protect individuals who bully from legislation that is meant to curtail this violent behavior. Under such laws, bullies who root their behavior in religious condemnation of homosexuals could ultimately be protected from prosecution. In the US there has been a broad legislative strategy by conservative religious groups including some Roman Catholics and Evangelical Christians, to broadly expand legal religious exemptions that normally only protect churches and clearly religious institutions to a wide array of institutions, private individuals, and even for-profit corporations whose owners claim a special religious exemption. Here also, progressive religious individuals need to stress the appropriate level of separation of church and state and resist the expansion of these exemptions, particularly in the case of the bullying of LGBTQ youth. In addition, they need to criticize religious behavior and teachings that lead to devaluing the worth of individuals and at times physical violence.

Waldman underscores the epidemic of anti-gay bullying.  He writes that a particular focus on anti-LGBT bullying is warranted because gays and lesbians are particularly susceptible to being bullied and the subject of violent attack merely because they are gay or lesbian. Ari Ezra Waldman, Tormented: Anti-Gay Bullying in Schools, 84 Temple Law Review 385 (2012). Weddle and New look at resistance to anti-bullying laws by conservative Christians who oppose such legislation that explicitly mentions queer individuals because they fear that  LGBTQ groups “are attempting to indoctrinate our children to embrace homosexual lifestyles; tolerate homosexual behavior; and celebrate homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender identity. Those Christians who, in a rational defense of traditional morals, oppose such efforts by gay zealots are unfairly painted as bigots” Daniel B. Weddle and Kathryn E. New, What Would Jesus Do: Answering Religious Conservatives Who Oppose Bullying Prevention Legislation, 37 New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement 325 (2011).

Sanders views fighting against anti-gay bullying as a theological issue.  He finds that there is a close link between religious based anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and bullying and violence against LGBTQ individuals.  Bullying is a violent strategy to aggressively enforce social hetero-normativity.  Sanders writes that for conservative religious groups: “political rallying on issues like same-sex marriage and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell serve to maintain some ground on the preservation of anti-gay cultural ideology, the intermittent reinforcement of violent attack is an even better tool to ensure the silence (and suicide) of LGBT people and their subjugation to the closet.”  Cody J. Sanders, Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue, Religion Dispatches, October 2, 2010 at http://www.relgiondispatches.org. Strategies to combat the bullying of LGBTQ individuals is an issue that all progressive religious communities need to focus their social justice efforts upon.

Some useful resources on the issue of LGBTQ bullying from the Unitarian Universalist Association include Standing on the Side of Love, whose blog contains a number of anti-bullying posts.  The UUA Tapestry of Faith Lifespan Curriculum also contains a link to Anti-Bullying Resources.  An excellent popular resource on the phenomena of bullying can be found in the book “Sticks and Stones” by Emily Bazelon (2013).