Some people have internalized the childhood saying “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” so deeply that they think words truly don’t have power.
Those people are wrong. Words do have power. Words affect us in many ways. They may not affect us physically, as a knife wound or gunshot would, but they do affect us mentally…psychologically.
Words can convey feelings, such as love. When two people are in love, and one of them says “I love you”, that’s conveying the depth of that person’s feeling to the other one. Depending upon the feelings of the recipient, the impact of those 3 words can be cause for celebration. They can also be cause for trepidation or even fear. Those 3 words have an effect.
Words can convey intense feelings of disdain, apathy, or outright hatred. ‘Nigger’ and ‘faggot’ are two words that are often used to convey such feelings. Those who use these words to insult others demonstrate negative opinions of gay people or black people. The word ‘nigger’ is a word that is meant to dehumanize black people. It shows disdain toward its recipient based on nothing more than the color of their skin. The word is steeped in ‘othering’. When humans ‘other’ one another, we categorize people as being not like us, and therefore another class of humanity, almost always a so-called ‘lesser class’. Often this leads to people being treated as less than human, without the full range of rights that we’re all supposed to have. When someone calls me a ‘nigger’, it’s saying “You’re beneath me. You’re not my equal. You deserve to be treated badly.” The word has power. Similarly, if someone insults me by calling me a ‘faggot’, it’s to show their disdain for me (or homosexuals in general). They don’t view me as a human being deserving of respect. They see homosexuality as something awful; a mark on your character. They see homosexuality as inherently bad. If ‘faggot’ had no negative connotations, it wouldn’t work as an insult. Unfortunately, for a lot of people the word does carry those connotations. They believe there is a moral component to sexuality–which is not true. For the purposes of this discussion, morality is defined as a code of conduct of a society that is concerned with the distinction between right/wrong or good/bad actions as they relate to human interactions. Being a lesbian, a gay man, or a transwoman has no moral component because they are centered on the identity of the individual in question. The sexuality or gender identity of an individual has nothing to do with others, thus there is no moral component.
One group of people that are affected by bigoted slurs like ‘faggot’ are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex teens. This group, collectively referred to by the acronym GLBTQI (with variations), faces far greater harassment than non GLBTQI individuals:
During 2005, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN glsen.org) conducted a study concluding that appearance was the number one reason for bullying. The second most common reason was actual or assumed sexual orientation and gender identity. According to a 2007 study by GLSEN, 86% of LGBT youth report being harassed at school. Compare this to 27.3% of all students being bullied at school as reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics in 2013.
Bullying can take the form of physical violence, or verbal harassment-i.e. words:
LGBT Bullying Statistics Show They Suffer From More Cyber Bullying
42% of LGBT youth have experienced cyber bullying, 25% more than once, 35% receive online threats, and 58% say something bad is said to them or about them online (bullyingstatistics.org).
GLSEN also found that cyber bullying of LGBT youth is three times higher than other student’s experience. 33% report sexual harassment online, which is four times higher than the experience of other students. 27% of LGBT youth do not feel safe online. 20% report receiving harassing text messages from other students.
Sexual harassment online is done using words.
People deliver online threats by using words.
Cyberbullying is done online by using words.
Words have power.
Sufficient power that GLBTQI teens face signficant health risks from bullying:
Cyber bullying combined with bullying at school, lowers self-esteem, which affects grades and mental health. 50% of all youth do not understand that discriminatory language is offensive, nor do they realize the negative impact on LGBT youth. GLSEN also found that LGBT youth spend more time online than youth in general. LGBT youth make friends online, and use the Internet to gather information about sexuality and health including information about HIV/Aids. LGBT youth are twice as likely to participate in political activities as other youth, making these connections online also. Because LGBT youth spend more time online, they are more likely the target of cyber bullying.
That bullying can lead to lower self-esteem, decreased grades, or mental health issues is a big enough problem. Unfortunately, it can also lead to substance abuse:
The Division of Adolescent and School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC published a study in 2011, showing that LGBT youth have a higher risk than the general population for alcohol and substance abuse, engage in more risky behaviors, and are more likely to become runaways. The risky behaviors they studied included, behaviors that cause injury such as not using a seat belt, or a bicycle helmet, drunk driving, or riding in a car with a driver that had been drinking. They also looked at violence, such as carrying a weapon, getting into fights, forcing someone to have sex, or having sex forced on them. Other risky behaviors they studied were smoking, drinking alcohol, and using drugs. Risky sexual behaviors included whether they used condoms and/or birth control, how many sexual partners they had, and how young they were when they lost their virginity. They also looked at their diet, exercise patterns, and computer use. LGBT youth were found to be at high risk.
GLBTQI teens are also at high risk of homelessness:
According to PFLAG NYC (pflagnyc.org) LGBT youth rejected by their families are three times more likely to have substance abuse problems. 50% experience a negative environment at home if they tell their parents about their sexual orientation, with 26% forced out of their homes. Up to 50% of the youth that are on the streets living without a home are LGBT youth, who must live on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identification.
Worse still, GLBTQI teens are at high risk for suicide:
LGBT teenagers are two or three times more likely to attempt suicide than other teens (stopbullying.gov). If the family of the LGBT youth does not accept them, they are eight times more likely to commit suicide than other teens. One-third of the suicide attempts that actually result in death are due to a crisis in sexual identity. LGBT youth miss more than five times as much school as other students because of bullying they receive at school. 28% of LGBT youth stop going to school because of being bullied (makebeatsnotbeatdowns.org).
GLSEN statistics show that students who experience bullying feel depressed, anxious and may have other health problems. Students, mistakenly identified as LGBT by their peers, suffer just as much as LGBT students do. Bullied LGBT students, who feel their school is unsafe, get lower grades, have worse attendance records, and are more likely to drop out of school. LGBT students have a disproportional amount of disciplinary problems that keep them out of school and make up 15% of those incarcerated in juvenile detention. It is no wonder that the suicide rates are higher due to all these negative influences.
GLBTQI teens are affected by verbal harassment-aka words-just as they are affected by physical harassment. So when people claim that words don’t have power, they’re ignoring the reality that GLBTQI teens face across the country*.
*While the figures used above are for GLBTQI teens, I fully understand that GLBTQI children and adults face harassment as well. Also, while this post has centered on GLBTQI bullying in the US, I fully understand and acknowledge that bullying of GLBTQI people occurs across the planet.
