Bullying Sexual Minorities: Multiple Systems of Interactions

Subject: Sociology
Pages: 2
Words: 502
Reading time:
2 min

Issues of GLBTQ have raised concern not only among the persons victimized but also other members of society. Today, there are means of helping these people to develop and become important members of society. Different governments around the world have formulated policies to address the problems of discrimination of students on a sexual orientation basis. These require that families or schools do not deny opportunities for students to learn. Employers are also required not to discriminate against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation.

As noted by Darline & Woest implementation of policies that seek to eliminate hostilities in the community and avail proper climate to GLBTQ students may be hampered by different factors such as lack of interest among teachers and failure of reporting of these incidences among the students.

There are organizations that have developed to support the interests of individuals of different sexual orientations such as the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) which is a non-profit venture based in New York. These organizations have helped individuals victimized to be safer. Human rights organizations are also participants in that they champion the rights of individuals in society.

In order to address the problem of discrimination and harassment, social work must consider the micro, mezzo, and macro practices that will deal with the vice. Different solutions by the multiple systems can be provided at different levels (micro, mezzo, and macro) but these may be cross-linked. For micro-level practice, there should be defined relationships and practices that will ease and enable effective communication between the teacher and the GLBTQ. At this level, the teacher must act as an enabler, advocate for GLBTQ, and teacher among other roles in order to deal with and eliminate discrimination as well as deal with possible negative impacts of harassment of GLBTQ. Schools must be governed with rules defining the roles of the teacher as relates to GLBTQ issues, how to deal with the related problems, and alleviate the negative effects of harassment.

On the mezzo level, groups need to be established in schools and the community to deal with GLBTQ concerns in order to deal with harassment. These groups include both student groups and teacher groups which concern themselves with identifying problems and helping solve conflicts related to GLBTQ, assisting victims of sexual discrimination, and defining and establishing proper criteria of dealing with harassment of students at school such as formulation of regulations and their implementation.

In order to solve GLBTQ issues of harassment at school, a macro practice level is also necessary. This involves working with organizations and communities to provide necessary resources such as schools specifically suited for GLBTQ students, championing for the rights of the GLBTQ at the community level, and ensuring that proper policies are put in place to deal with issues related to GLBTQ. These organizations should deal with funding the GLBTQ students, passing necessary information to the communities, and conducting surveys and research.