Ohio Legislators Pass Stripped Down Anti-Bullying Law Void Of LGBT, Disability, and Race Protections

Earlier this year we heard about the Michigan State Senate and it’s “license to bully” Anti-Bullying Law where Michigan Senate Republicans inserted a provision that allowed for exceptions to the law for “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” the exemption was eventually stripped from the bill after much controvery and publicity but the eventual reworked bill did not specifically adress bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Well Ohio has gone one step further with Ohio Senate Education Committee passing the  “Jessica Logan Act,” designed to stop harassment of students on and off campus but the the committee would only HB116 at the last minute when it was stripped the provision , “that would prohibit bullying based on any real or perceived characteristics of the student, such as race, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the bill did not include enumeration of particular characteristics.” according to Equality Ohio director Ed Mullen.

So basically this law protects no one and is so vauge that is give authority figures an “out” to ignore bullying of LGBT students, diabled students, or student bullied by race because they either don’t want to stop it or  perceive it as wrong.

This makes me very ashamed to call myself an Ohioain!

Anti-Gay Slurs Spraypainted on Couples Home--Ohio

First there was the lesbian couple in Parker, Colorado who got their house tagged with anti-gay hate speech, now it’s a couple in Grove City, OH. According to NBC4i.com, David Robins and his partner, Michael, has the homophobic tag spray painted on their home sometime Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning, Robins said, they awoke to find someone had spray-painted homophobic slurs on their garage door, home and fence.
“It’s extremely disappointing. Nine years we’ve lived here and not a problem. Now, all of a sudden this happens. It makes me kind of wonder,” he said.
“I kind of feel like it needs to stay up to make a statement, but at the same time, I don’t want to disrupt the neighbors, the perception of the neighborhood, but I also feel like I don’t want to cover it up, either,” he said.
Robins is calling it a hate crime, and Grove City officers are investigating

Second Gay Bashing Attack Occurs In Ohio Public Schools Within Two Weeks

November 2nd---A second teenager has been beaten by a fellow student  in an Ohio public school because of homophobia within two weeks of each other.

Yesterday a student at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio, was called “fag” and “faggot” and punched in the head several times and is currently undergoing emergency medical testing for a possible concussion.

The student who does not identiy as gay, but does have a lesbian sister  has been harassed for the last four years with little response from the school system.

The victim’s mother, Stacey G states: “Ever since the 5th grade we’ve been dealing with the bullying and harassment. The school is brushing off it’s responsibilities by just suspending the bully.

This comes week after a 15-year-old teenager in Chillicothe, Ohio was severely beaten in his high school class room for being gay. That attack occurred at Unioto High School and was caught on camera as fellow class members watched one teen wait for the victim to enter the room, push him to the ground and continually punch him in the face.

Equality Ohio Executive Director, Ed Mullen states that the incident proves that policies and training are needed to help end the bullying epidemic in our public school systems. Mullen says:  “All students — gay or straight — need to be protected from attacks and harassment in schools. .

Unlike Chillicothe, the Westerville City School system does have a bullying policy that prohibits bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, among other characteristics.

The School Day Security and Anti-Bullying Act (HB 116) would amend sections 3313.666 and 3313.667 of the Revised Code to require age-appropriate instruction on and parental notification of public schools’ policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying. The bill has passed the Ohio House of Representatives and has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee where it sits waiting.
The victims attacker was only given only a five day suspension from school

Felony Charges Filed In Attack On Gay Ninth Grader In Chillicothe, OH

FINALLY!
LGBT blogs have been buzzing about a brutal gay bashing inside an Chillicothe, Ohio high school classroom was captured on video and then posted on Facebook last week.  (Which I will not be posting here out of respect for the victim)
The attack happened at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, where students waited for the victim, Zach, to enter the classroom. Once inside, the unprovoked beating began.
“The boy stood there and waited on him and waited on him and waited on him,” the boy’s mother explains. “And as soon as he walks in the door, the boy hits him… he knocks the living crap out of him.”
Other children stood by and did nothing to stop the attack while taping video of it on thier cell phones.
The attacker 15 year old Levi Sever who originally received only a three-day suspension for beating his victim so badly the boy came away with a concussion and chipped tooth, will now appear later in juvenile court to answer to the charge filed by the office of Prosecutor Matthew Schmidt following an investigation by the sheriff’s office.
Equality Ohio’s Kim Welter told WBNS 10, that “just suspending students isn’t the answer to bullying. We need to be doing a whole lot more talking about how we treat each other and that we respect each other and that no bullying is tolerated.”
I agree 100 percent.  If I had my way I would see the  boys parents be punished, too. At the very least, they’re guilty of raising an evil little fuck and  they’re just as much to blame for being negligent or passing down their own hate and bigotry.
If changing  “hearts and minds” through school assemblys and literature doesn;t work its well past time to make sure these little bullys and hate mongers are scared straight.
Or at least scared LGBT tolerant.

NEW SEASON Project Runway!

If you read this blog regularly, and if you know me real well, You know three things I LOVE Judy Garland, I adore the Wizard of Oz and I am just crazy when it comes to Project Runway.  It maybe the clothes, it maybe the deisgners or those creative challenges, it maybe cutie patootie, make my knees weak and cause me to swoon Tim Gunn, it maybe the glamorous and ever chic uber FIERCE Heidi Klum but golly I love this show.  One of two thing I never miss on TV.

I guess I let the cat of the bag, that I have a secret crush on Gunn but golly is he adorable or what!?  I mean handsome, smart, educated, well versed, well dressed, into fashion in an enormous way--what wouldn't you love   OK I know enough gushing, after all I have Jim.

It is a New Season. New Time.

The Emmy Award-nominated series "Project Runway" kicks off its eighth season with 17 talented designers - the most in the series' history - beginning Thursday, July 29, at 9 pm et/pt. Supersized to a new 90-minute format, "Runway" will follow the designers as they compete to make the cut to show at New York Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. Get to know the newest designers now with exclusive video tours of their homes, a peek into their closets, casting tapes and much more. Flip through their personal photos and Designer Portfolios for a look at the past work that earned them a spot on the show over hundreds of other hopefuls across the country. Meet the 17 new designers right away.

http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway

What makes this season right now extra nice is that there is a contestant from Cleveland, Ohio!  To bad it ain't yours truely but hey there is always next year.  Anyway it should prove to be a great season and who knows I may even do show recap posts with my point of view thrown in.