Homophobia and Our Youth

Homophobia is Killing Our Kids
By E.N. Jackson
Copyright 2009 E.N. Jackson
Frost Illustrated Newspaper, Inc. Vol. 41, Issue 29

Last week I watched in horror as ministers, church officials, and parishioners of a black Connecticut church, Manifested Glory Ministries, invoked the name of Jesus to release the “gay demons” supposedly possessing the soul of a 16-year-old boy. What I was watching was not a horror movie but a YouTube video clip that had been sent to me by a friend. The clip opens with the young man lying on the floor as a woman stands over him shouting, “Get on up out of here you homosexual demon! I command you by the blood of Jesus! You are a spirit that is not of God!” She continues to demand that the gay demon leave the boy’s body as parishioners surround her and fill the room with shouts of “Amen!” and “Yes, Lord!” Next she puts her foot in the boy’s back and stomach, seeming to kick him, or rather the demon, to further emphasize her command.

At that point, a man leans over the boy and begins symbolically pulling the demon out of the boy’s back. He then begins repeatedly lifting the boy off the floor by his head and neck. The woman takes charge again, ordering the men in the room to stand the boy up because, according to her, “Something needs to come out of his belly.” Suddenly, the man who had mimicked pulling the demon out of the boy begins pushing the palm of his hand into the young man’s forehead as the men holding him stumble back and forth. As the man puts his hands on the boy’s head, he shouts, “You have no power here! I bind you in the name of Jesus! You’re going to lose your grip today demon!” Throughout the entire ordeal, the young man remains silent. No matter how much exorcists attempt to coax him into speech, telling him to open his mouth and fight, it is the boy’s body, not his words, that speak for him. He writhes helplessly on the floor, stumbles blindly as he is dragged around the room, and even vomits at one point. All of this says far more than his words could ever say.

While those outside of fundamentalist religious traditions are shocked when they see or hear about such things, scenes like this are not uncommon to those of us who were raised inside of that tradition. We grew up seeing well-meaning men and women of God performing rituals like this on people who church officials and parishioners believed were possessed by demons and evil spirits. So I am not surprised to know that this practice still goes on. I am, however, deeply saddened and outraged to know that the bigotry and ignorance that acts like this expose still hold such powerful sway over those who should know better.

Perhaps most frightening is that these are good people who thought they were doing the right thing and were utterly sincere in their belief that this bizarre ceremony could actually turn a young gay man into a straight one. These well-meaning church folk truly believed they were ridding this boy of a demonic entity that caused him to have an attraction to people of his own gender. But what they were really doing was using religious dogma and their own particular brand of biblical interpretation to justify a noxious act of anti-gay bigotry and cruelty. I can only imagine what was going through that young man’s mind as people he loved and trusted told him through their words and actions that he was sick, bad, and even worse: possessed by demons.

The incident at Manifested Glory Ministries is only one of hundreds of similarly destructive incidents that happen every single day in churches, homes, and schools all across the country. GLBT youth are in crisis; not because they are homosexual but because far too many people foster a mindset of homophobia and fear. Even the perception of being gay is enough to cause young people to be terrorized and harassed. Last year, 15-year-old Lawrence King, a black gay teen, was shot in the head and killed by a 14-year-old classmate who had reportedly quarreled with King about King’s being gay. In February of this year, three middle school students in Illinois all killed themselves in response to prolonged anti-gay harassment and bullying. Just this past April, only days before his 12th birthday, a young black boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hanged himself because he could no longer endure the taunts, bullying, and anti-gay slurs hurled at him on a daily basis by his peers. And just 10 days after Walker-Hoover’s death, another young boy of color, Jaheem Herrera, also hanged himself because of an unrelenting barrage of threats, bullying, and anti-gay slurs.

In many of these cases, it was not even clear whether or not the young victims involved actually identified as gay. All that mattered was that their peers assumed they were gay and, therefore, felt perfectly justified in making these children the target of their learned homophobic hatred. In fact a 2008 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report (Bullying Among Children and Youth on Perceptions and Differences in Sexual Orientation, 2008) found that for every GLBT youth who is bullied, four straight students who are perceived to be gay or lesbian are bullied. The report further states that the stigma and hostilities youth experience from anti-LGBT bullying puts them at risk for self-destructive behaviors, such as skipping school, using tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, and engaging in risky sexual activity. These same risks exist for heterosexual youth perceived to be lesbian or gay, as for GLBT youth who keep their sexual orientation hidden.

This is disturbing for two primary reasons: one, because our children are learning that is it ok to practice bigotry, hatred, and intolerance against those who are perceived as different from them; and two, because we as adults are condoning their actions by fostering and perpetuating unsafe climates and environments in which this kind of behavior is excused, ignored, and in some cases even encouraged. Statistics bear out the truth that we are dealing with a very real crisis here. According to a 2007 National School Climate Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2%) reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, nearly half (44.1%) reported being physically harassed, and about a quarter (22.1%) reported being physically assaulted. In most cases, the harassment went unreported. The GLSEN report goes on to say that nearly two-thirds of the LGBT students surveyed (60.8%) who experienced harassment or assault never reported the incident to the school. Why? Because they did not believe that anything would be done to address the situation. Of those who did report their incidents, nearly a third (31.1%) said that school officials did nothing in response.

We in the black community have a long tradition of treating others with generosity, kindness, love, and compassion. Surely we can find better ways to deal with issues of sexuality than attempting to “exorcise” someone of his or her identity. Homophobia is killing our youth, and the high level of religious conservatism, ignorance, and misunderstanding surrounding gender and sexual identity issues in communities of color puts our youth at even greater risk for death. In many cases, the deaths of GLBT teens have been literal, but more often than not GLBT youth suffer an emotional, psychological, and spiritual death.

Fort Wayne HRC Lead Coordinator Linda Bentz states, “Language controls thought and thought controls action. If we want to change the world, we begin by changing the way we speak.” As an African-American I cannot help but wonder: how many more young black men and women have to be called out of their names, bullied, harassed, and exorcised of their “gay demons” before we open our eyes and see the damage we are doing? Can we learn to love and accept them just as they are and teach them how to love and accept themselves in return? I say yes, we can.