Asian American Youth, Leaders Urge a Stop to School Bullying

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and allies have come together to stop the bullying of students.

By Nalea J. Ko, Reporter
Published November 19, 2010

Thousands of YouTubers responded by creating anti-bullying videos when news headlines broke nationwide of teens committing suicide after allegedly being harassed because of their sexual orientation.

One campaign called the "It Gets Better Project," motivated lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) supporters to create YouTube videos. Those supporters include President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, comedienne Kathy Griffin, singer Ke$ha and Kermit the Frog, among other big names.

Kristel Yoneda, 27, says memories of being taunted in high school with homophobic slurs like "dyke" inspired her to create an "It Gets Better" video.

"I had seen on the news all these stories about these teens committing suicide. I had remembered all the hell that I had gone through in high school. I thought, 'you know, I have a camera. Why don't I document how I feel?'" Yoneda said via telephone from her workplace in California about growing up in Hawaii.

It was the deaths of teens like Justin Aaberg, Billy Lucas, Cody Barker, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Raymond Chase and Tyler Clementi that spurred Yoneda to voice her concerns on YouTube. These teens, who were perceived to be or identified as gay, were allegedly bullied and tormented before their deaths this year.

The reported bullying of these suicide victims included alleged harassment in school, online and at home. 

Yoneda explained that she assumed her friends and old high school classmates from Hawaii would view her video to better understand her experience as an LGBT teenager who was bullied.

But the Japanese American says she was surprised when she received e-mails from bully victims after posting her video on Facebook.

"I think most of the people contacted me through e-mail and then they would tell me basically how they saw my video and what they thought of it. Then they would tell me their stories. A lot of their stories were way worse than mine," Yoneda explained. "It's kind of sad to think that there are so many people out there suffering."

Yoneda essentially became an online counselor to the bully victims who contacted her. The 27-year-old corresponded with those who "needed someone to talk to or needed a friend" because they had previously endured bullying as a result of their sexual orientation.

While some praise campaigns such as "It Gets Better," others say LGBT youth need to know how to make their situation better now.

"I think for young people they want to make sure that it's not prolonged or put off until a future date, of things getting better," said Rev. Jonipher Kwong, director of API Equality-LA.

Kwong was the moderator of a Nov. 9 panel, which took place in San Gabriel Valley, Calif. Those on the three-person panel discussed bullying of LGBT students in schools and ways to combat harassment.

"There's no shame in it, both exposing the bullies and the violent behavior that goes on," Kwong said. "I think that's the other part that we as Asian Pacific Islanders need to be cognizant about is that sometimes out of fear of causing shame on our family we don't talk about these issues."

"I think the shameful part would be that if we were to live a life or a lie."

The panel, which included two Asian American youth, discussed the various laws that protect LGBT students in California.

Laws such as the Safe Place to Learn Act and the Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act are designed to provide a safe learning environment for students.

But students like 16-year-old Kimiko Nishitsuji, who was also on the panel, know that bullying often goes on despite legislation.

Nishitsuji created a video on YouTube to discuss her bullying experience in middle school in 2005. A football player started taunting her with names like "queer" and "freak," Nishitsuji explained. The taunting continued.

When the news broke that another youth had committed suicide, the Hapa teen organized a candlelight vigil to raise awareness about bullying in school.

"To be honest it really pissed me off that bullying played a role in ending six young lives," said Nishitsuji, who is the president of the GSA Network club at Gabrielino High School, about creating a vigil. "So I called a friend who also lives in the San Gabriel Valley late at night and kept pestering her to help [with the vigil]."

Nishitsuji and about 25 others held signs with the images of teen suicide victims at the Oct. 8 vigil.
Some LGBT community leaders say bully victims can make their situation better immediately by reaching out to friends, parents and officials in their schools.

"Things can get better now," said Daniel Solis, program manager of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, or GSA Network. "Students everyday in schools all over the country are standing up for themselves and making change in their schools. You don't need to wait until you get out of school to safely be yourself."

The GSA Network has created a program called "Make it Better" to help combat bullying of LGBT students.

Some 200,000 California high school and middle school students reported being harassed because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, according to a 2004 study conducted in 2004 by the California Safe Schools Coalition.

The study is in part based on a 2003 survey conducted in partnership with the GSA Network.
Yoneda says the presence of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace could create a "scary environment" for bullying victims. But she hopes others find comfort in hearing her story on YouTube.

"I mean really the people that really treated you like crap they're really not going to matter. I mean that's not just for gay kids getting bullied that's for anybody," Yoneda said. "It's hard to see that when you're in high school. But life gets so much better."