Gay bashing is nothing new, and can be found throughout history. From beating a person because they love the same sex as themselves to calling them a fag for the same reason.

The word fag means bundle of sticks, but came to be a derogatory term for a gay man because in the times of witch trials the gay men were forced to do manual labor in the city, picking up sticks for the witch burnings. When sticks became scarce the towns started to burn the gay men in their place.

It is wrong to use this word to refer to a gay man. The word homosexual is found to be offensive to some, because it originated as a clinical term which refers to a mental disorder.

In 1960s San Francisco the police used to come into gay bars and beat the men, then arrest them under false charges. An activist and later politician Harvey Milk started to organize marches and an organization that business that welcomed gays. This moved mostly the “straight” owners’ businesses move out of the Castro.

San Jose City College used to have to have a Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Questioning and Allies club. The LGBTQQA club was named Gay Straight Alliance. It started in the 1970s, but has fallen apart and remade a few times.

“I heard that bullying started to become a big issue for students that had belonged to the club,” said Karrawinds Salters, Region IV vice president, “So then it just started to fall apart.”

The school needed to recognize this is a problem earlier. This year, a non-affiliated person, on campus to collect signatures, pushed a student and said “you know how over-sensitive homosexuals are” to the officer after the student had complained. The officer did nothing but ask the individual not to act like that.

For others it is believed that being a LGBTQQ is morally and religiously wrong. There are many different ways that the LGBTQQ community is persecuted every day.

They are looked at differently by some people while out in public, which makes the person feel unaccepted at times.

Proposition 8 denies the marriage of same sex couples, which is a direct violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In the 1970s, Anita Bryant, a singer and beauty pageant queen, was also known for her support of bigotry against gay and lesbian teachers. She is famously quoted

“As a mother,” Bryant said, “I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children.”

Her main goal was to get all gay or lesbian teachers fired from teaching in public schools. She believed that the teachers were using their jobs to influence younger generations to be gay or lesbian.

Even faculty members on this campus are not safe from bigotry; Librarian Joseph King said he was harassed during an orientation.

“The students called me queer and made kissing noises at me,” king said. “They were looking at me and said it in a mocking tone.”

Studies show that attacks like this and rejection from family and friends have led to increased attempted suicide rates.

According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center website, in 2006 Eisenberg and Resnick found that LGB students in grades 9 and 12 were significantly more likely to have attempted suicide than their heterosexual peers. 52.4 percent of LB females and 29.0 percent of GB males had attempted suicide. The percentages of non-GLB females and males who had attempted suicide were 24.8 and 12.6 percent respectively.

To save these students, some campuses in the US have started Safe Spaces for these students. The Safe Space Program is designed to let students feel that they have a safe and accepting place to go if they ever feel like they are being harassed. San Jose City College would need to order the Safe Space kits and designate the space with the sticker included in the kit. This would be a small step to promoting equality and providing more recourse for the LGBTQQ students.