Two Brutally Assaulted Queer Kids Put Faces on Disturbing Violence Data

Please don’t look away

When Natasha Green sent her 13-year-old queer Black son to his South Carolina middle school on January 25, she had no idea she would next see him in a hospital as he lay unresponsive after a brutal queerphobic beating fellow students dished out in a school restroom.

When transgender 16-year-old Brianna Ghey left her house last Saturday to visit a Warrington, England park, her family had no idea they’d never see her alive again. She died in the park of multiple stab wounds. Police took two 15-year-olds into custody yesterday on suspicion of murder. Police call Brianna’s murder “a targeted attack” and announced this morning that they are investigating it as a hate crime.

These young faces bring disturbing data to vivid life

Actually, if you’ll forgive me, I licensed a stock photo to represent Natasha Green’s son, because she’s asked the press to tell his story but not identify him. Brianna Ghey’s family have asked the press to name Brianna and to distribute her photo widely to honor her life.

I’m not writing this story to dig into details of either case, but let me briefly summarize before making important points about a rise in anti-queer violence and youth suicide.

If you want more on the Natasha Green story, you can read LGBTQ Nation’s original investigative reporting here. In summary, students at a Fairfax, SC middle school taunted Green’s son for months, calling him the n-word, a fa**ot, and a queer. Green says she pleaded with administrators for help, but they blew her off. Then, after students badly beat her son while a teacher watched and did nothing, the school downplayed the incident and did not fire or otherwise discipline the teacher.

A sheriff's deputy assigned to the school falsified a police report, apparently to protect the teacher, and the local sheriff’s office refuses to treat the beating as a crime, saying, “Green was making a bigger deal out of the incident than it needed to be.”

Students at the school have told LGBTQ Nation that some of their teachers are part of a larger anti-queer bullying problem, saying school officials have told students they don’t “condone” LGBTQ+ relationships “around here.”

U.K.-based Pink News offers comprehensive coverage of Brianna Ghey’s murder, here, here, here, and here. Follow them for updates to the breaking story, but in summary Brianna was a transgender girl of 16 who loved to dance and who celebrated her passions on her popular Tik Tok channel. Brianna’s family say administrators recently excluded her from school. Family complain that students and sometimes teachers badly bullied Brianna at school for being transgender.

Natasha’s son and Brianna share something important in common. Both had been repeatedly bullied in their schools for being queer. School staff knew about the bullying but did nothing or next to nothing to aid either child, even though staff knew who the bullies were. Also, in both cases, at least some staff reportedly dished out queerphobic abuse of their own.

These cases illustrate recent data that show anti-queer violence surging to shocking levels in the U.S. and the U.K., including in schools. Not only are reports of violence skyrocketing on both sides of the Atlantic, but rates of LGBTQ-youth suicide have also surged. Researchers point to anti-LGBTQ political rhetoric as the cause for the violence and the suicide attempts.

US CDC says that one in five LGB youth reported attempting suicide in 2021, confirming a surge first reported by LGBTQ-advocacy groups

According to New York Times reporting, which you can read here for free, CDC researchers surveyed 17,000 adolescents at U.S. high schools and found that mental health problems have increased again, continuing a trend that began in 2011. Researchers say the latest biannual survey demonstrates a genuine “mental health crisis” among teenagers.

Nearly three in five of all teenage girls reported persistent sadness in 2021, double the rate of boys, and 33% of girls seriously considered attempting suicide.

Findings about LGBTQ youth are more troubling. Nearly 70% of gay, lesbian or bisexual teenagers reported feeling sadness every day for at least two weeks. More than 20% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) teens reported actually attempting suicide.

The CDC survey asked only about sexual orientation, not gender identity, but The Trevor Project’s most recent survey is in line with CDC findings. Trevor Project researchers have been sounding the alarm over staggering surges in queer-youth suicide attempts for almost two years. Their survey data show suicide-attempt rates significantly higher among transgender teens than LGB teens. However, because many teens who identify as LGB also identify as transgender, the CDC’s survey undoubtedly captured data about trans teenagers too.

LGBTQ-advocacy group GLSEN reports alarming surge of in-school violence targeting queer youth

I interviewed GLSEN Research Director Joseph G. Kosciw last October after his agency released their latest school climate survey. Two things motivated me to reach out for help understanding the data. First, students reported a rise in anti-LGBTQ slurs and other negative remarks from teachers. Dr. Kosciw broke it down for me. Most queer students (58% of LGB students and 72% of trans students) report hearing trans/homophobic slurs or remarks from their teachers. Again, there is overlap as many LGB students also identify as trans.

Queer students say they feel physically unsafe in school and don’t believe their teachers have their backs.

Second, students aren’t imagining physical threats in school. Natasha Green’s 13-year-old is not an anomaly. The GLSEN survey shows that:

• 31.2% of LGBTQ+ students were physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in the past year based on their sexual orientation or gender expression.
• 12.5% were physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked, injured with a weapon) in the past year based on their sexual orientation or gender expression.

Anti-LGBTQ political rhetoric is on the rise, and violence/suicide are rising with it

According to Pink News reporting today, 320 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in U.S. state legislatures this year, more than the entirety of 2022, which already held the record for such bills. Transgender people are particular targets, especially transgender teens.

LGB students are also frequent targets, with many states introducing “ Don’t Say Gay laws” to ban almost all discussion of LGB people/families in public schools. The bills often generate intensely negative press coverage that amplifies politicians who characterize LGBTQ people as disgusting, immoral, and/or dangerous.

Is it any wonder that Natasha Green’s 13-year-old met with anti-LGBTQ bullying at his middle school? Is it any wonder that his teachers felt justified not protecting him, that administrators ignored Natasha’s pleas for help?

The situation in the U.K. is every bit as toxic or worse.

Politicians from both the governing Conservative Party and the opposition Labour Party frequently demean transgender people in public, sometimes while speaking in Parliament. The U.K. is experiencing a wave of anti-trans hysteria led by fringe groups of “gender-critical feminists” who claim they are just asking questions about cis women’s safety. In the process, intentionally or not, they have convinced a loud minority of the U.K. public that trans women are likely to be rapists.

Nothing could better illustrate that than a recent episode of BBB’s popular Question Time, in which audience members hurled slurs at a transgender panelist and either stated (well, screamed) or implied that trans women are violent threats to society, likely to be rapists.

LGBTQ advocates in the U.K. have fiercely criticized the BBC’s editorial decisions, saying that by choosing to air abuse and false accusations, the BBC broadcast what amounted to a “lynch mob” into British homes.

That is the atmosphere that Brianna Ghey set out into last Saturday when she left an afternoon of dancing and music at her favorite park. That’s the atmosphere she encountered at school as students and teachers bullied her over her gender identity.

The 2024 election season promises an increase in violence-stoking rhetoric

Former President Donald Trump, who has already announced a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, is promising to radically roll back transgender rights if elected president in 2024. Staff for former Vice President Mike Pence, who is not yet officially in the ring, have announced that a series of anti-transgender ads and rallies will soon begin in Iowa, where the GOP nomination race traditionally kicks off. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another probable GOP presidential contender, has made his bones demonizing LGBTQ people.

The situation in the U.K. looks just as grim as politicians (with the notable exception of Scottish leadership) appear to be racing each other to the bottom fearmongering, insulting, and vilifying transgender people. If there’s an end in sight, it doesn’t look close.

LGBTQ people need help from allies

We fear “compassion fatigue.” The worse things get, the more it seems like our friends and loved ones prefer to look away. That’s understandable, and our allies’ reactions aren’t causing our problems. Looking away out of fatigue is not morally comparable to actively causing harm.

However, most of us queer folks don’t have the luxury to look away. Brianna Ghey and Natasha Green’s son could not look away as they were violently assaulted.

The 12.5% of queer students punched, kicked, or injured with a weapon in school can’t look away, and neither can the kids who meet with abuse and try to take their own lives.

Things are getting worse fast. We need our allies more than ever. Please, do us a favor and don’t look away even when it hurts to look. Without your awareness and engagement, we’re lost. Maybe that sounds dramatic, but it’s a simple truth.

Queer people make up too small a minority to fight all our own battles. We have always relied on the love and good will of friends. That is more true today than ever.

Look at those faces in my header image again, please. Will you fight with us? We need you.

Feeling helpless or hopeless? If you live in the U.S. please dial 988 to contact the national suicide hotline. Are you a queer young person? Contact The Trevor Project helpline. If you live in the U.K., the NHS recommends these agencies for crisis help.

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