This is from the Huffington Post.
New Jersey’s attorney general said Tuesday that school officials in Emerson, N.J., failed to stop the bullying of one of its student — which included threats and assaults — for six years, according to the Boston Herald.
Attorney General Paula T. Dow announced that the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights found that there is probable cause that the district’s board of education ignored the harassment, violating the state’s anti-discrimination laws.
There is no easy answer to the question I am posing here, but I’m choosing it specifically at a time when many activists are up in arms appalled at the lack of progress in Washington by the President and the Congress to pass LGBT legislation. Don’t get me wrong: I want to see DOMA and DADT repealed, and protections like ENDA passed, but I also want to remind everyone that simply passing new legislation won’t solve all of the problems faced by those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer. That solution, even if we could fully grasp it, would need to employ tactics and actions on many different fronts all at the same time. Â One of those tactics is to seek out and use whatever laws and policies are already out there, such as this example from New Jersey where a case has been build using the states anti-discrimination laws.
Truly, every state has different levels of protections for LGBTQ’s ranging from no protections at all, to states with many protections. It is also a tricky matter to then consider where Federal law and state and local laws intersect. And, court action is very expensive. Still this is very much where attention, actions and funds need to be going.
The article also mentions that New Jersey passed an extensive anti-bullying law. Â It could be that states where we will see these types of actions are those states that are out front pushing LGBT Rights ahead.
NJ School Officials Violated Laws By Failing To Stop Bullying For 6 Years.