Concern about increase in violence against 2SLGBTQ+ youth

As Pink Shirt Day takes place Wednesday to raise awareness against bullying in schools, organizations are concerned about an increase in violence against young people in the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

To mark the day, community organization Interligne is inviting the population to wear a pink shirt in support of young 2SLGBTQ+ people who are victims of bullying in their school environment.

This initiative, highlighted across Canada, began in 2007, when two young people, David Shepherd and Travis Price, asked their classmates to wear a pink shirt at school in support of a friend who had been the target of homophobic comments for wearing pink.

The Interligne organization is taking part in the day for a fourth year. This edition differs from previous ones since it takes place under the theme of gentleness, a response to “hateful and anti-LGBT speech which is gaining momentum in the public space,” says Pascal Vaillancourt, director of Interligne.

“The logo of the sweater is a teddy bear which offers tenderness. We went there with an aspect of gentleness because that’s what young people who experience bullying need. They need to be taken care of.”

Intolerance in schools

The director of Interligne, an organization that visits schools in the province to offer training to young people and teaching staff, is concerned about “hateful LGBTQ+ speech that is a little more present than it has been since the last years.”

“We notice it, we saw it and we also observed it through the media last year,” he argued, citing an incident that occurred in May 2023, when teenagers uprooted and trampled a Pride flag in a high school in Vaudreuil-Soulange.

The director of the Montreal Social Research and Intervention Group (GRIS), Marie Houzeau, agrees with Vaillancourt. Volunteers from her organization, responsible for leading workshops to raise awareness of 2SLGBTQ+ realities in schools, have noticed an increase in questions “laden with prejudice or a certain form of aggression” asked by students.

The GRIS has the mandate to document the comfort level of young people with regard to sexual diversity and gender plurality through questionnaires.

“We still notice that the level of comfort is falling compared to previous years. Young people also leave downright violent comments on the forms,” Houzeau said.

A study by the Institute of Statistics of Quebec conducted among 21,000 people in 2022 shows that young 2SLGBTQ+ people are more likely to be victims of bullying than the rest of their peers.

The survey reveals that 28 per cent of 2SLGB+ people and 34 per cent of transgender and non-binary people experienced bullying in the 12 months preceding the survey, compared to 10 per cent for heterosexual respondents and 11 per cent for cisgender respondents.

In 2020, a SAVIE project survey reported that 43 per cent of young people considered their school environment still hostile to 2SLGBTQ+ issues.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews