Chris Brown, homophobia & dropouts

IT'S BEEN rough going lately for gay youth in America.

The year 2010 had several high-profile incidents underscoring the need to promote understanding and tolerance of homosexuality, the absence of which may be a major cause of school dropouts. (I'll get to that in a bit.)

These incidents also highlight the fact that homophobia today appears to be the only type of hate that's tacitly condoned, encouraged or ignored.

Here's proof. Pop star Chris Brown recently turned to homophobic slurs when, on Twitter, former B2K member De'Mario Monte Thornton (a/k/a RazB) questioned Brown's judgment for assaulting ex-girlfriend and pop singer Rihanna.

Hearing of the spat, I decided to follow the debate, which had apparently ignited a homophobic slurfest on Twitter, as a way to keep abreast of youth culture, since I often speak with them as part of my professional responsibilities.

I FOLLOWED the debate by loading up the hashtag Chris Brown or RazB on TweetDeck.

(For those who aren't social- network literate, a hashtag is a Twitter function allowing you to follow all comments under a certain heading. It is similar to a subject line for an e-mail. It is a word preceded by the symbol "#." For example, if you were to type #drchuckwilliams, you'd be able to follow everything that I post and others post about me.

(Try it out. TweetDeck is a free platform that allows me to link all my social-networking accounts like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or my former spot on MySpace.)

Now that the social- networking tutorial is done, let me get to the heart of the matter.

The slurs seemed to start with a comment by Chris Brown, fueled by RazB's allegations that he had been molested by a former B2K band manager. Brown intimated that the alleged molestation was an indication of RazB's preference for men.

And then the barrage began.

One after another, Twitterers were deftly piling on to the litany of antigay slurs that were injected into the Chris Brown-RazB Twitter beef.

What really concerned me, though, was that the overwhelming majority of those throwing out the slurs appeared to be mostly teenagers, with a smattering of young adults rounding it out.

I was shocked at the number of homophobic comments thrown about.

All of which tells me that this society has to do a much better job of promoting a message of respect and tolerance of homosexuality among our youth.

According to the National School Climate Survey, nine out of 10 GLBTQ students (that would be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning) report being harassed in school and three-fifths don't feel safe in school.

And Mental Health America points out that 22 percent of GLBTQ youth are skipping school on any given day - all of which is supported by data on the American Psychological Association website, which says "continual bullying and harassment from peers" is the leading reason that GLBTQ students drop out of school.

As one who's tuned into our current debate on education reform, I don't hear any of this mentioned. We talk about other affected groups - African-Americans, Latinos, girls and the poor - but not GLBTQ youth.

My sense is that although we should do more to address this group, but our social and religious intolerance and political posturing stand in the way of that actually happening.

Precisely because of this, I'm dreading next year's presidential campaign as conservative candidates grab onto the tried-and-true rhetoric of gay-bashing in the name of protecting the sanctity of marriage, for one.

While we all hold different religious and political views, I'd ask that we all consider the ramifications of homophobia in various settings - churches, sports or during the campaign season.

What some may dismiss as mild socially sanctioned intolerance, what a 13-year-old gay youth hears is that she's not wanted.

And a person who doesn't feel wanted is likely to give up on life - and school, too.

So I ask that all of us - especially those in a position of leadership, be much more responsible with our rhetoric.

Doing so could be the difference between school success and failure for GLBTQ youth. If only I could deliver the same message to Chris Brown.

Charles A. Williams III is an assistant clinical professor and director of the Center for the Prevention of School-Aged Violence at Drexel University. Look for his appearances on Fox 29.