Karen Franklin, Ph.D.
Page B-7
By Deb Price
Gay bashers. The term
conjures up images of the lunatic fringe - twisted
loners, rage-filled neo-Nazis and the worst sorts of anti-social
delinquents.
Frightening? Without a doubt. Yet those images lull us into comfortably
assuming that everyday young people striving to make something of
themselves
just aren't gay bashers. The shocking, sickening truth is far
different:
Eighteen percent of male community college students admit physically
assaulting
or physically threatening someone presumed gay, a landmark survey of
484 San
Francisco Bay area students found. Another 32 percent admit having been
verbally abusive without threatening bodily harm. Even the rates for
community
college women are alarming. Four percent admit anti-gay violence or
threats;
another 17 percent admit verbal assaults short of physical threats.
Why does someone assault a
gay person? That's the question that drove Karen
Franklin to conduct the
disturbing community college survey in the first
place. Throughout her career - as a newspaper reporter, a criminal
investigator
and now as a forensic psychologist - Franklin has worked to decipher
the
motives behind criminal behavior. She surveyed community college
students
because she suspected anti-gay hate crimes are common even among a
fairly
law-abiding population of young people.
Franklin, who unveiled her
findings at the American Psychological Association's
recent convention, concludes that "the majority of young people who
harass, bully and assault sexual minorities do not fit the stereotype
of the
hate-filled extremist. Rather, they are average young people who often
do not
see anything wrong with their behavior. And the reason they do not see
anything
wrong is simple: No one is telling them it is wrong."
Any responsible adult should
be appalled at what Franklin's research tells us
about what kind of values are being instilled in our society's children
long
before they reach college age. Attackers' excuses reveal just how easy
they
think it is to justify assaulting someone gay. Many claimed
self-defense,
saying the victim flirted. Other assailants attacked out of boredom,
for kicks,
to show disgust, to fit in with buddies or to try to prove their
heterosexuality. Most attacks confessed to Franklin were cowardly
assaults by
three or more teen-age boys on a lone victim. Rather than expressing
remorse or
shame, attackers often boasted aloud they'd do it again. Even more
chilling was
what several students wrote, unprompted, on their anonymous surveys.
The gist
of their declarations, Franklin recalls, was, "I have never harassed
homosexuals, but if I could get away with it I'd kill them all."
Many assailants were
gender-role vigilantes, who claim a moral duty to punish
anyone whose appearance or behavior doesn't fit traditional patterns.
College
students don't just wake up one day with such dangerously misguided
ideas.
Their whole lives they've been pummeled by the notion there's something
wrong
with being different.
By adolescence, the fear of
being viewed as different grips almost everyone. A
1993 Harris poll found that 86 percent of 8th-to 11th-graders would be
"very upset" to be called gay. It's only one child-sized step from
hating the label "gay" to hating actual gay people. From there, it
doesn't take much of a mental leap to become someone who makes no
apologies for
hurting gay people.
Franklin, who works in a
Washington state prison, stresses "it is
imperative to confront the cultural climate that fosters everyday
harassment
and denigration of anyone who is perceived as different."
Children should be taught
early that there's nothing wrong with being gay, just
as there's no single right way to be male or female.
The millions of straight
adults who say they condemn gay bashing need to
understand the problem won't magically disappear. Unless those adults
actively
teach respect for humanity's wonderful diversity, some of today's
toddlers will
inevitably become tomorrow's gay bashers.
Then, whose son or daughter
will be a victim? And whose will belong behind
bars?
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