In a survey spanning schools in the United Kingdom and European schools, it has been found that there is a direct relation between homophobic bullying and mental health. LBGT bullying has such an effect on students to the extent that almost 20% of LGBT bullied students surveyed have attempted suicide at least once. NoBullying discovers the how and why of LGBT bullying in an article released today.

In the survey, published in 2009 by Mayock, P.et al, it was discovered that 50% of those LGBT people surveyed (all under the age of 25) had experienced bullying in school. 27% of the respondents had tried self harm at least once and more than 50% had serious suicidal thoughts.

Same survey points out to the fact that 27% of respondents were “outed” and 33% said they attempted suicide at least once.

The article also notes that in the same survey, the students admitted to having struggles when it comes to concentration and around 13% decided on changing schools or resorted to homeschooling.

If this survey is an indicator of the state of homophobic bullying in schools, it means that half of the LGBT student body in the UK is facing homophobic bullying. Around two in five gay students who experience homophobic bullying think about suicide as a direct consequence.

When young people tell an authority figure about their bullying incidents, in most cases, it does nothing to stop the bullying but makes it escalate.

One student’s direct quote while being surveyed reads, “I was knocked unconscious with a thrown calculator (at my face) in math’s class once. The teacher did nothing.”

Homophobic bullying or sexual orientation bullying is bullying executed by people who do not agree with the individual’s sexual preference. Homophobic bullying is also referred to as gay bullying or gay bashing.

Homophobic bullying happens sometimes because people are afraid of what they do not understand. Someone is “different”, a lot of people in society do not want to accept him/her since they do not fit in. Because of this, someone might not want to be seen with a person who is a homosexual.

It is true there are numerous laws that work on abolishing bullying and violence worldwide. However, since homophobia exists in some cultures, homophobic bullying remains a dark negative side of school lives all over the world. A side everyone refuses to look at.

Ciaran Connolly, Co-Founder of NoBullying.com, said “If some LGBT students are being bullied to the extent of attempting suicide at least once. What more could incite us to end homophobic bullying in schools?”

He added that parents and teachers should make a point to educate the younger generations about the sad outcome of bullying online and offline. According to Connolly, it is quite imperative to press for more firm laws condemning all acts of bullying and harassment.

NoBullying.com is a complete resource center that features many information posts dedicated to parents, teens, teachers, health professionals as well as posts related to cyber safety and the latest news about law making concerning curbing bullying worldwide as well as inspirational bullying poems and famous bullying quotes.

The website regularly updates its bullying statistics and cyber bullying statistics as it is essential to understand how widespread the bullying epidemic is. It also regularly runs cyber bullying surveys and questionnaires to get recent updated statistics on everything related to cyberbullying.

He also added that anyone suffering from bullying in any form or way can always find advice and help on the NoBullying website – but if anyone is suffering from severe bullying or cyber bullying, the best thing is to talk to someone locally – a parent, teacher or local organization that has been set up to help with specialized councilors to deal with this topic.