Challenges faced by homosexuals & bisexuals

An approach to school bullying:
organize a 'sea of pink'

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A Grade 9 male student at Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia on Canada's East coast wore a pink polo shirt on the first day of school, 2007-SEP-05. Six to ten bullies, apparently wishing to display their intolerance of homosexuals and emphasize their heterosexuality, bullied the student. They called him a homosexual because he wore pink; they threatened to beat him up.

Two senior (Grade 12) students, David Shepherd (left) and Travis Price (right) -- heard of the incident and decided to take action. Shepherd said: "I just figured enough was enough."  They E-mailed fellow classmates to drum up support. They went to a discount store and purchased fifty pink shirts, t-shirts, tank tops, etc. for male students. They handed them them out in the school lobby on SEP-14. They also brought a pink basketball and material for pink headbands and arm bands. They ran short pf clothing and went back to the store that morning. The employees opened early so that they could search for more pink clothing.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation noted: "... a tsunami of support poured in" Dozens of students wore the shirts that Shepherd and Price had distributed. However, more than 350 students arrived wearing their own pink clothes -- some head to toe. About half of the school's 830 students wore pink, including one of the bullies!

Some of the classmates of the bullied student's classmates, who remains anonymous, described his arrival at school as a powerful moment. David Shepherd said:

"Definitely it looked like there was a big weight lifted off his shoulders. He went from looking right depressed to being as happy as can be. ... If you can get more people against them ... to show that we're not going to put up with it and support each other, then they're not as big as a group as they think are."

Travis Price said:

"It's been totally overwhelming for us. I mean we're just two local boys and I mean we're getting calls from like Alaska and e-mails. It's just phenomenal the support that we've gotten from across the globe."

He also said:

"The bullies got angry. One guy was throwing chairs (in the cafeteria). We’re glad we got the response we wanted."

Stephen Pearl, the school principal said:

"You're always hearing about the youth of the world and how bad things are. Well, they're not that bad."

Meanwhile, the bullies have not been heard from.

Reaction outside of the high school:

The students' "sea of pink" campaign was first published on 2007-SEP-20. It did not go unnoticed outside the province:

"We don’t want to move the focus from the situation onto us. People say, 'You’re celebrities, you’ll go down in the history books of the school,' but that’s not what we set out to do."

Travis price added:

"People say you’re famous, heroes or celebrities. We’re not, we’re just two kids who stood up for a cause."

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "Bullied student tickled pink by schoolmates' T-shirt campaign," CBC News, 2007-SEP-19, at: http://www.cbc.ca/

2. Ian Fariclough, "Pink shirts legend grows," Chronicle Herald, Halifax NS, undated, at: http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/

3. Ian Fariclough, " 'I've stood around too long.' Central Kings students wear pink to send bullies a message," Chronicle Herald, Halifax NS, undated, at: http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/

4. "A sea of pink for tolerance," CBC News Online, at: http://www.cbc.ca/

"Safe to Learn" website:

By coincidence, a new anti-bullying web-based resource for schools was launched on 2007-SEP-23, just as news about the Nova Scotia pink program was being covered in the media. The web site is at: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/. It is written for UK schools. However, its material is well organized and appears to be directly applicable to North American schools. Homophobic bullies in the U.S. and Canada do not differ much from those in the UK.

Copyright © 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2007-SEP-23
Latest update: 2007-SEP-23
Author: B.A. Robinson