MTV Begins Major Campaign To Educate Teens Who Bully:

Hello ABC, NBC, CBS. Where Are You???

Following from Associated Press, Oct 10 2001

NEW YORK (AP) - Asserting that more than 80 percent of gay students 

are harassed at their schools, an advocacy group joined Wednesday with 

MTV To release a series of public service ads aimed at countering anti-gay 

Sentiment among teens.

The New York-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network said 

the ad campaign is the largest of its kind on any television network, and 

will run at least four weeks, possibly longer.

The first spot was timed to coincide with Wednesday night's airing of  “Hate

in the Hallways,'' (editor's note - Oct 10) an episode about anti-gay bullying 

on MTV's new weekly documentary series, ``Criminal.''

“MTV is playing a heroic role in helping us speak to young people who 

are likely to either experience or perpetrate hate crimes,'' said Jim 

Anderson, a spokesman for GLSEN.

GLSEN also released findings of a nationwide survey it conducted 

earlier this year of 904 gay, lesbian and bisexual students in middle and 

high schools.

About 83 percent of the students reported being verbally harassed in 

the past year because of their sexual orientation, and 21 percent reported 

being physically assaulted.

More than 84 percent of the students reported hearing anti-gay remarks 

Often at school, and most said that faculty and staff rarely intervened when

overhearing such remarks. More than 23 percent said they sometimes 

heard anti-gay comments from teachers and staff.

Nearly 70 percent of the students said they felt unsafe in their Schools 

because of their sexual orientation, and more than 30 percent said 

they had missed at least one day of classes in the past month because of their 

fears.

“We hope these statistics and public service announcements will push 

young people to continue examining their own prejudices,'' said Brian 

Graden, MTV's president of programming.

The 10-second public service ads give graphic depiction's of harassment. In

one, a male student finds a slur about his sexual orientation carved into 

his desk; another shows a lesbian student with a bruised and bloody face.

MTV has tackled harassment of homosexuals before, notably with 

broadcasts and a public service ad prompted by the 1998 beating death of gay 

university student Matthew Shepard.

“These new spots are much broader, and get at the terrifying normality of

this abuse,'' said MTV vice president Stephen Friedman. '``It's so gay' has

become an all-purpose insult at schools.''

Foir further information, on the internet see: http://www.mtv.com and http://www.glsen.org