The following is an excerpt from the publication’s introduction:
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund provides this booklet to help the many students who are enduring the pain of anti-gay hatred and violence in public schools. It suggests steps for students, parents, family members, educators, and concerned citizens to join others who have begun to fight back against the hatred that causes young lesbians and gay men to attempt suicide at an alarming rate. Lambda has compiled this manual as an important extension to our victory in the first lawsuit to challenge anti-gay abuse in schools.
In the first federal appellate case on anti-gay violence in schools, Lambda successfully represented Jamie Nabozny, who suffered severe anti-gay abuse in his Wisconsin school. He now says that he hopes that his lawsuit might mean that other students will not have to live through the same horrors he experienced.
We dedicate this publication to Jamie Nabozny, who lost an important part of his childhood because of the anti-gay abuse he suffered in school, and who agreed to stand up and fight with Lambda in an effort to make sure that other young people do not have to suffer the way he did.