If you knew of a serial killer who butchered teenagers by the score, leaving some survivors scarred for life, you'd take steps immediately to stop the carnage. Not, apparently, if you were one of the decision makers at the Vancouver School Board. They recently cut the budget for the work of their one anti-homophobia and diversity consultant in half, despite the murderous toll that depression and teen suicide exact on queer kids here and around the world.

The school board, admittedly, is facing intense pressure from Victoria to balance its books in the face of increased costs created but not adequately funded by the province. Nevertheless, the decision to cut the budget for the work of diversity consultant Steve Mulligan looks murderously careless. Consider the figures for teen suicide in Canada, especially among sexual minorities in the high school demographic. Lives are being drowned in a sea of homophobia and the school board has decided to send the life guard home early.

B.C. boasts Canada's highest suicide rate, and suicide is the second most lethal cause of death among young people from 10 to 24. The figures for queer youth are even worse, with the rate of suicide attempts in that demographic six times higher than the national average.

This will surprise no one who thinks for even a moment about the storms of emotional turmoil that rage through most teen lives and then factors in the cruel impact of society's still prejudiced response to those who fall outside the boundaries of compulsory heterosexuality. How many times will a typical gay teenager have to hear his mates disdain a DVD or movie as "so gay" before she or he gets the message that they are second rate humans, cursed with an identity that has become a stock insult? Then, too, high school kids have got to be aware of the violence that targets lesbians and gays on city streets and in their own schools. Little wonder that depression and suicidal impulses haunt the lives of so many of our gay teens.

Within living memory, those of us who care about human rights have seen an impressive sea change in public attitudes, at least in our big cities, with openly gay women and men prominent in politics, entertainment, same sex marriage legally recognized and some heartening progress made in denouncing homophobia (the socially inculcated fear and hate that is directed against members of sexual minorities) for the boneheaded, evil madness that it is. But it's not over yet.

We have made huge progress, but it's far too early to declare a final victory. Like its odious cousins, sexism and racism, prejudice against members of queer communities continues to fester in narrow minds and pinched hearts among us and reported instances of gay bashing--violent attacks on those perceived to be homosexual--are up by disturbing margins last year. Across Canada, reported anti-gay violence more than doubled, with 71 incidents reported in 2007 and 159 last year. Metro Vancouver won the dubious distinction of gay bashing headquarters for Canada, with our region seeing 34 assaults known to be tied to anti-gay prejudice in 2008.

So, the more than 600,000 of us who joined Vancouver's Pride Parade last weekend had much to celebrate, but it isn't time yet to declare victory. So long as young people growing up in Vancouver are vulnerable to the hatred and fear promoted by anti-gay bigots, whether that bigotry is cloaked in the robes of religious fundamentalism or spread by suburban hooligans in baseball caps cruising the Davie Village in their big trucks looking for victims, we need to continue to educate and organize against homophobia. With that in mind, the recent VSB decision to reduce its anti-homophobia consultant's work in half is profoundly ill advised.

tos@infinet.net

(Allen Garr is on vacation)