On this page you will find:

1. A summary of facts about gay persons and schools
2. Recommendations and Strategies
3. Stopping Antigay Abuse
4. Handling Resistance
5. Working with GLB Youth

Fact Sheet: Summaries of Reports on Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals in Schools

 

Note:  For the sake of brevity and ease, the term gay will denote gay males and females as well as bisexual persons.

From the 1993 Resolution on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Youth in Schools adopted by the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives and by the National Association of School Psychologists:

  • Society’s attitudes and behaviors tend to render gays invisible.
  • All persons have the right to equal educational opportunities.
  • Current literature suggests that some youths are aware of their sexual status by early adolescence.
  • Many gays, as well as those who are perceived to be gay, face harassment and violence in schools.
  • Many gays are at risk for lowered self-esteem, self-injurious behaviors and suicide.
  • Gays are at increased risk of HIV infection.
  • Gays who face other prejudiced behaviors due to race, socioeconomic status or disability face additional challenges to their self-esteem.
  • The adopting organizations shall take a leadership role in promoting societal and familial attitudes and behaviors that affirm the dignity and rights of gays in schools. They shall support providing a safe and secure educational environment in which gays may obtain an education free from discrimination, harassment, violence and abuse and one which promotes self-understanding and acceptance.

From the 1988 National Education Association Resolution on gays in the schools:

  • All persons, regardless of sexual orientation, should be afforded equal opportunity within the school system.
  • Every school district should provide counseling for students who are struggling with their sexual/gender orientation.

From the 1993 Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth:

  • Five areas are especially problematic for gays.  These include: harassment in school, isolation and suicide, dropout and poor school performance due to discomfort in the school environment, need for adult role models, parallel family issues.
  • Recommendations include: writing of policies to protect gays from discrimination and harassment, training of faculty and staff in crisis intervention, providing of information in school libraries, writing of curriculum which includes gay issues.

From GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Teacher Network)

  • To help combat homophobia in the schools, school districts need to guarantee equality, create a safe environment, provide adult role models and provide support for students.  They also need to provide training for faculty and staff, reassess the curriculum, provide appropriate health care and education, diversify library and media holdings, broaden entertainment programs, and not assume heterosexuality.

From the Third Annual Report issued by the Washington State Safe Schools Coalition, 1996:

  • 8 percent of all students and 34 percent of gay students have suffered antigay harassment at school.
  • 9 percent of high school students polled consider themselves gay, lesbian or bisexual.
  • There has been a significant increase in calls from parents reporting harassment of their gay children.
  • Harassment has included public humiliation, vandalism, graffiti, death threats, rape, pulling down of clothes, physical assault, spitting.
  • Gays are three times more likely than straights to be seriously injured in a fight.
  • Gays are twice as likely as straights to consider suicide.
  • Gays are 75 percent more likely to report feeling unsafe at school.

From “School yard Cruelty Suddenly Gets Costly,” 12/1/96 Chicago Tribune:

  • Jamie Nabozny successfully sued the Ashland Public Schools of Wisconsin for doing nothing to prevent the harassment he suffered while a student.  The jury awarded him nearly one million dollars.
  • The ruling set a precedent that schools can be held liable for failing to give gay students the same protection they give to other students.

From “Understanding the Experience of Openly Gay and Lesbian Educators,” Kevin Jennings (GLSEN), 1996:

  • Most gay teachers believe they would lose their job if they were “out.”
  • Most gay teachers think it is necessary to strictly separate their personal and professional lives.
  • Most gay teachers live in daily fear and anxiety of being “discovered.”
  • Most gay teachers isolate themselves from other teachers to avoid detection.
  • Most gay teachers resent the injustice of having to maintain a double life and resent having to lie to colleagues and students on a daily basis.
  • Most gay teachers think they have to endure antigay attitudes and actions they encounter so as not to be “discovered,” even if they are against a student,
  • Most gay teachers hope that their performance will protect them if their sexual orientation is found out, but most don’t believe that it would.
  • It is impossible to “recruit” some one to become gay just like it is impossible to “recruit” someone to become straight.
  • Sexual orientation is almost certainly determined before age three or four and very probably at birth.
  • Heterosexuals commit 97 percent of child molestations.
  • A cchild is 100 times more likely to be molested by a heterosexual partner of a relative than by a gay adult.
  • Remaining closeted has tremendous costs: gay teachers feel isolated and unwanted, suffer from lowered self-esteem, feel little sense of belonging to the school or the district, feel “on their guard” and under pressure at all times. Worst of all they help perpetuate the cycle of prejudice and bigotry by not challenging people to see that gays are “normal everyday people.”
  • Teachers who “come out” in school do so for a variety of reasons: they can no longer handle the stress and tension that comes with lying on a daily basis and can no longer handle the fear of being “discovered.” They feel an obligation to let people see that gays are “normal” people and feel an obligation to be a role model and support to students who are struggling with their own orientation. They feel an obligation to help fight bigotry and fear in other people, and realize that being closeted makes them withdraw from colleagues and students thus making them less committed and caring.  They also realize that being closeted requires tremendous energy that lowers their effectiveness as a teacher.
  • 97 percent of high school students report that homophobic language is common in school.

Resources:

  • American Psychological Association
  • GLSEN
  • Massachusetts Governor’s Report
  • National Association of School Psychologists
  • P-FLAG
  • Project 21
  • Safe School Coalition
  • Is It a Choice, Eric Marcus, 1993
  • On Being Gay, Brian McNaught, 1988
  • Open Lives, Safe Schools, ed. Donovan Walling, 1996
  • Schools Out, Dan Woog, 1995
  • The Journey Out, Rachel Pollack and Cheryl Schwartz, 1995
  • Two Teenagers in Twenty, Kevin Jennings, 1994

Some Recommendations and Strategies: Based on Information from the Safe School Coalition of Washington

1.  Establish explicitly protective/inclusive policies and collective bargaining agreements. By addressing the issue of sexual orientation, a school district can make it clear that orientation is not a behavior. A person can be celibate but will still have a sexual orientation. By including sexual orientation in district policies against harassment and discrimination, the district shows that it understands that some segments of society are still more often the targets of abuse. Such policies do not create special rights.  A school district must make it clear that it understands the reality of life for certain students and employees and that it will protect them and guarantee them a chance to learn and to do their job. 
2. Search for, hire and retain a diverse staff. Having openly gay, lesbian and bisexual persons will help all students learn to live in a diverse world. All persons will, at some time, work with or know persons who are GLB. It is good for students to learn to live in a diverse society of religions, sexual orientations, races, and so forth.  Knowing a person’s sexual orientation is not about sex. Knowing that a man and a woman are married tells us nothing about their sexual behavior. Just as a straight teacher should/would not discuss his/her sex life with a student, neither should/would a gay person discuss his/her sex life. What a person does in the bedroom is private.  Who a person is should not. It is good for children to see adults in their lives as whole persons and in all their complexity.
3. Provide opportunities for education of staff and students by providing materials and by including information in the curriculum when appropriate.  Education should be about educating students and teachers so that they can live a better life and can better contribute to society. Sexual orientation has been kept secret for so long that very few persons know more than the stereotypes and the rumors.  All persons who are gay or lesbian are harmed by heterosexism and homophobia in society.  A school district will not get its best work from students or teachers who feel that the school district is also harming them or that pretends they do not exist. Gay students and teachers who live in fear of personal physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological safety must exert tremendous amounts of energy to protect themselves...energy that could have gone toward being better students and teachers. Every straight person, too, is harmed by the prejudices and fears he/she carries. Only education and “exposure” to those who are different from us can break the horrors of prejudice.
4. Support student-led human rights groups including gay-straight-alliances.  Such groups provide a safe and sacred place for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning student. they also provide a forum for education about prejudice and can be useful in creating safer schools.
5. Model respect for all persons and intervene in harassment. Respect means that you can show consideration and appreciation for someone, even if you don’t like or approve of that person. When intervening in cases of harassment, stop the behavior then explain why it is poor behavior. Make sure students and staff know ho to report harassment.

Some Recommendations from GLSEN

1. Guarantee equality for all persons regardless of sexual orientation.
2. Create a safe environment.
3. Provide role models.
4. Provide support.
5. Provide training and education.
6. Reassess the curriculum to incorporate gay and lesbian issues and identity.
7. Provide appropriate health care and education.
8. Diversify library holdings.
9. Broaden extracurricular activities and programs.
10.  Do not assume that a person is heterosexual.

Stopping Antigay Abuse at School

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund suggests the following steps if you are suffering antigay abuse at school:

  1. Get safe, first
  2. Report the abuse to the school principal
  3. Document the abuse in writing. Include who, what, when, where and how.  Get the names of any witnesses and statements from them, if possible. Keep copies of everything you submit to the principal and get proof (in writing) that the principal received your documentation.
  4. Move up the ladder if the principal does not respond to the problem and find out the complaint process for your school district.
  5. Be ready with solutions.

Some Ideas for Handling Resistance (based on Ideas from Warren Blumenfeld)

  1. Focus on the real issue: the safety and inclusion of all students so that all might learn.  The issue is not about sex.
  2. Be prepared with materials that support your efforts.  Use statistics of youth suicide and safety, testimony of those who have been harassed and so forth.
  3. Be able to explain that discussion of gay issues simply acknowledges the truth--there are persons who are gay in school, the workplace, and almost everywhere else. The goal is to promote understanding of a large portion of society that all persons come into contact with frequently, whether or not they know it.
  4. Be able to show that supporting GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) students is simply another way of making school safer for all students.
  5. Put the issue into the context of the school’s core values and mission statement.
  6. Keep key persons updated on the progress of the work and invite their involvement.
  7. Plan for a presentation on issues facing GLBT students and faculty.  Seek testimonies, letters of support.
  8. Plan for a study group or series of workshops for people to learn more about issues facing GLBT persons, homophobia and heterosexism.
  9. Relate the work to work already being done in your school on racism sexism, etc.
  10. Have knowledge of the law and of persons in law who can support your work. Educators have a responsibility to make school safe for all persons and to teach all persons.
  11. Allow all persons to ask questions and to air opinions without attack or blame.  Listen.
  12. Be able to explain why the school is addressing issues related to gays and lesbians, how you are doing it, and what you hope to accomplish.
  13. Survey the student body to find out about the level of tolerance or intolerance that exists.
  14. Stress that this is not a moral issue, but it is an issue of working to make school welcoming of all persons.

Working With GLB Youth:  From Robert Campbell, “Hidden Issues: Working With Gay and Lesbian Adolescents”

  1. Don’t stereotype
  2. Say the words: gay, lesbian, bisexual
  3. Be aware of your own fears and prejudices
  4. Mention positive GLB role models just as you would mention role models from other minority groups
  5. Be aware of heterosexism in language, rules, materials, etc.
  6. Be aware of the local GLB community and of resources
  7. Have resources and materials available
  8. Highlight the diversity of GLB persons
  9. Don’t assume all gay persons have had the same experiences or have all the same beliefs and attitudes about sexual orientation
  10. Do not tolerate abuse or verbal put-downs
  11. Respect confidentiality
  12. Recognize that denied homosexuality is sometimes a contributing factor to teen dropout, suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, low self-esteem
  13. Use sexual orientation as the term rather than sexual preference (it is not a choice)