Class acts
Queer youth are creating
safe spaces in high schools

   This year, for the first time ever, Grade Nine students in Ottawa can walk inside their classrooms with the comfort of knowing that their high schools are gay positive and provide services for queer youth.

   Glebe, Canterbury and Lisgar will be among the first high schools in Ottawa to announce their new-born GLBTQ groups at club assemblies in September. Although these new groups are bound to remain strong this year and for many years to come, their success is the result of a long process.

   David Gamble, former teacher at Glebe Collegiate and community activist recalls this process started many years ago. "The Social Issues Committee devolved into a focus on GLB students. It then became the anti-homophobia action committee at the board level. The teachers were there, representatives from the community, community health, Youth Services Bureau, Children's Aid, administrators who were curriculum coordinators --- their focus was to get the anti-harassment policy into the OBE documented policy."

   OBE took several actions to implement the anti-harassment policy by conducting sensitization workshops for staff, counseling for students and mandatory curriculum for Grade Nine students dealing with sexual orientation and homophobia. Once these were in place, says Gamble, it would be difficult for school principals to object to any actions taken by students or staff to fight homophobia.

   Glebe Collegiate Institute started the first high school GLBTQ group in Ottawa several years ago. However, the group was very discreet and informal.

   In the subsequent year, several Glebe students agreed to come out publicly to the school and launch a GLBTQ group with official club status. The Glebe Lambda Coalition (GLC), a focus group on issues of sexual orientation and anti-homophobia, had its grand opening at a club assembly in October 1996.

   GLC's presentation featured an introduction by Gamble, a speech by two of Glebe's openly gay students, a quick drama presentation which concluded with two couples --- one gay, one lesbian, who walked off stage holding hands. There was also a video documentary of Glebe staff and students who answered a few direct questions and expressed their views on issues of sexual orientation --- a video school officials had rejected the previous year.

   GLC continued to battle homophobia actively throughout the year --- the group organized sensitization programs for Peer Outreach, a student support program, and also one for the staff. Glebe's principal, Bob Dagenais, approved a full staff meeting to deal specifically with these issues.

  "The staff --- everybody," says Gamble, "couldn't have been more supportive."

   The Student Council invited GLC representatives to meetings on a regular basis, librarians set up a collection of gay and lesbian fiction and resource materials, and posters advertising GLC were posted on

Towards the end of the school year, Glebe invited GLBTQ group representatives from Lisgar and Canterbury to a meeting. This meeting helped pinpoint GLBTQ students' concerns. Madonna Limoges, 16, a Canterbury student noted that "the occasional people looking in the door to see who is there," was a confidentiality problem.

   The staff at Canterbury and Lisgar are generally cooperative; the reasons why their groups are a little behind is because they got started late in the year and their setup procedure took longer.

   Canterbury advertised most of their meetings through public announcements and formed groups that were as large as 20 to 25 people.

   Lisgar's group was originally initiated by the Rainbow Youth Coalition (RYC), which also helped set up the group at Canterbury. Students from Glebe, Lisgar and Canterbury are currently planning to join forces through RYC and organize a programme which can help other high schools such as Nepean, Woodroffe and Hillcrest to set up GLBTQ groups.

Philip Dlab graduated from Glebe Collegiate in June '97, where he was a gay rights activist.

© PFL, 1997