EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FORMATION AND MANDATE OF THE NATION'S FIRST GAY & LESBIAN YOUTH COMMISSION

Governor William F. Weld signed an executive order on 10 February, 1992 creating the nation's first Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. Governor Weld and Lieutenant Governor Paul Cellucci formed the Commission in response to the epidemic of suicide by young gays and lesbians as revealed in a 1989 Federal report on youth suicide.

Prevention of gay and lesbian youth suicide, violence prevention, as well as prevention of problems faced by young gays and lesbians in school and in the family are central to the Commission's mandate. The Commission is empowered to make recommendations to the Governor, to state agencies, and to private agencies about the creation of programs and policies which will help gay and lesbian youth in Massachusetts. Abolishing prejudice and discrimination against gay and lesbian youth is a stated goal of the Commission as expressed by Governor Weld in the preamble to the executive order.

The Commission exists on an ongoing basis as an all-volunteer advocacy group, serving under the auspices of the Weld/Cellucci administration. The Commission is charged with making an annual report to Governor Weld.

IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS FACED BY GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH IN SCHOOL

This first report of the Commission is its Education Report, entitled "Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth." In this report, the Commission addresses the problems faced by gay and lesbian adolescents in schools. To gather information for its report, the Commission held a series of five public hearings across Massachusetts in the autumn of 1992. The hearings were held in Amherst on November 13, Worcester on November 16, the Massachusetts State House on November 17 and November 18, and finally in Springfield on December 1. The hearings were open to the general public and to the media.

The Education Report of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth focuses on the testimony delivered by gay and lesbian teenagers as compelling evidence for the need for change in Massachusetts schools. This testimony forms the heart of this report. National studies and professional articles are also cited, as well as surveys of local high school students' attitudes gay and lesbian youth issues.

The first half of the report discusses the problems encountered by gay and lesbian students in school as well as the problems of their family members. The report outlines these problems in the following five sections:

1. "Harassment of Gay and Lesbian Students in School"
2. "Isolation and Suicide"
3. "Drop-Out and Poor School Performance"
4. "Gay and Lesbian Youth and Their Need for Adult Role Models"
5. "Families of Gay and Lesbian Youth"

RECOMMENDATIONS TO SCHOOLS

In the second half of the report, the Commission makes a series of recommendations directly to schools about how to make Massachusetts school environments safe for gay and lesbian students and how to help these young people realize their educational potential. The Commission urges Governor Weld, the Department of Education and the Executive Office of Education to endorse these recommendations and to devise a plan for their implementation throughout the Commonwealth.

Five specific recommendations to schools are in the following areas:

1. School policies protecting gay and lesbian students from harassment, violence, and discrimination.
2. Training teachers, counselors, and school staff in crisis intervention and violence prevention.
3. School-based support groups for gay and straight students.
4. Information in school libraries for gay and lesbian adolescents.
5. Curriculum which includes gay and lesbian issues.

The Commission makes three recommendations for helping families of gay and lesbian youth

1. School-based counseling for family members of gay and lesbian youth and community-based peer support in the P-FLAG(Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) model.
2. Education of families through information in public libraries.
3. Parent speakers bureaus to advocate for fair treatment of gay and lesbian youth in schools.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO STATE AGENCIES AND THE LEGISLATURE

The Commission's three recommendations to the Department of Education are:

1. Sponsor training for teachers, families and students to learn about the problems of gay and lesbian youth.
2. Make presentations to school committee associations concerning the problems faced by gay and lesbian youth.
3. Develop and disseminate a yellow pages resource book about gay and lesbian youth, one version each for students, teachers, and families.

The Commission's three recommendations to the Executive Office of Education focus on policies and research:

1. Develop and promote anti-harassment policies and guidelines for protecting gay and lesbian students in schools across the Commonwealth.
2. Develop school policies that will guarantee gay and lesbian students equal rights to an education and equal access to school activities.
3. Research the problems of gay and lesbian students, and the needs of teachers and families of gay and lesbian youth.

The state government's leading civil rights agency, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), is urged to do the following three things:

1. Conduct outreach to teachers and school personnel to inform them of their rights under the state's Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Law, which was enacted in 1989.
2. Sponsor anti-discrimination awareness programs in schools for all students to learn about the gay and lesbian civil rights law.
3. Sponsor legislation to extend MCAD's jurisdiction to include complaints of education discrimination.

Finally, the Massachusetts legislature is urged to enact, and Governor Weld urged to prioritize passage of, legislation protecting gay and lesbian students in public schools against discrimination in admission to schools or access to school activities and courses of study.

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