SAFE: Gay & Lesbian Youth and their need for Role Models

Making Schools Safe for Gay & Lesbian Youth

The Education Report of The Massachusetts Governor's
Commission on Gay & Lesbian Youth

SAFE: Parts	SITE: Pieces
	[Visitor's Survey]	[Main]	[Stoo-pid]

IV. GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH AND THEIR NEED FOR ADULT ROLE MODELS

"If not for the support I found in openly gay teachers at my high school, I would be dead today. I hope to God that future teachers have the courage to come out for their students. "---Sharon Bergman,18, testifying at the Public Hearings.>
"In the schools I went to, homosexuality was there, but it was never talked about. You were made to feel in school that you were different, that you were disgusting."--Steven Wilson, testifying at the Public Hearings.

Adults set the tone of the school community. Through both explicit and implicit means, they send messages to students about what sorts of attitudes, behavior, and conduct are acceptable. Adults who work in Massachusetts schools are ill-equipped to meet the needs of lesbian and gay students. Either intimidated or ignorant, school staffs often fail to provide these young people with the support and even with the protection they need.

At the Public Hearings of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, many gay and lesbian adolescents spoke of their need for positive adult role models in school. Students who were fortunate enough to have such role models testified about the benefits.

"I was constantly denying the feelings I had for other guys. In the process of hiding these feelings, I repressed all emotions. Concord Academy changed all this. It was the first place I encountered that was even slightly gay-positive. When I arrived, an openly gay faculty member was assigned to be my advisor. Through him, I learned that being gay is not the horrible and disgusting thing society makes it out to be, but instead, a normal and natural part of me.".---Devin Beringer, 17,testifying at the Public Hearings.

Studies such as those by Professor Gregory Herek of the University of California-Davis have shown that the key factor in reducing fear and intolerance of gays and lesbians is a positive personal experience with an openly gay or lesbian person. (Herek, 1985). The presence of openly gay/lesbian staff members is a crucial component of any school program seeking to reduce bigotry and provide support for lesbian and gay students. However, the vast majority of youth attend schools with no openly gay or lesbian personnel.

HOSTILITY TOWARDS GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH ON THE PART OF SCHOOL STAFF

Often teachers and school personnel, in addition to being unresponsive to the needs of gay and lesbian students, will themselves be overtly hostile to these young people and use derogatory language about gays and lesbians.

"An administrator in my school, after a particularly embarrassing episode, used in her defense, 'Well, you must have A.I.D.S. You're gay, aren't you?' She didn't realize how much that hurt."---James Cohen, 15, testifying at the Public Hearings.

Arthur Lipkin, who taught for twenty years at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, testified about an incident of verbal abuse by an adult staff member.

"I was standing at one end of a corridor and at the other end two male students were wrestling, just horsing around, I guess. I saw the school security person approach these two boys. She bellowed at them, 'Break it up, you homes!' The corridor echoed with her words and I was horrified. I challenged her on the spot and she replied bitterly, "I wasn't talking to you."---Arthur Lipkin, teacher, testifying at the Public Hearings.

Research by Professor James Sears of the University of South Carolina showed that 8 out of 10 teachers in training harbored anti-gay attitudes. Fully one-third were rated as 'high-grade homophobes,' using a classification system designed to reveal the depth of anti-gay feelings. (Sears, 1989). The chilling effect of such adult bigotry on gay and lesbian youth is self-evident.

TEACHERS FEAR SUPPORTING GAY AND LESBIAN STUDENTS

An atmosphere of intolerance in the schools intimidates gay and lesbian teachers into remaining closeted, thus denying students role models they need. Gay and lesbian teachers testifying at the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth's Public Hearings spoke of being afraid they would be harassed, dismissed, or even physically attacked if they were open about being gay or lesbian in school.

Maryanne Jennings, an English teacher in the Springfield Public Schools for the past 21 years, testified about her fears concerning becoming known in her school as a lesbian teacher.

"Today in school it's okay to hate gays and lesbians; it's actually encouraged by the behaviors and attitudes of faculty and staff. It's not a safe environment. I have not felt safe since my face was on television a few weeks ago on the 20/20 segment on lesbians. In fact, in my school I've experienced an awful lot of harassment in the weeks since then."---Maryanne Jennings, teacher, testifying at the Public Hearings.

Unfortunately, research studies and anecdotal evidence both suggest that teachers' fears are not misplaced. A study by University of South Carolina Professor James Sears found that the majority of school administrators surveyed said they would indeed fire a teacher whom they knew to be gay or lesbian. (Harbeck, 1992).

Gay and lesbian students suffer because of the silence and fears of their teachers. The young gay or lesbian person's experience of isolation worsens through sensing the shame and invisibility on the part of adults in the school. Kathy Henderson, the co-director of the Gay and Lesbian School Teachers Network (GLISTN) and a teacher at Phillips Academy (Andover), says fear prevents teachers from protecting students against anti-gay harassment.

"Most teachers, gay or straight, are afraid to speak up when they hear homophobic remarks. They feel it might put them at risk, that people might say, 'What are you---gay?', which remains a frightening question for most teachers to answer in the current climate."---Kathy Henderson, teacher, testimony submitted to the Governor's Commission.

The experience of Robert Cornigans, a gay African-American English teacher, is a case study of what many teachers fear would happen if they tried to help their students by standing up to anti-gay bigotry. In 1988, Mr. Cornigans was hired as a substitute teacher at a private school.

"I can see I was hired in mid-October to fill one niche in his quest for diversity, and fired in mid-December because my being gay represented a niche that was too diverse for him to handle."

Cornigans originally had no intention of being open about being gay, but events put him in a difficult position.

"One of my freshman students...confronted me with an essay, the essence of which suggested all gays should be hung....Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything to 'Matthew,' and held my tongue as I had done so many times in the past, but I didn't. 'You can't,' a voice inside me said, 'because here's a kid who needs someone to help him.' So I said...'I'm gay.'...A few weeks later I let another student who asked me about my girlfriend know I was gay by showing him a letter (nothing of an erotic nature) I'd written to my boyfriend. That was the extent of my conversations with either boy about homosexuality."---Robert Cornigans.

About a week later, the headmaster told Cornigans he was dismissed because he'd "ruined the boys' lives." Most of the student body and many faculty members petitioned the headmaster to reconsider his position, but he would not.

The Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Law, which passed in 1989, protects teachers, as well as other workers, against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Yet few schools in their faculty handbooks or in teacher contracts explicitly make a commitment to enforcing equal rights protection for gay and lesbian faculty. The fear of discrimination on the part of adults in school remains pervasive, extending even beyond those who really are gay or lesbian.

"Heterosexual professionals also face pressures. Like their lesbian or gay colleagues, they may fear that nondiscriminatory work for lesbian and gay adolescents would open them to the charge of 'promoting homosexuality.' The school climate is fraught with risks."---Joyce Hunter ("Stresses on Lesbian and Gay Adolescents in Schools," 1987).

Several teachers who spoke at the Public Hearings, however, testified about how they were able to overcome their fears and begin to serve as role models for their students. Robert Parlin, a teacher at Newton South High School, cites two issues that motivated him to take the step to come out to his students:

"First, I began to think about the terrible messages that closeted gay teachers send to their students: that being gay is shameful, not an appropriate subject for discussion; that lesbians and gay men were not welcome or valued members of the school community; and second, I received tremendous support and encouragement from my principal, my department chair, and a large group of faculty members." ---Robert Parlin, testifying at the Public Hearings.

Parlin testified about the positive effect being honest with his students had on his teaching.

"My students responded with thoughtfulness, compassion, and sincere respect. Many came up to me later that day to tell me how much they admired what I had done and how it had changed their way of thinking about gay people....The reverse of my fears occurred. I actually became closer to my students as a result of coming out."---Robert Parlin.

Only a few public schools in Massachusetts have made a commitment to protecting and upholding the rights of gay and lesbian teachers and others wishing to provide support for lesbian/gay students. Most school environments continue to remain as threatening for the adult staff as they are for the young people, gay, lesbian, and heterosexual, who need their support and guidance.

SAFE: Parts	SITE: Pieces
	[Visitor's Survey]	[Main]	[Stoo-pid]

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page

My name is Jay. What's yours? The less polite, but more obvious question is
"What do you think (is good, bad, ugly, missing, confusing, buggy, irksome etc.) about the site?"
You can use standard mailto:jfesta@hotmail.com or use this Form-Mail to get ahold of me.

Last Updated: 27 August, 1998
This page's URL is: http://geocities.datacellar.net/WestHollywood/Village/3830/g_gl_youth.html

Off Site Links this document contains:
None.

Because e-mailing on a network can be a painful impossibility.

SAFE: Parts	SITE: Pieces
	[Visitor's Survey]	[Main]	[Stoo-pid]