I finished high school in 1974, and I remember the extremely negative view that people had then of queer individuals. Those who were falsely or accurately identified as gay or lesbian, for example, were routinely ostracized and denigrated. School was certainly no sanctuary either – fellow students, teachers, principals, and counsellors were mostly homophobic and unsupportive. I remember vividly two guys at my high school who were gay, and their mannerisms and pride readily identified them to others. I remember the gawking, the ridicule, the pushing and shoving into lockers, and the verbal threats. Behind their backs, they were described in the most unloving and harsh ways.

Perhaps you can’t blame the average person for holding such negative views back then. God, it was only in 1969 that homosexual activity between consenting adults became legal and not until 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder. When two of the most powerful societal forces – the criminal code of Canada and the mental health profession – are ready to say you are both a criminal and mentally ill, respectively, it is no wonder that others held similar views.

As societal tolerance and acceptance of queer individuals increases, however, we will likely see concomitant increases in youths disclosing their sexual identities at school. Such trends are already being witnessed anecdotally. Nonetheless, most queer youth continue to remain invisible in schools because of several factors, but especially because of ongoing heterosexism and homophobia. Are schools ready to deal with the increased visibility of queer youth? Are they ready to assist these teens in increasing their visibility while at the same time providing a safe environment for them at school? Shockingly, evidence suggests that most schools are not much further along on this path compared to when I was in grade school 31 years ago.

While we continue to embrace old stereotypes of how males and females are supposed to look, talk, and act, we keep everyone within a prison cell of narrow walls. While gender-nonconforming lads continue to receive their daily punishment for being who they are within their schools, occasionally a crack in the cosmic egg shatters more than just yolks. Of the 28 random school shootings witnessed in the U.S. since 1982, for example, every one of the perpetrators was reportedly heterosexual (1). Despite this, nearly every one of them had been continually teased, bullied, and beat up as though they were gay, barraged with the typical homophobic epithets that we all know too well – until they could take it no longer.

Homophobic insults are frequently levied at young people, regardless of whether they belong to a sexual minority or not. The Canadian Public Health Association Safe School Study was conducted in fall 2003 and spring 2004 with 2,806 and 2,755 respondents, respectively (2). Seven schools located in Manitoba, Quebec, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Ontario were selected using very strict criteria to ensure student safety and support. The surveys used included a grades 4 – 7 survey and a grades 8 – 12 survey. There were equal numbers of males and females in each sample. Nearly one out of five students reported that they rarely or occasionally felt safe, regardless of their sexual orientation. Homophobic harassment was common in the seven schools, and one in ten students stated they had been called a fag, lesbian, etcetera on a weekly basis. More than a third of the students reported homophobic harassment on a monthly basis. Of the students surveyed, 3% identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual; 4% reported that they were questioning their orientation; and 93% said they were heterosexual.

Another Canadian study published in 2003 included a sample of 3,636 adolescents from 17 high schools in Toronto, Kingston, and Montreal (3). Gay male, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning youth comprised approximately 3-4% of the participants. The researchers found that the sexual minority and questioning youth reported more experiences of victimization by bullying, sexual harassment, and physical abuse than their heterosexual peers.

The situation in American grade schools is even more frightening. Some of the best research occurring in the U.S. is being done by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). They conduct a survey biennially, and have done so since 1999. The 2003 survey was completed by 1,466 queer youth from across the U.S. (4) Their key findings were (a) 84% of LGBT students report experiencing verbal harassment; (b) 91.5% report hearing homophobic remarks, such as “faggot”, “dyke,” or “that’s so gay” frequently or often; (c) 82.9% report that faculty or staff never intervened or intervened only some of the time when overhearing homophobic remarks; (d) 39.1% report being physically harassed because of their sexual orientation; (e) 64.3% report feeling unsafe at their school because of their sexuality; and (f) those who experienced frequent harassment had GPAs more than 10% lower than those who did not. Overall, the authors conclude that “violence, bias and harassment of LGBT students continue to be the rule – not the exception – in America’s schools” (p. 2).

Many of our queer children experience physical assault because of who they are. A 14-year-old boy in Niagara Falls, Ontario, made the mistake of telling his best friend that he was gay. Word spread, and over the next two years, Christian Hernandez:

_. . . was teased and harassed almost daily. One day, a group of boys waited for him after school. Their leader had a knife, and, says Hernandez, “He told me he didn’t accept faggots, that we brought AIDS into the world.” The boy then cut Hernandez on the neck, putting him in the hospital for a week. When Hernandez told his parents the reason for the attack, his father, who has since moved back to his native El Salvador, said he would “rather have a dead son than a queer son.”_(5)

Schools appear to be ambivalent when it comes to dealing with sexual minority youth (6). For example, although New York City has a very large concentration of sexual minorities, Peters (7) found that as he approached 56 school districts on the east side of the city to participant in his school climate study, only six agreed. Representatives from the 50 school districts that refused participation replied that the subject matter was too “provocative” for them to consider participating (Peters).

The invisibility of sexual minorities in schools has occasionally been perpetuated by banning books containing non-heterosexual content. The Surrey School Board in British Columbia banned three books depicting same-sex families in 1997 (8) and book banning occurred in the same year by the Calgary, Alberta Public School Board (9) who claimed two books promoted homosexuality.

Many of us remember the courageous young gay teen, Marc Hall, who found out that he could not take his boyfriend to the high school prom in Oshawa, Ontario in 2002. The fight he went through to simply attend the prom with his date was unimaginable, and even still we wait for the Supreme Court of Canada to render its ruling on whether individual rights supersedes religious doctrine within publicly funded school systems.

The devaluing of queer youth in schools is contributing significantly to their mental health problems. A future column will review the research we have available on this subject. Are schools prepared to deal with the issues that will arise as more sexual minority students demand recognition, acceptance, and equitable treatment? The answer is self-evident from the research that has been done to date. In truth, if schools do not act soon, our legal system will act for them.

In June 1996, Azmi Jubran, a student in a secondary school in North Vancouver, filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Commission. Jamie had been repeatedly teased by his peers, called all the homophobic pejoratives one can imagine. Jamie, like many others who are similarly attacked, was not gay. On April 6, 2005, Jamie was awarded $4,500 in damages, sending a strong message that if schools do not act, judges will (10).

We have waited long enough for schools to get their act together and to begin providing safe environments for queer youth. As John Merrick reminded us in David Lynch’s 1980 movie, The Elephant Man, “I am not an animal – I am a human being!” Why are queer youth and those similarly identified still treated within schools as though they are not worthy of the same dignity, respect, and visibility as compared to non-queer youth? In 2005, grade school personnel should know better.

I encourage you to submit questions that you would like answered in a future column. I can be reached by confidential email at alderson@ucalgary.ca.

1 Kimmel, M. S., & Mahler, M. (2003). Adolescent masculinity, homophobia, and violence. American Behaviorist Scientist, 46, 1439-1458.
2 Totten, M. (2004). CPHA safe school study (Canadian Public Health Association ). Retrieved July 7, 2005 from http://www.cpha.ca/antibullying/english/backinfo/safe_school_study_final.pdf
3 Williams, T. Connolly, J., Pepler, D., & Craig, W. (2003). Questioning and sexual minority adolescents: High school experiences of bullying, sexual harassment and physical abuse. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 22, 47-58.
4 Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). (2003). The 2003 national school climate survey: The school related experiences of our nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Retrieved June 26, 2005 from www.glsen.org/binarydata/GLSEN_ATTACHMENTS/file/2743.pdf
5 Fisher, J. (1999, February 23). Reaching out: A report on lesbian, gay & bisexual youth issues in Canada. Retrieved July 7, 2005 from http://www.egale.ca/printer.asp?lang=E&item=305&version=EN
6 Macgillivray, I. K. (2000). Educational equity for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer/questioning students: The demands of democracy and social justice for America’s schools. Education and Urban Society, 32, 303-323.
7 Peters, A. J. (2003). Isolation or inclusion: Creating safe spaces for lesbian and gay youth. Families in Society, 84, 331337.
8 Fisher, J. (1999, February 23). Reaching out: A report on lesbian, gay & bisexual youth issues in Canada. Retrieved July 7, 2005 from http://www.egale.ca/printer.asp?lang=E&item=305&version=EN
9 Ibid
10 B.C. Court of Appeal supports bullied student. (2005). Retrieved July 7, 2005 from proudparenting.com website, http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=58&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1856&snippetset=yes