‘Outing’ the Conversation About LGBTQ Issues in our Schools
It’s time to implement serious training conversations about the responsibility of teachers in this area
It’s time to really ‘out’ the conversation about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) realities in our schools and beyond. Not just a paragraph or two in an equity policy, but steps must be taken that result in real change like mandatory LGBTQ Positive Space Training for all staff , Positive Space Groups in every school and changes in curricula that include LGBTQ content.
Having spent the last three years outing the conversation about the need for LGBTQ Positive Space in personal, organizational and political spheres with hundreds of teachers in many Ontario communities, one thing is always clear – teachers are individuals who present at work with intersections of their identity that seem to make them unable to interrupt homophobic, biphobic, or transphobic comments. Whether it’s their faith, culture, lack of exposure and understanding, or something else, it is time to implement serious training conversations about the responsibility of staff in this area.
EGALE is Canada’s LGBTQ Rights Organization and last year they produced a study on LGBTQ students in Canada. According to Every Class in Every School, almost two thirds (64%) of LGBTQ students and 61% of students with LGBTQ parents reported that they feel unsafe at school. In fact, although LBGTQ students will hear homophobic slurs 26 times in a day, only 3% of those will be interrupted by faculty. This is unacceptable and is part and parcel of the high rate of suicide for our LGBTQ youth.
I spent the lunch period recently with an LGBTQ Positive Space Group at a local high school in Hamilton. What a resilient group of students! Some had been kicked out of their homes for their sexual orientation; others were living in fear about telling their parents who they love; still others were too afraid to come to a place where they could identify their sexual orientation to themselves let alone others.
I spent the lunch period recently with an LGBTQ Positive Space Group at a local high school in Hamilton. What a resilient group of students! Some had been kicked out of their homes for their sexual orientation; others were living in fear about telling their parents who they love; still others were too afraid to come to a place where they could identify their sexual orientation to themselves let alone others.
In September, a public school teacher approached me at the end of a training session and was very concerned about how she could possibly interrupt homophobia when she belongs to a Christian church that teaches that homosexuality is a sin. This is a conversation that needs to happen.
It must be a very conflicting place to be but it is time to have it out. How do you do your job of making the school environment safe for everyone when you look at 10 – 15% of your student population and any of your queer staff as sinners?
By the time we finished our conversation, the teacher had come to a point where she realized her views were standing in the way of student safety and achievement. She agreed she needed to spend time reflecting and learning about LGBTQ people. She is the possibility of transformation but without that conversation she would be another teacher standing in silence as a student says, “That’s so gay” within earshot of an LGBTQ student or a student with a gay parent.
I always like to ask teachers what they would do if they heard a student say, “That’s so Christian” or “That’s so Muslim”? I doubt if there’d be much hesitation before that was interrupted. What do you think needs to happen to create positive space for LGBTQ staff and students in your school?
I always like to ask teachers what they would do if they heard a student say, “That’s so Christian” or “That’s so Muslim”? I doubt if there’d be much hesitation before that was interrupted. What do you think needs to happen to create positive space for LGBTQ staff and students in your school?
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