Gay Youth Comg Out In Middle School : NPR

Contents:

• WHAT'S LIFE LIKE FOR GAY KIDS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
• GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"
• COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
• FLORIDA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL SAYS WILL REFER TO STUNTS ONLY BY 'BLOGIL GENR,' ASKS GAY AND TRANSGENR STUNTS TO LEAVE
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS

WHAT'S LIFE LIKE FOR GAY KIDS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Each year, seems, we hear the stori of the clash of culture and genr when a high school stunt who is gay is banned om attendg the prom, or pays a price for gog.

This year is no different, om a Mississippi unty school board banng 18-year-old Constance McMillan, who wanted to wear a tux and brg her girliend, to the Miami gay senr who was crowned prom queen -only to be disowned by his own fay. Today, we hear om a Los Angel school admistrator charge of equy and diversy, and om an advote whose anizatn has helped gui gay kids through the maze of high school life. COX: One of the areas that has been an issue the gay, lbian, transgenr muny, as far as public schools are ncerned, is whether or not to tegrate the stunts to the mastream populatn or to some way segregate them, even if is jt for their safety.

GAY KIDS COMG OUT YOUNGER, BUT PARENTS ASK "HOW DO YOU KNOW?"

COX: Is possible, Judy, to tablish wh a school settg, let's say, a program that will benef stunts who are lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr - not discrimate agast them but at the same time, allow them to have the fort of beg an area where they n feel fortable? You know, so we would do some kd of supprsn terms of the anti-gay harassment that you experienced and plement that wh tnal terventns bee is through tn that we n really end bias. We are talkg about gay stunts and high school, public high school, and we are talkg wh Judy Chiasson wh the Office of Human Relatns, Diversy and Equy the L.

Those are the clear non-discrimatn and anti-bullyg, anti-harassment polici that explicly clu sexual orientatn and genr exprsn and genr inty as among those tegori of protectn; havg supportive faculty and school staff available to young people to help them when issu arise; the prence of stunt clubs, monly known as gay-straight allianc, or GSAs, and other stunt advocy to improve school climate; and the prence of clive curricular elements that accurately and appropriately pict LGBT people, history and life. I am a queer teacher Columb, and the big thg I've noticed, the big problem that I have had, is I live a state where is still legal to fire someone for beg gay. I thk Judy embodi what I thk is bt all people who go to tn, but I do have to pot out that there are ser stutnal barriers across the untry for teachers, gay or straight, who wish to reach out and help stunts who are havg a hard time.

And I thk the key thg - thkg about that first email - is that this is about the fact that 90 percent of stunts, gay and straight, report that they hear anti-gay ments, anti-LGBT ments at school every sgle day. Stunts we asked - a natnal sample of sendary school stunts, middle and high school, the - gay and straight - about the most equent bas for bullyg and harassment their schools, and the top three that were listed were physil appearance and body size, actual or perceived sexual orientatn, and whether a stunt was perceived to be, quote-unquote, mascule or feme enough. So I thk that there's a mon misnceptn, that alg wh LGBT issu K-through-12 schools is about - fundamentally about promotg a - someone beg lbian or gay.

COMG OUT AS GAY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Primarily, is about rcg the sea of anti-LGBT sentiment that fuels a lot of bullyg that has nothg to do wh a specific personal anim agast a gay dividual. Sendarily, of urse, is about those stunts an environment who may or may not be gay, maybe thkg about whether or not they are LGBT, and are wnsg the price that they will have to pay.

Our guts are Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network, also known as GLSEN; and Judy Chiasson, wh the Office of Human Relatns, Diversy and Equy, Los Angel Unified School District. And what we fd is that gay stunts report that they are four tim more likely than straight stunts to be threatened wh a weapon school.

GAY YOUTH COMG OUT IN MIDDLE SCHOOL

All forms of risk are elevated bee of anti-gay bullyg and harassment - even Massachetts schools, where we've had longstandg polici agast this.

Unified School District; Eliza Byard, as - serv as executive director of the Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network; and someone who joed by phone who - Stanley, who was om Massachetts, print of the PFLAG chapter there. And then there were others the class - and this was so spirg - they said, you know, I never realized when I said "that's so gay" that I was really hurtg somebody.

Unified School District; and Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network - otherwise known as GLSEN - jog om our New York bure.

FLORIDA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL SAYS WILL REFER TO STUNTS ONLY BY 'BLOGIL GENR,' ASKS GAY AND TRANSGENR STUNTS TO LEAVE

But we n also dismantle ways of thkg that rerce the genr dichotomy and heteronormativy, and we mt create safe spac for children to explore their inti and empathize wh those who are different om 2017, the CDC timated that 8 percent of high school stunts intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer (LGBTQ). Florida recently (March 28, 2022) passed the famo “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibs stctn about gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, and queer (GLBTQ) people until the fourth gra and other stat are followg su.

This n also protect them om later engagg dangero behavrs that rult om homophobia cludg dg and alhol abe, skippg school, and self-harm. Denizet-Lewis wr that when he started workg for the gay men's magaze XY 1998, "we received dozens of letters each week om teenagers the pths of spair.

" He explas, That's not to say that gay teenagers didn't still suffer harassment at school or rejectn at home, but many seemed ls burned wh shame and self-loathg than their olr gay peers. Not only were there creasgly accurate and posive portrayals of gays and lbians popular culture, but most teenagers were by then regular Inter ers. Gog onle broke through the isolatn that had been a hallmark of beg young and gay, and allowed gay teenagers to fd rmatn to refute what their fai or church sometim still told them - namely, that they would never fd happs and to the Inter and to creasg cultural acceptance of homosexualy (an crease marred, we should note, by measur like Proposn 8), kids who might once have waed until high school or even llege to e out are now dog so earlier.

AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS

At least 120 middle schools the untry have gay-straight alliance groups, and others let stunts observe the natnal Day of Silence prott agast anti-gay harassment. " They were not, however, silent: "Good luck gettg middle-schoolers not to talk, " the school unselor youth of the Webster kids and other gay middle-schoolers is a sign of how far gay rights have e — but 's also the kids' biggt obstacle to acceptance.

The irony of a parent spectg her kid is gay and then refg to believe he uld know his own orientatn highlights how much more difficulty some parents have wh burgeong gay sexualy than they would wh a straight kid's of this may have to do wh the misnceptn that you have to have gay terurse to be gay, or that homosexualy is somehow a more "sexual" orientatn than heterosexualy. 'Eileen Ross, director of a Mounta View, CA program for gay youth, says that when a 12-year-old boy says he lik girls, "No one says to them: 'Are you sure?