Andrew Friedman

An education issue that nobody’s talking about

One education issue that you can't read about in Thursday's New York Times article about Mayor Bloomberg's Education record is the hostile and often dangerous environment that Lesbian ,Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) students face at school.

The 2003 National School Climate Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network determined that 64% of LGBT students do not feel safe in their school. 84% of LGBT students report being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, 39% report being victims of physical attacks, and over 90% of LGBT youth reported hearing homophobic remarks frequently or often in their school. This harassment causes 28% of gay youth to drop out of school. More than 80% of LGBT students state that faculty or staff never intervened when homophobic remarks were made and 37% of the teens did not feel comfortable speaking to staff about LGBT issues. More recent studies confirm the same patterns.

In Bushwick, Brooklyn, recent school climate surveys conducted by Make the Road by Walking's GLOBE Project at three neighborhood public high schools found that 53% of students reported hearing slurs against LGBT students spoken in their schools. 40% of students reported thinking that an LGBT person would not feel safe at their school. 25% of students reported seeing an LGBT student get physically harassed.

Homophobia in our schools is a widespread and serious problem. However, studies suggest that when supportive faculty, Gay-Straight Alliances and other LGBTQ resources are available, LGBT students perform better in school and are much more likely to attend college.

Public discourse about education simply must take the experiences of LGBTQ students into account. Here in New York, we need to see an aggressive and comprehensive strategy to combat the routine abuse faced by LGBTQ students. What are we teaching our children by doing nothing?

Andrew Friedman: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 6:21 AM, Oct 28, 2005 in Education
Permalink | Email to Friend