High school, as many of us will remember, was a period in our life when we were forming a sense of self-identity, or at least trying to find the way to it. Peer pressure played a major role in this, as did the perceptions others had of us.
For some, high school was not a great place to be. If you were on the outs with the cool kids, for whatever reason, your life was – in the immortal words of teenagers everywhere – like totally over!
In later years, however, the geeks and nerds had the drama club, or the chess club, the glee clubs or fandom clubs of various descriptions, within which to gain a sense of place and belonging. The jocks had their sports. The quiet studious types – The Brains – had the library club or chemistry club. Even the Goth kids could get a sense of some sort of belonging by gravitating towards each other.
But if you were a queer kid, forget these social retreats.
Indeed, if you happened to be a queer geek and into chess, there was that. Or the drama club, God knows! Queer jocks just shut up and delved into their sports, but there was really no place in high school culture for any sort of support or community if you were gay, lesbian, trans, bi, or questioning.
If the rest of the students even so much as suspected you were queer... look out! Even the geeks and nerds could turn on and ostracize you, and, believe me, to not even gain the acceptance of geeks and nerds (back before being a nerd was cool), now that was cold.
Many young gay boys and girls spent their high school years isolated and sitting alone, or running home after school to avoid getting beat up. Back then, before the intrusion of Facebook and Twitter, home was relatively safe; a sanctuary. But now that harassment, bullying and isolating behaviour perpetuated against someone at school can filter into their home via social networks.
For far too many queer youth, high school is anything but the best years of their lives. The traumatizing effects of being a social outcast in high school can last a lifetime. One never really gets over that subjectification, even though as an adult we can be successful and competent, that terrified 13 or 14 year old is still living within us.
As human beings we are wired to be social. We form families (biological or selected), packs, tribes, communities and nations. We need to find a common ground with our fellow human beings to feel connected to others.
In recent years there has been a movement within junior and senior high schools to create not just gay, lesbian and queer youth groups, but gay-straight alliance groups: groups where not just LGBTQ youth can come together and gain support, friendship and a connection with each other, but also youth who do not necessarily identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, or two-spirited. Peers who are allied with those of us who do.
In the 1980s and ’90s, when the concept of community was starting to blossom amongst lesbians and gay men, organizations were created. Those organizations sometimes expanded to include those who identified as bisexual or trans, or those who chose queer as their identity. Peer-driven gay and lesbian youth groups were formed.
It was a way for our youth, many of whom were under age, to gain access to the bars. Those who felt out of place in other community organizations populated by men and women in their 20s, 30s or older had a place to connect with other LBGTQ youth, and to learn about themselves and their community; a place where their orientation was reinforced as a good and positive thing.
I don’t think it is too fine a point to describe these youth groups as environments in which a young lesbian or a young gay guy could learn how to be lesbian or gay; how to integrate that into their being and not compartmentalize it merely as a sexual behaviour. These groups were a place to grow, learn and flourish, and to gain a sense of belonging to something.
However, these were all after-school endeavours, and not all queer youth could access the groups, most of which worked out of downtown LGBTQ community centres. How does a queer kid out in the suburbs get to a meeting without raising parental suspicions of what he or she is up to? It often involved even more subterfuge; hardly a great way to gain self-acceptance.
This is one of the reasons having a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at school is so crucial. Yes, it absolutely normalizes homosexuality, as it should be. Homosexuality, along with transsexuality and bisexuality, should be seen as a variance, not as a deviance from the norm. Having such organizations within the school environment, and supported by school administration, assists in that, and that support goes a long way in creating a safe environment.
Kent Hehr, Liberal MLA for Calgary-Buffalo (the inner city riding that includes the Beltline, Calgary’s touted gaybourhood), has long supported LGBTQ initiatives, and is also the Liberal education critic. He has been pushing for the provincial government to mandate that all schools support the establishing of GSAs and not leave it up to individual school administrations to decide whether or not they will permit the alliances.
Both Ontario and Manitoba have passed anti-bullying legislation mandating the accommodation of the alliances, thereby removing the right of individual schools to veto the clubs.
Egale Canada conducted a study in 2011 and found that 21 per cent of LGBTQ students reported being harassed, even bashed, because of their sexual orientation and, of them, more than half reported being verbally harassed.
"Bullying rates of LGBTQ kids is higher than other children," Hehr has said. "And suicide rates are also higher. We need to protect those kids today, not tomorrow."
A variety of studies, including the Egale study, show GSAs reduce bullying at school, and not just for LGBTQ students, but other minority students as well.
Kristopher Wells, Assistant Professor and Director of Programs and Services for the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies at the University of Alberta and a long-time LGBTQ youth advocate, says GSAs send a message to the entire school population about the importance of diversity, differences, and human rights. He adds that GSAs also offer a haven for non-LGBTQ students who feel isolated or are being bullied because of their race, ethnicity, country of origin, or religion.
"[GSAs] become one legitimized safe space in school where it’s okay to be different and not be judged, bullied or harassed because of [that] difference," he says.
Having a GSA on site assists a youth’s growing sense of acceptance of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. Having a support network in place, somewhere to go to talk about things or just hang out, will clearly assist in making a young person more comfortable and less anxious, or even afraid, of what being gay, lesbian, bi, or trans is going to mean in their lives.
Even an Alberta Government document entitled Creating Welcoming, Caring, Respectful and Safe Learning Environments, acknowledges this.
The document notes that many students "live in fear; afraid of being rejected by their family and peers and afraid of homophobic and transphobic bullying." The report goes on to say that in schools with a GSA, "...research tells us that students are more likely to feel safe and are more comfortable being open about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity..."
As reasonable and innocuous as this sounds GSAs still have their critics.
Helen Clease, head of the Alberta School Boards Association, feels such a sweeping, one-size-fits-all approach puts some Alberta school boards in a tough spot.
"Traditionally, I don’t think that we would support [a] provincial directive that might constrain the ability of school boards to reflect and meet [the] political needs of their communities," she states.
While I’m not entirely sure what that means, historically the political needs of a community has often been code for we don’t want no gays here. I question what the resistance to GSAs is really about. Surely it wouldn’t be garden-variety homophobia? Do those opposed to GSAs really think the groups will encourage homosexuality? Is anyone in 2014 still that willfully ignorant? Are there still people out there willing to sacrifice our youth on the altar of their own political agenda?
