The (Madison) Capital Times: Why gay students don't feel safe

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via CommonDreams:



Deb Price: Why gay students don't feel safe
Deb Price — 2/24/2009 4:59 am


Imagine being a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender teen who loves singing in the school chorus.

Now imagine that experience being spoiled by a thoughtless, homophobic adult -- the music teacher who ought to be striving for harmony.

"My choir teacher constantly makes gay jokes," a 12th-grade Latino student reported in a new national study. "And he doesn't realize that he makes it so uncomfortable for us because it's choir. There's a large LGBT community in choir, and he sits there and cracks gay jokes all the time."

In its groundbreaking report, "Shared Differences," the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network captures what school feels like for America's LGBT youth of color.

The survey results paint a grim picture of kids so hardened to anti-gay remarks, shoving or worse that they don't even bother reporting the abusive incidents to a school official or parent.

These students rarely read about LGBT people in textbooks, nor do they learn about gay history or people in class. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/440141