The undefended discrimination: LGBT students

Why would an educator not defend an LGBT student? Profound lack of knowledge about what is going on. Concern about parents and community negative pressure “promoting that lifestyle.” Their own negative beliefs about the lifestyle. Teacher discomfort about addressing this issue Teacher might be labeled LGBT Students need to be able to function effectively in a society with LGBT people. You are practicing a form of discrimination

Have you ever seen an LGBT person defended? Schools are unsafe for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. —75.4 percent of LGBT students reported hearing remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often.  —45.5 percent reported being verbally harassed and 26.1 percent had experienced physical harassment in school because of their gender expression. Teachers are ill-equipped to confront issues that contribute to anti-LGBT hostility. 

The Teaching profession NCATE-the organization which oversees the accreditation of Schools and Colleges of Education, has removed ‘social justice’ as a teacher education objective and removed sexual orientation as a diversity category requiring instruction

Have you ever seen a LGBT person defended?

A complex climate In response to the formation of a gay-straight alliance to provide peer support to lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth at Salt Lake City's East High School, the school board banned all student clubs and associations not formally tied to school curricula. Banished are groups ranging from hockey and mountain bike clubs, to Native American and Polynesian associations, to the school's Key Club.

A complex climate The National Education Association offers a resolution in 1995 supporting Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual History Month. The American Educational Research Association holds a special day-long training at its 1996 annual meeting for researchers whose work focuses on gay issues in schools. Courses on anti-homophobia education and gay issues in education pop up at Education Schools such as Berkeley and Harvard.

Would you support Kellie Peterson? When the Salt Lake City School Board took radical action to keep young gays and lesbians from creating a support group with the schools, they forgot about the Kellie Petersons of the world. A newly "out" lesbian teenager in the school, Peterson would successfully lobby, protest, and organize to create and sustain such a group and in the process focused national attention on what, until then, had seemed just another local school controversy. Why/why not?