Multiculturalism in the Classroom: Sexual Orientation Danica Mendez & Allie Maloney

Who Ever You Are: In Your Classroom

As a teacher, how do you approach this situation? What if.. Within your sixth grade classroom, you have a student who is openly gay and constantly talking about his sexual orientation. You notice some of the other students in the classroom are beginning to make comments, feel uncomfortable, and isolate this student. As a teacher, how do you approach this situation?

The Statistics Between 4 and 10% of the population is gay, which means in a public school system of more than one million, like New York City's, there are at least 40,000 to 100,000 gay students. Schools should be a young person's primary center for learning, growing, and building a foundation for success in the world. LGBT students at schools with comprehensive policies on bullying and harassment are much more likely to report harassment to school authorities LGBT students are twice as likely to say that they were not planning on completing high school or going on to college.

The Statistics Gay teens are 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide and 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection. LGBT youth who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence are three times more likely to use illegal drugs. Half of gay males experience a negative parental reaction when they come out and in 26% of those cases the youth was thrown out of the home. Studies indicate that between 25% and 50% of homeless youth are LGBT and on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Statistics LGBT youth are overrepresented in foster care, juvenile detention, and among homeless youth.  Nearly a fifth of students are physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and over a tenth because of their gender expression. About two-thirds of LGBT students reported having ever been sexually harassed (e.g., sexual remarks made, being touched inappropriately) in school in the past year. The average GPA for students who were frequently physically harassed because of their sexual orientation was half a grade lower than that of other students.

Awareness and Advocacy It Gets Better Straight but Not Narrow “The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.” “Straight, gay, & everything in between. why does it matter? So, whether you like girls, you like guys, you like both, you like neither (well, you get the idea). what difference does it really make? There’s a whole lot more to a person than who they date. And yeah, were all different. But we believe that its those differences that make us interesting. Why would we all want to be exactly the same? Where's the excitement in that? Just be you. Cause that’s good enough for us.”

It Gets Better Sarah Silverman Gay Man’s Chorus of LA

Straight but Not Narrow Avan Jogia (Founder) Josh Hutcherson (Peeta)

How can we improve the sexual diversity climate? Brainstorm

Ways to Improve the Sexual Diversity Climate in Your Classroom Reach out to school and ask about training, and workshops that are anti-bullying in nature. Ask school to address community problems and concerns.

Ways to Improve the Sexual Diversity Climate in Your Classroom Use the summertime to plan a curricular unit or collaborate with colleagues on a school project that will educate your students and school community on these issues.

Ways to Improve the Sexual Diversity Climate in Your Classroom Encourage students to talk to family or another trusted adult about what is going on at your school and what you'd like to see changed: more books about gender and sexual diversity in the school or town library? Better enforcement of the school's anti-bullying policy? Starting a Gay- Straight Alliance? Ask for their help and suggestions - start a Facebook group to get your friends involved!

Ways to Improve the Sexual Diversity Climate in Your Classroom If you are an administrator or member of a governing board: initiate talks to invite an expert to offer a full or half-day training to your school or school board personnel about these issues. Include a plan to have this topic revisited in school-wide in- service days at least every two years.

Ways to Improve the Sexual Diversity Climate in Your Classroom Extend your own knowledge on these issues by reading books, watching videos, or attending local workshops and events.

Gay Rights Movement A Quick Overview

Lavender Scare Began in the 1950s during anti-communist times Focused around the fear and persecution of homosexuals Psychiatric doctors felt homosexuality was mental disease LGBT prone to blackmail  Security Risk Officials feared communist would target gay community who would leak classified governmental information

Harvey Milk First openly gay official US elected in office Passed gay right ordinances in San Francisco Icon and Martyr for Gay community Political opponent Dan White killed Milk

Matthew Shepard Most famous example of “Gay Bashing” October 6th, 1998 Shephard was killed by two classmates Tied to a fence and tortured to death Injured so bad, could not operate: life support Died October 12th, 1998: 21 years old Funeral Protests: “God Hates Fags” “No Tears for Queers”

Tyler Clementi 19 year old bullied by roommate who spied on personal intimate moments of Tyler’s via camera Mean Tweets making fun of Tyler and encouraging friends to “tune in to” show Tyler posted a Facebook status stating: “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” Cyberbullying is contributing to the problem!

What’s Changed? What’s the Same?

What are the dangers of focusing too much on what is different? More Harm Than Good? What are the dangers of focusing too much on what is different?

Who Ever You Are How would you integrate this book into your classroom? For what grade level? What would the goal of the lesson be? What activities would you use?

Resources http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/bullying- numbers http://www.thetrevorproject.org/ http://www.glsen.org/cgi- bin/iowa/all/home/index.html http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194& srcid=-2