'Homophobia in Schools Essay\r'

'Homophobia is more than awake(p)(p) than ever. Each sidereal day homophobia takes regularizes in the world by dint of vicious spoken, written and carnal acts. One place in society that homophobic acts argon alive and predominant is in our instills. Homophobia takes places in a contour of ways in rail, from offensive jokes, threats, torture, or physical assault made towards lesbian, fairylike, bisexual or transgender callowness. As Campos describes in Diverse Sexuality and School, â€Å"homophobia de nones a terror or hatred of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender young person; it encompasses the bias or discrimination caused by much(prenominal)(prenominal) persons based on their sexual orientation or gender identity” (8). Society may be advancing in the aspect of understanding, but schools unflurried take a long way because entirely students need to be educated on any type of sexuality.\r\nFrom a personal reflection, I debate taking a class on adol escent knowledge in my tenth year of track school; I do non riposte being educated on any other sexuality other than heterosexuality and this was yet sestet years ago. Today I ask the chief, wherefore? Are t severallyers tho as homophobic as around students are? In a Canadian report entitled, all Class in Every School: Final Report on the runner National Climate Survey on Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia in Canadian Schools, Taylor and Peter explore alarming statistics.\r\nâ€Å"70 pct of all LGBT and non-LBGT students reported hearing expressions such as ‘that’s so gay’ every day in school, and almost 48 pct reported hearing remarks such as ‘faggot, lezbo, and inclose’ every day in school. 10 percent of students have heard homophobic statements from teachers. 70 percent of LGBT students said they feel grievous in school” (Taylor and Peter 15). These facts are alarming, scary, and most of all true. The taper of my researc h is to focus on homophobic acts and examples, the effectuate of these acts, and ways to overcome homophobia. Homophobia is defined as a uttermost(a) rage and vexation towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender which causes devastating cause; the unaccompanied way to overcome homophobia is through education in our schools, education on the beauty, tolerance, and bankers acceptance of each individual’s kind.\r\nTo truly understand homophobia, it is all-important(prenominal) to hear real-life stories and sequents that have perpetrated young gay, bisexual or transgender spring chicken. The stories that get out be introduced truly show that some adolescents have extremely difficulty accepting persons who do not conform to the social norms of society. Homophobia acts become a part of the daily routine at school. â€Å"I was chased all the way to my house by a mob of students as things were thrown at me and I was kicked and hit” (Campos 34). If these students chasing the young individual do not get caught, the students believe their mistreatment of a man young as permissible and justifiable; they go out do it and again. As Campos describes, â€Å"befriending, supporting or reason a gay or lesbian callowness is happeny for a nonviolent heterosexual juvenility because they could potentially be labelled as gay or lesbian and face potential harassment as well” (34).\r\nThey biggest fear for heterosexual youth is that he or she does not want to be called gay or lesbian because the heterosexual youth knows that he or she will become the coterminous victim. It is truly a game of fear. An example of fear is shown in the following taken from Gender, Bulling and Harassment: Strategies to complete Sexism and Homophobia in Schools, â€Å"On February 12, 2008, 15 year grizzly Larry King was shot in the com strayer classroom of his California junior high school by another male student after Larry had asked him to be his valentine. La rry was known in his school not only for being openly gay but too wearing high heels, nail polish, and makeup. The tragic incident is unrivalled of the more recent and extreme examples of why it was important to write this book” (Meyer 9).\r\nThe outcome of extreme homophobia is devastating as shown in the above example. The design a heterosexual youth would go just to eliminate the label of being associated with a queer youth is inhumane. What bothers me the most is the extreme spectrum between the acceptance and hatred of non-heterosexual youth; there is not a â€Å"free to be” attitude all together. For example, we have Nicole who won’t associate with Kayla, who is a lesbian, because she fears Kayla will like her and other girls will think Nicole is in addition a lesbian; therefore Nicole calls Kayla a â€Å" dekametre” everyday in gym class and bullies Kayla because she wears boxers.\r\n thusly on the other side of the spectrum, we have Hayden who is more than happy to accept his best friend goo as homosexual. In fact, Hayden asked Max to join the soccer team with him and the rest of the soccer team heartily welcomed Max as cardinal of the guys. Both examples are very possible in society and schools now and both examples reflect the culture of the school as a whole. Unfortunately, the example with Kayla and Nicole is something that takes place much more frequent than the story of Hayden and Max because â€Å"rarely do schools contribute positively to gay and lesbian youth’s sexual identity development” (Campos 23). Schools miss education on sexual and gender diversity which leads to horrible acts causing LGBT youth to endure the overpower effects of homophobia.\r\nThe effects on a LGBT youth because of homophobia can be fatal. In the past some years, there have been numerous suicides as a result of homophobia and bullying. In Understanding Gay and homosexual Youth, Campos introduces us to Robbie who is a 14 year sometime(a) gay youth who ended his life. In Robbie’s suicide note he wrote, â€Å"I am sorry for the pain that I have do everyone through, I hope I can beget the peace that I couldn’t find in life.” One can only imagine the sum total of unbearable pressure and pain that Robbie endured every day of his young life to believe that his only extract was to take his life. However, students still do not comprise bullying despite the fact that they are killing non-heterosexual youth, emotionally and physically. â€Å"LGBT youth face three get hold of problems: (1) isolation, (2) family difficulties, and (3) violence” (Martin and Hetrick, 85). Suicide among homosexual youth is one of the greatest at risk factors because some researchers believe that no other group of youth suffers more than gay and lesbian youth. The biggest reason for these effects is because of the deprivation of education, supports and resources.\r\nSchools choose not to t each about crotchet because either a) teachers do not feel equal profuse, b) teachers do not feel comfortable enough in regards to school policy, or c) teachers are overly homophobic. Whatever the reason may be, schools must put students first. When gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth face unacceptance from their teachers who are supposed to be their role models, the youth feels â€Å"cognitively, socially, and emotionally isolated and solo leading to the development of severe problems” (Campos 30). Some problems that snuff it among school personnel are that they are wrong educated on what it means to be homosexual and the effects of homophobia. In my research and personal interactions I have found that school personnel tackle that gay and lesbian youth have a sexual identity crisis or an internal meshing which causes them to consider suicide. â€Å"The fact is that most gay and lesbian youth consider suicide as a means to escape the pain of prejudice, rej ection and isolation” (Campos 21). The head is how the youth reaches the point of choosing suicide as the only option left.\r\nThe best way to answer this question is to sit back and think about one’s adolescence as a heterosexual individual. As a heterosexual individual you were more than likely able to roam the hallways freely without be ostracized, alienated, ridiculed, condemned or harassed every day. I am not assuming that one, as a heterosexual youth, did not face harassment at all, but not on a daily routine and convening part of the day. The daily routine of feeling unsafe within the doors of the school would become unbearable. As Campos describes in Understanding Gay and Lesbian Youth, â€Å"they began to feel anxiety, fear, worthlessness, stress, isolation, and slump” (20).\r\nThe result of these feelings lead youth to engage in self destructive behaviours, beginning with skipping classes, dropping out, footrace away, and abusing substances. To va lidate this previous statement, Safe Schools Coalition in Victoria, BC, features official research on the impact of homophobic bullying. The following excerpt, taken from the SSVC website, explains why homophobia is so serious. â€Å" detailed new research has found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth who experience high levels of school victimization in nitty-gritty and high school report impaired wellness and mental health in young adulthood, including depression, suicide attempts that require medical care, sexually transmitted diseases and risk for HIV.\r\nThis is the first known study to examine the family relationship between school victimization during adolescence †specifically connect to sexual orientation and gender identity. The study demonstrates the importance of addressing and preventing anti-LGBT victimization at the structural or school level to reduce health disparities among LGBT young people. The study is published in the Journal of S chool Health, the daybook of the American School Health Association” (SSVC) The coda question left is â€Å"what can one do?” to overcome homophobia. There are many things within the school †academically, socially, and morally †that need to be altered, changed and transformed.\r\n'