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Gay/Straight Alliances: A Student Guide
Helping Hands: Building Support and Addressing Concerns

The broader the coalition you build of people supporting your work, the more effective it will be in making your school safer for all students. This is true, in part, because people tend to be influenced most by people who are like themselves. For example, students will listen to other students, administrators will trust the opinions and experiences of other administrators, parents will sympathize with other parents, and teachers will listen to the experiences of other teachers. Reaching out to a broad cross-section of members of your school and community will help disseminate the information. Further, having a broad range of support also means having a broad range of perspectives and experiences. This is the foundation on which a vision of inclusion is truly built, a vision that foresees a school that is safe for all students, that uproots all forms of discrimination and oppression. Encourage your allies to view their decision to tackle the issues facing gay and lesbian students as an indication of their personal courage and compassion, and one more thing they are doing to help all students achieve in school.

When people first hear about gay and lesbian student issues, some may be fearful and may put up some roadblocks. It is possible that you will encounter resistance from some members of your school student body, staff, administration and/or your community, but it's important to keep going. For many years, issues facing gay and lesbian students have been neglected. There are numerous taboos surrounding issues of sexuality and homosexuality in particular. Bringing these problems and issues into the light may make people anxious.

The following section will provide strategies you can use to establish a support network and address issues and concerns raised by your efforts. These kinds of activities help individual students as well as help to build a consensus in your community and school that this work is important and should go forward. Included will be strategies for getting administrators, teachers, students, parents and community members on board and some concrete things that supporters can do to make schools safer for gay and lesbian students.

Getting People Involved:
Establishing a Support Network

Here are some things you can do in your school to build support and address issues and concerns.

Distribute Copies of the Massachusetts Board of Education's Recommendations on the Support and Safety of Gay and Lesbian Students

These recommendations outline some basic steps schools can take to become safer for all students. They have the backing of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Governor William Weld and the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, Robert V. Antonucci. Copies are also available in Spanish and Portugese. (Contact the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students for more information: (781) 338-3000.)

Distribute the Governor's Commission Education Report, Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Students

The report is filled with information about gay and lesbian youth and explains in detail why schools should address these issues to ensure the safety of gay and lesbian students. (Contact the Governor's Commission for free copies at (617) 727-3600 ext. 312.)

Distribute copies of the Anti-Discrimination Law

"No person shall be excluded from or discriminated against in admission to a public school of any town, or in obtaining the advantages, rights, privileges and courses of study of such public school on account of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation."

(Chapter 76, Section 5 of the General Laws)

This recently amended law protects students from verbal or physical harassment in school; from being denied or discouraged from exercising their right to form a school-based Gay/Straight Alliance; from being excluded from school courses, activities, or clubs; from being treated unfairly or differently from other students; and from being unable to get assistance from school faculty or administration in dealing with homophobic harassment or discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation. For a more complete explanation of the law, please call the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education at (781) 338-3000.

Publicize the Concerns of Gay, Lesbian and Straight Students in Your Own School

Use the PTO Newsletter, school newspaper, community newspaper or local media to inform students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members about why your school is addressing issues affecting gay and lesbian students, how you are doing this, and what you hope to accomplish. Encourage students to write articles about their experiences witnessing, encountering or fighting anti-gay prejudice. Some Gay/Straight Alliances have distributed surveys for students, staff and parents, primarily focusing on gathering attitudes about gay and lesbian students and experiences with homophobia and anti-gay harassment and violence. Their surveys were designed to determine how safe the school environment was, if there was a need for support, and how many incidents of harassment had occurred. Giving school administrators and teachers survey results or testimony from students can alert them to the problems gay and lesbian students face in their schools. If positive changes are occurring, document these improvements.

Put These Issues into Context

Schools that have already begun to address gay and lesbian student safety find that there are a number of concerns that students, teachers, administrators, parents and community members raise about their work. For the most part, the concerns are rooted in misperceptions about what schools are doing to protect lesbian and gay students. One of the most commonly expressed concerns is that public schools should not be dealing with gay and lesbian issues at all, that it is not part of their mission or role. It is important to help people to understand that since public schools have an obligation to educate all students and to provide them with a safe learning environment, making schools safe for gay and lesbian students is part of their role.

Another common misperception is that this is about sex, that schools are going to be teaching students about lesbian and gay sexual acts. It is important to explain to people that addressing these issues is not about sex, but about student safety. Explain exactly what your school will be doing, why it is important, what you hope to accomplish.

Put the fight against anti-gay discrimination and prejudice into the context of the school's core values (for example, fostering an appreciation of diversity). Emphasize that providing a safe environment for gay and lesbian students is integral to providing a safe school environment for all students and to helping students learn and live in a society filled with diversity. Superintendents and principals have stressed the need to distinguish between "supporting gay and lesbian students" and "promoting homosexuality."

Sheila Tarlin, a guidance counselor at David Prouty High School, recommends that "Faculty might feel less 'intimidated' by the gay and lesbian issue if it's viewed along a spectrum of other issues that students face with this one having serious conse- quences if not addressed adequately...I think the 'struggle' a student might have with his/her sexual identity might be viewed by teachers more sympathetically if described as one more adolescent issue that some teens face."

A very few teachers and administrators have expressed a difficulty in separating their personal beliefs about homosexuality from their professional responsibility. Public school educators have a responsibility to teach all students, including gay and lesbian students. A teacher who feels that homosexuality is morally wrong must nevertheless not let this interfere with professional duties and obligations to their gay and lesbian students. If you are in a good position to do so, remind teachers who profess a difficulty with separating their job from their moral beliefs or personal attitudes that they have probably had to practice this kind of separation on other occasions. Most teachers encounter students they don't particularly like for one reason or another. They have had to put those feelings aside. This also applies to teachers for whom sexual orientation is an uncomfortable issue.

Educate the School and Community

Here are some ways to inform and educate your school and community:

• Display posters in your school that educate people about homosexuality and homophobia
• Sponsor speakers to educate people about issues affecting the safety of gay and lesbian students. Consider inviting students from your school or neighboring schools, faculty members or administrators to speak. Also, the Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students can provide you with trained speakers that can speak at your school. (See the Resources section for a listing of other speakers.)
• Invite faculty members to attend the annual GLSTN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight School Teachers Network) Conference, which addresses issues of sexual orientation in schools.
• Encourage your school to put together a team of students, parents, teachers and administrators to attend a Safe Schools Program Regional Workshop.
• Plan a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Study Group for teachers so they can learn more about homophobia and heterosexism.
• Plan staff presentations about concerns of gay and lesbian students. For example, the Arlington Public Schools had presentations for all their staff on issues affecting gay and lesbian students, and in-service meetings on the two days before school started in September 1994
• Show educational videos like "Gay and Lesbian Youth Making History in Massachusetts" and "Gay Youth." (See the Resources section for ordering information and more video suggestions.)
• Hold a Parents' Night. Brookline High School hosted a Parents' Night when everyone was invited to learn about the high school's Gay/Straight Alliance and issues affecting gay and lesbian students. This was a time for people to air their concerns and learn why it is important to address these issues. Concord-Carlisle's SPECTRUM invites parents every year to come to an evening get-together to learn about the work the group has done in the past and plans to do in the future.

Solicit Letters of Support

Consider soliciting letters of support and appreciation from a variety of people, including students, teachers, administrators, parents, alumni, influential community members, politicians, religious leaders, pediatricians, physicians who specialize in adolescence and other health professionals. These letters can inspire other people to offer their support and can assure hesitant members of the school administration, staff or community that there is already broad-based support for addressing these issues. If school administrators only hear from a few vocal voices of opposition, they may think that the community in general is more resistant to gay and lesbian student safety than it actually is. According to the superintendents and administrators who participated in the Equity for Gay and Lesbian Students Conference in May 1994, getting supportive and appreciative phone calls or letters from parents and community leaders was extremely important to them.