Evolución y manejo

It is often reported that LGB people experience no support in school, with no teaching provided on sexual orientation issues. ‘Playing it Safe’ a study of secondary schools in England and Wales found that many schools do not provide the necessary protection and education to LGB students (Douglas 1997). However, some of the interviewees had positive encounters in school. These are important to note, as they highlight good practice.

Carl was subject to bullying in school. One of the teachers was aware that Carl was gay and provided him with support. The school has continued to provide support for other gay students since Carl left the school.

“I was actually close to a lot of my teachers. Some of them - one of them in particular - knew about the bullying in the lower school and he tried his best to help me, but he never caught them in the act and there wasn’t so much he could do. One of the teachers in the upper school asked us to write a short story and I wrote one about a boy going through being gay and he sort of figured it was to do with me and he asked me if I was going to do what he did at the end of the thing. So, he looked out for me after that as well and helped me a lot. None of them ever gave me hassle for it. They were ‘That’s okay, no worries.’ The teachers were brilliant at the school. It was just the students I had a problem with.” (Carl)

The support continued after he had left school: “There’s some people I know who are in fifth year,

now going into sixth year - I was in the wrong year - who are gay and they started a wee coffee morning for them at breakfast and the teachers were involved. I don’t think it’s that formal, just meeting up in the morning.” (Carl)

Damien also described how one supportive teacher made a difference for him. This is echoed in another study which showed that supportive teachers can help prevent the dilemmas that LGB youth face (Russell et al 2001).

“I was outed in school because some girl saw me out one night and went and told someone who was in my year and he started formally questioning me in the rec room, and then a group of four girls came round and said ‘You know if you are, we think you should tell us,’ and all that sort of bullshit, you know? Wee bitches. So I panicked and went and told a teacher about it. She was a lovely woman who was fantastic... Any time I knew I needed to speak to anyone, I could go to that teacher. I needed to go to the GUM clinic and she brought me. So, she was just lovely. Absolutely lovely. She just realised what was going on and helped.” (Damien)

Mark described how he was taught about sexual orientation in school and how having someone who was gay come in and speak to them gave him a lot of reassurance.

“...The school runs a project for third years. It might have been someone from The Rainbow Project. And a guy came up to talk to us about sexual orientation, STIs, HIV and stuff like that, and that was run by the RE department to encourage people to be aware of difference... This guy came in and he didn’t say whether he was gay or not, but I was about fourteen then and I kind of picked up on the fact that he was. It kind of reassured me that there are other people out there. Where, whenever

54 Findings of Survey and Face-To-Face Interviews you’re that age, you aren’t aware that there are other people because everyone you know is at school, it’s kind of beneficial in that way. That was quite amazing that it was organised by the RE department, because usually its ‘Homosexuality is an abomination,’ and all that.” (Mark)

Terry described how the school he attended did not tolerate homophobic comments from teachers. This provided a good example for students.

“One of my teachers at school, he actually got suspended because he implied that two of the students were gay. He was only gone for about two or three days. Two of the wee lads in my year were coming out of the changing rooms and they were out a bit late and Mr Young apparently said ‘Woo-hoo-hoo! What were you two up to in there?’ And implied that they were doing something, and they went and complained and he got suspended for it.” (Terry)

Other interviewees described negative experiences in school around their sexual orientation. Ben reported his experience when he asked about homosexuality during a sex education lesson.

“Second year. I was kind of getting to know what the birds and the bees were. About a man and a woman, and I didn’t understand it. I was about thirteen and I was in RE and I turned round, stood up and said to my teacher ‘What happens, Miss, if you swing the other way?’ And she said to me ‘Get out of my class,’ and I was suspended for two weeks. It’s just something you couldn’t say because I went to a very staunch Catholic school and you just couldn’t talk about it.” (Ben)

The interviewees described institutional homophobia within the schools they attended. Rory spoke of a friend’s experience of homophobia which was hidden to protect the public image of the school.

“...there is a friend I have now that was in lower sixth in the school and he was very openly gay in lower sixth and he had two friends who were quite openly gay as well, and they were really badly bullied and were beaten up by the rugby team and stuff like that, which was just humiliating, and he said there was an incident in the sixth form centre when somebody punched him and I think they called him some name and he sort of retaliated with something else and the fella started to hit him. And it was all sort of swept under the carpet. The teachers in the school were told just to let it be otherwise there would be a big inquiry or something. Our school was sort of ‘As long as the public don’t know, it’s okay.’” (Rory)

Owen also spoke of his school’s ethos resulting in limited teaching for LGB pupils.

“I don’t think, even if the teachers had have heard, they would have even thought that person might have been gay. They would have just said ‘Stop that,’ or something. It’s a really uptight school, you know. Everyone has to be proper and the teachers wouldn’t be very into talking to you about things. You must stay in line... My school doesn’t teach about gay people. It’s just stuck on straight people... It (sexuality) has never been raised at all.” (Owen)

Like Owen, nearly all the interviewees commented on the lack of teaching on LGB issues and how relationship and sex education never mentioned sexual orientation. Rory further described how sexuality was touched on in his school but was not taken seriously by the pupils.

“I do remember there was this guy who came to our school and the whole year had to sit and listen to his talk. It was about drugs awareness and sex awareness and there was a really tiny part of it about sexuality but even that was sort of laughed at by people in our year.” (Rory)

Frank believed it would have been beneficial if sexuality had been raised in a positive light while he was in school.

“Yeah, because I hated it, but if I saw teachers or people with authority talk about it in a positive way... At that time my dad had left and you look to someone in authority to look up to, and in school

Findings of Survey and Face-To-Face Interviews 55

that’s a teacher and when you see teachers in school condemning them to hell, its not very good. If they talked about it in a positive way it would help people definitely. Things could have been completely different.” (Frank)

The lack of discussion on same-sex attraction within the school setting resulted in young LGB people feeling isolated and lacking appropriate guidelines.

“I went to a Catholic grammar school and there was nothing set up to talk to you about sex education for my lifestyle. There was no one for me to talk to about it. The guy I first came out to was very much encouraging that I go out there and have my sexual experience. Looking back now, I would love to have had some sort of peer support group that is sitting down and talking okay talk, to be about what is going on.” (Damien)

The results of the questionnaire also showed significant relationships between other difficulties at school related to sexual orientation and mental health, suicidal ideation and self-harm.