"A REFRESHING LOOK AT THE FACTS AND ISSUES SURRROUNDING GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCES...Provides information from the point of view of what GLBT youth can provide schools to upgrade their safety level, improve their understanding of GLBT issues, and advocate for the rights of all students, not from the point of veiw of 'victims' but from the knowledge that many students-GLBTQ and their allies-have a lot to offer the diverse population of their schools. OUR PFLAG PARENTS AND ALLIES WILL FIND IT A VALUABLE ADDITION TO THEIR SAFE SCHOOLS WORK IN RURAL, URBAN, AND SUBURBAN AREAS ALIKE."
            -- Judy Hoff, MS/Ed, Senior Coordinator, Safe Schools, PFLAG National

"This important new handbook could not have come at a better time. Drawing broadly on empirical and legal research, as well as personal experience, Gay-Straight Alliances offers vital and helpful information, resources, and advice for students, educators, parents, and leaders in creating and supporting GSAs."
            -- Kevin K. Kumashiro, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Illinois-Chicago

Step 1: Be absolutely certain you want to do this. This may put you in the spotlight!
          Step number one is the most important when it comes to protecting your privacy and making sure you’re ready to deal with any negative attention that may come your way. I counseled Kerry Pacer, a high school junior in White County, Georgia, who started the first GSA in her rural conservative area. She was really excited that the principal eventually approved the GSA but as soon as the community found out about it a lot of residents started directing hateful comments at her and her family. The situation turned ugly really fast and caught her off guard. You have to think about the possibility of people in your community and school being very angry with you. They may say and do some really mean things and you need to protect yourself. If you have the support of your parent(s) that’s great but, unfortunately, that’s not realistic for every person. Hopefully you will also have the support of some caring teachers, administrators, and friends in your school. Your community might also have a Safe Schools Coalition, an LGBT Community Center, or local chapters of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) or GLSEN. You can usually rely on them to help you get started too.

           As a former middle and high school teacher, I understand firsthand the concerns many of us have when sexual orientation and gender identity issues come up in our schools. Currently, as a professor of education, I have learned that my pre-service teachers’ biggest fear is not knowing what they will be able to say or do when these issues come up in their own classrooms. Many of us never received any training on this topic in our teacher education courses or in our district’s in-services. This is changing for the better, however, as colleges of education and school districts realize the need for equipping teachers and counselors with the information and tools required to effectively address these issues in the classroom. Some educators are even lucky enough to work in districts that have made clear statements about valuing diversity by including sexual orientation and gender identity in their non-discrimination policies.

           But what about those of us who work in a district that has not yet taken a proactive stance? While it is not within the scope of this book to teach you everything you need to know about sexual orientation and gender identity, I do hope to provide you with a variety of resources and ideas you can draw on to educate yourself, so that you will then be able to network with and get support from others (see Appendices A and B).

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Development
Many researchers believe that sexual orientation identity formation is accelerated among contemporary youth, with many youth realizing their same-sex attractions at younger ages than ever before. One of the latest and greatest resources on sexual orientation and gender identity development is:
Savin-Williams, Ritch C. (2005). The New Gay Teenager. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
An excellent resource with real case studies depicting how today’s adolescents are rejecting traditionally defined labels like “gay” and “lesbian” and are forging their own unique sexual and gender identities, based on a more fluid and dynamic view of human sexuality.

          A survey conducted by Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG, 2005) reports that 95% of guidance counselors have little or no information for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth or their parents and 99% have little or no information for transgender youth and their parents. It’s up to all of us to educate ourselves, seek out others who share our conviction to help LGBT youth succeed in school, and arm ourselves with helpful resources.

          When Does Student Free Speech Become Harassment or a True Threat?
          Schools cannot ban student speech just because the ideas they present may be offensive or objectionable to some. When I was interviewing teachers and administrators during my doctoral work, I asked them to consider the following scenario: During class, the topic of homosexuality naturally arises as part of the class discussion. A student raises her hand and the teacher calls upon her. She calmly states to the class, “I believe homosexuality is a sin and gays will burn in hell.” I then asked, “Is this harassment and how would you handle it?” The answers I got back ranged from, “No, it’s not harassment—it’s just her opinion,” to, “It’s definitely harassment and that statement would not be tolerated.” That teachers’ and administrators’ responses to this scenario had such a wide range does not speak well to educators’ understandings of students’ First Amendment rights.

           Though there are no hard and fast rules, only guidelines, I believe a court of law would probably say the student was simply expressing her opinion and was doing so in an appropriate manner. The student was not using profanity or “fighting words,” she was not directing her comment at any one student, she was not pointing her finger or raising her voice, her comments fit the context of the discussion, and she did not repeatedly bring up her comment. According to Haynes, et al. (2003), student speech (written or oral) becomes harassment “when a student or group of students repeatedly intimidate or threaten another student…interfere with a student’s education, or disrupt the orderly operation of a school” (p. 69). In determining if student speech constitutes a true threat, courts consider the following factors:

(1) the reaction of the recipient of the speech; (2) whether the threat was conditional; (3) whether the speaker communicated the speech directly to the recipient; (4) whether the speaker had made similar statements in the past; and (5) whether the recipient had reason to believe the speaker could engage in violence. (Haynes, et al., 2003, p. 71)

          In the example I gave, the student’s speech does not fit any of these factors. Granted, some students in the class might be made uncomfortable by the student’s remarks. The student’s remarks might also present a challenge to the teacher, whose job it is to ensure a safe and orderly classroom. But none of these concerns, in my opinion, warrant preventing the student from expressing her opinion.

           The US Department of Education (1999) offers guidelines for writing a district’s anti-harassment policy or “speech code.” While schools can enact speech codes to try to prevent harassment, they cannot interfere with the First Amendment rights of students. Some schools’ codes go too far in limiting student free speech. In Saxe v. State College Area School District (2001), the court ruled that the district’s anti-harassment policy, which forbid all offensive and hurtful language, was too broadly worded and violated the First Amendment. The US Supreme Court, in Haynes, et al. (2003), has pointed out, “the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable” (p. 70).

Legitimating and Promoting Homosexuality
          Religious conservatives claim that GSAs “legitimate and promote homosexuality.” They fear the school’s resulting treatment of homosexuality inside and out of the classroom will send the message, “It’s okay to be gay.” They believe that when schools allow GSAs, and students are permitted to discuss homosexuality openly, the result will be to legitimize homosexuality as normal and promote homosexuality as being just as good as, or equal to, heterosexuality. A devout Mormon and mother of school-aged children, whom I’ll call Carol, told me, “I do not want anyone telling [my children] that this is an alternative lifestyle that is acceptable and okay and just another choice. That’s completely against my religion.”

          Thus, when their children’s school allows a GSA and treats discussions of homosexuality in a neutral manner, religious conservatives feel they are being forced to agree with something with which they strongly disagree. Furthermore, it makes it more difficult for them to teach their children that homosexuality is wrong and they feel it makes them look like bigots in the eyes of more tolerant and liberal parents and students. Carol, after sharing her anti-gay beliefs at a school board meeting, said, “I’ve felt a feeling of condescension that because I’m trying to live a moral life in accordance with my conscience and the outlines that God has given in the scriptures that I’m some kind of a narrow minded bigot.”

Losing the love and support of one’s parents is one of the biggest fears for teens who are transgender or have same-sex attractions. Though homosexuality is not the taboo subject it once was, and many parents are supportive of their trans children and children with same-sex attractions, it is still difficult to “come out” to parents and have discussions about sexuality and gender identity. I came out to my parents when I was a senior in high school. I didn’t want to live a lie any longer (pretending that I was straight) but I feared my parents might reject me and kick me out of the house, as had happened to a few other people I knew. Luckily for me, my parents told me, “We love you and you will always be our son.” That was just what I needed to hear and those simple words erased a mountain of burden I had been carrying on my back for years. Nowadays there are many resources available to parents of children with same-sex attractions or non-traditional gender identities, PFLAG being one of the most widely known. Please visit their website at www.pflag.org.

When I was a high school teacher I was faculty advisor to a group of students who started a GSA (Macgillivray, 2005). The students reported learning valuable lessons about working through layers of bureaucracy, power relationships, compromise, and working with others in a democratic process. One of my students wrote, “I learned more about the adult world than anything I’ve learned in class.” Having worked hard in the face of adversity to establish the school’s GSA, two students said, “I felt really proud” and “We made an important difference in bringing issues out of the closet for the sake of tolerance and respect.” Another student added, “I’ve left something for the school to keep.” When I asked my students, “Do you feel like student leaders?” one responded for the group, “I think we all do.”

           Being involved in the GSA helped another of my students remain close to her friends, to whom she had recently come out. She wrote, “I feel a lot better telling my friends who I really am so I can act like myself and not hide the real me.” She recently wrote to me, “The people in the school changed… A lot of people have come out to their friends and school mates.” Thus, my student’s courage and activism paved the way for a more open and democratic school culture.