Gay Lesbian Bisexual Homophobia
April 12th, 2007 by BabeGay Lesbian and Bisexual Homophobia 101
Homosexuality has made its way beyond our front pages, into our living rooms, and even up to our altars. The voices of gay and lesbian adults are louder than ever and the chant is being heard from Virginia to the Vatican. But while gay and lesbian parents, politicians and preachers are standing up to be heard in numbers greater than ever before, one voice still remains largely silent — that of our gay and lesbian youth.
Where do our youth turn for acceptance and understanding when dealing with the initial confusion of their own sexual identity? Who can they trust when their nation, state, town, school, and even family can be so bitterly divided? Newport This Week takes a look at this difficult and oftentimes traumatic struggle, and the efforts of a local group that is reaching out to lend an empathetic hand. Page 12.
Isolation, abandonment, violence and hate. These are words no parent wants to hear associated with their children. But they are words most gay, lesbian and bisexual youth have come to know all too well.
Jason is bisexual. He started to have an idea that he might be when he was just seven years old.
“I was just looking at boys,” he says. “It wasn’t anything sexual.”
When he was around eleven or twelve, he started to figure it out even more.
“I was more into guys than girls and I kind of struggled with it,” he says.
As a child, he was in foster homes and was a victim of abuse. He bounced around from home to home because “no one wanted me because they weren’t accepting.” Now, at the age of 18, he is living alone in an apartment. He lives independently through a Child and Family Services (CFS) program, with CFS paying the rent and Jason paying for utilities, cable, and Internet.
“It’s kind of stressful and lonely,” he says. “It’s hard to go home and have no one to talk to.”
A safe haven
Now Jason does have someone to talk to, in the form of Melissa Braun, Youth Advocate at Youth Pride, Inc. (YPI). YPI is the only statewide non-profit agency with programming dedicated to meeting the social, emotional and educational needs of youth and young adults impacted by sexual orientation and gender identity. YPI, which has a drop-in center in Providence, recently opened one up here in Newport in the Island Arts Building at 152 Broadway. The drop-in center is a place where youth like Jason can go for support services, group therapy, activities, and just to hang out. Right now the drop-in center is only open Tuesdays and Fridays from 3 to 8 p.m.
“We have been working in Newport county with students for several years and they talked repeatedly about the need for something like a drop-in center there,” said YPI Executive Director Michelle Duso. “Struggling queer youth have a dire need for a safe haven.”
Isolation, depression and suicide
Braun and Jason first started working together about a month ago when Jason came into the drop-in center. They talk about self-respect, personal boundaries, making good, safe choices with sexual partners, about not being promiscuous, and just being safe in general. Jason has been depressed for about five years and used to be on medication. However, the medication exacerbated the problems Jason was having with contemplating suicide.
“I would rather talk about things than take pills,” he says now.
In a recent health survey conducted by YPI aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, 58 percent of respondents reported that they had felt suicidal as teenagers. Thirty percent of all youth suicides completed annually are committed by gay and lesbian youth.
Due to the history of abuse and lack of a consistent family structure in his life, Jason has issues with trust, whether it be in relationships or with friends.
“I am still working on trust,” says Jason. “I feel comfortable with Melissa, though, and she’s helped me through some tough situations.”
However, according to Braun, the most important thing for Jason is defining family.
“My sister, niece, friends and YPI are my family,” he says.
According to a 1987 study, 26 percent of gay youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts with their families over their sexual identities. YPI acknowledges this fact by providing the drop-in center as a safe space for LGBTQ youth to meet others and develop a support network that functions as family.
Homophobia 101
YPI does outreach as well. “If we waited for people to come to us, nothing would ever get accomplished,” said Paige Parks, coordinator of the Safe Zone Initiative.
The Safe Zone Initiative is a YPI school-based program aimed at making schools safe for LGBTQ youth and supporting Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools. The initiative also provides professional development opportunities for teachers and policy advisement for administrations. Rogers High School is the host of a more intensive pilot program.
“Rogers is pretty homophobic,” says Jason, a senior at the school. “People call me ‘fag’ and have beaten me up. It was more in middle school though because now I think people are aware of who I am and that I won’t hold back. I’ll say something back to them. I hear and see homophobic stuff, but it’s not often directed at me.”
YPI conducted a pre-climate analysis at the high school in which 77 percent of student respondents reported hearing name-calling or slurs referring to gay, lesbian or bisexual people within the last 30 days while in school. The majority reported hearing homophobic slurs on a weekly or daily basis. Almost 19 percent reported being harassed at the school because someone thought they were gay, lesbian or bisexual. Paige Parks is the Safe Zone Coordinator and feels that the pilot program at Rogers is very important.
“Without the support of the pilot program, it could easily get very bad here,” Parks said. “A lot of students are unaware and not really challenged to think about LGBTQ issues.”
Another component of the Safe Zone Initiative is the student workshop titled Homophobia 101. All students at Rogers enrolled in health or gym class were required to attend unless they brought a note from their parents excusing them. Parents received a letter in the mail telling them that their child would be going to the workshop and what the workshop would entail. Only three students presented notes.
“I did receive a few very irate phone calls from parents telling me I am trying to promote the gay agenda, that it is unwholesome to talk about gay sex in schools,” Parks said. “We are not talking about sex. We are talking about bullying and harassment and talking about being good peers. They don’t get it no matter how much we explain.”
Parks and Program Director Rachel Floyd presented Homophobia 101. In the first activity students had to write the phrase “heterosexism is the presumption that everyone is, or should be, heterosexual” with their opposite hand. When they were finished, the students talked about how it felt writing with that hand: Awkward, frustrating, difficult, unnatural, hard. Then they talked about the feelings and emotions those words evoked in them: The desire to lash out, take drugs, become antisocial, give up, and contemplate suicide were mentioned by the students. The purpose of this exercise, according to Parks, was to show “how it feels to be a gay student in high school. A lot of [gay youth] feel that people are asking them to be someone they are not.” After their efforts at Rogers are complete, YPI will conduct a post-climate analysis and see how the school improved and in what direction the school needs to travel in the future to provide a safe learning environment for LGBTQ students.
Jason feels that Rogers’ health education program could use a little tweaking.
“We talk about relationships and dating violence in school,” says Jason. “And everyone knows about sex. They need to talk about LGBTQ issues in school instead of blocking them out like they don’t exist.”
Much of what YPI has to offer focuses on peer interaction. The PROUD Leaders are a group of young people chosen by their peers to go through a series of workshops and adventure training. They learn how to develop leadership skills, handle pressure situations, and problem solve. The PROUD Leaders then take this knowledge and put it into a community service project focused around social justice.
The OUTspoken program provides youth-to-youth workshops to give background about what LGBTQ youth face and what tools and strategies they can use in their everyday settings when they walk out the door of the drop-in center.
“We are helping youth develop skills not just in our space but for the rest of their lives,” Duso said. “We are working not to just put a band-aid on a problem, but to help them really get to the root of it.”
Braun is doing just that with Jason.
“My relationship with Jason has been short, but I have been able to help,” said Braun. “There is still a long way to go. I feel that Jason is going to do a lot of growing and learning, but he’ll need to continue with counseling and he’ll need support from his community and friends.”
At a glance:
80% of gay and bisexual youth report severe problems with cognitive, social, or emotional isolation
83% of respondents in YPI’s 1998 health survey considered themselves depressed
97% of high school students report hearing homophobic remarks regularly from peers
53% report hearing homophobic comments made by school staff
50% of lesbian and gay youth report parental rejection because of their sexual orientation
26% of gay youth are forced to leave home because of conflicts with their families over their sexual identities
Of the 7,876 hate crimes reported in 1999, nearly 31% were motivated by bias based upon sexual orientation
41% of gay and lesbian young people reported violence at the hands of families, peers, or strangers
As many as one in three gay and lesbian youth have attempted suicide
In a recent health survey conducted by YPI aimed at LGBTQ youth, 58% of respondents reported they had felt suicidal as teenagers
Gay and lesbian youth are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual young people
Up to 30% of youth suicides completed annually are committed by gay and lesbian youth
By Adam Shepherd
This great article was found at http://www.eastbayri.com
Posted in GBLT