When Angel Rafael Tavarez started high school several years ago, he decided to try out for the cheerleading squad. “I’m a great dancer,” he tells The Progressive. “The tryouts were easy for me, and I was applauded for both my talent and my stage presence.”
Since anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes frequently collide with other forms of oppression, an intersectional approach is needed.
In fact, the audition went so well that Tavarez thought he was a shoo-in. “People knew I was gay, and despite being ridiculed for my lack of masculinity,” he says that he never wavered from his desire to join the team.
But he was rejected. “The cheer coach told me that she thought it was best if I wasn’t on the squad,” Tavarez recalls. “She said she feared for my safety. I had no fear at all, but because of overwhelming homophobia, I wasn’t allowed to do what I wanted to do.”
Tavarez’s experience is not unusual. Indeed, LGBTQ+ students from every region of the United States, from middle school through high school, report facing staggering heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia—as well as rigid ideas about gender-appropriate behavior—in their daily lives.
According to the 2019 National School Climate Survey released in October, 86.3 percent of LGBTQ+ students have been harassed or assaulted in school due to “personal characteristics,” and 40 percent have faced cyberbullying.
And while nonbinary and transgender students are typically subjected to the worst abuse, with many unable to use restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity, virtually all students who fail to conform to heteronormative clothing or behaviors have found themselves on the receiving end of demeaning language or physical aggression.
The survey, conducted by GLSEN [formerly the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network] is a chilling, but important, read. A detailed, statistics-laden account, it reflects the opinions and perceptions of more than 16,000 LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, from all fifty states as well as Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Among its findings:
Nearly one-third of LGBTQ+ students, 32.7 percent, missed at least one day of school because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, and nearly one in five, 17.1 percent, felt compelled to change schools as a result;
More than half, 52.4 percent, reported hearing homophobic remarks from teachers or school personnel, and 66.7 percent said they’d heard derogatory comments about a student’s gender identity from a school staff person;
Despite pervasive discrimination, more than half of students who fell victim to bullying did not report it to school authorities; of those who reported an incident, 60.5 percent said the school either did nothing or told them to move on or ignore it;
Almost everyone queried, 95.2 percent, said they routinely heard anti-gay comments—from someone being called a “dyke” or “faggot,” to expressions such as “that’s so gay,” and “no homo” throughout the school day.
Dr. Nhan Truong, senior research associate at GLSEN, was one of four people who worked on the Climate Survey. While he stresses that discrimination against LGBTQ+ students exists in every segment of the U.S. school system—public, private, and parochial—he says that prejudice is most severe in the South and the Midwest, especially for middle schoolers attending public programs.
“Schools in rural areas have the most hostile indicators,” Truong says, “and the South and Midwest have a lot of rural communities.” While homophobic comments are ubiquitous, they are worse in these regions. “One of the phrases heard most frequently in schools is ‘that’s so gay’ to mean something negative,” Truong says. In addition, he says that investigators have noted an increase in the use of the expression, “no homo.”
“Someone says, ‘I like your jeans’ to a same-sex friend, but they’ll follow it up with ‘no homo’ to make clear that even though they’re giving the person a compliment, they’re not gay and are not hitting on them,” Truong explains. “This was more pervasive in 2019 than it was when we did the last survey in 2017.”
As Truong speaks, his frustration is audible, but he quickly adds that some inroads have been made to change homophobic school cultures.
School-based alliances, he says, are working hard to make derogatory language unacceptable. Nonetheless, “people think that Gender and Sexuality Alliances [or GSAs, sometimes also called Gay-Straight Alliances] will fix everything, but LGBTQ+ students with a GSA in their school still have problems and need other services and supports.”
Nonetheless, Truong says that GSAs are useful in promoting diversity, difference, and inclusion. But more is needed. Schools, GLSEN says, must draft “non-generic” policies against harassment, bullying, and discrimination, something they see as a step toward concrete protections for LGBTQ+ students.
In addition, schools must be proactive. The survey recommends that they create curricula and purchase library materials that emphasize the contributions of LGBTQ+ change-makers and luminaries; commit to using students’ correct names and pronouns; and support trans students by letting them use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choosing. Policies that treat all public displays of affection equally, whether straight or queer, are also suggested. Lastly, the survey advocates ending policies against gender-nonconforming clothing.
What’s more, since anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes frequently collide with other forms of oppression, an intersectional approach is needed.
“LGBTQ students of color experience multiple forms of discrimination, including homophobia, sexism, and racism, which puts them at greater risk of victimization than their white peers,” Truong continues. “Worse, we found that LGBTQ+ students of color who experienced both racism and anti-LGBTQ victimization have the worst mental health outcomes.” Predictably, this leads to reduced self-esteem, higher rates of depression and anxiety, and lower grades and school completion rates.
But as dire as this seems, Truong and his GLSEN colleagues caution against despair. “Given the vicious attacks we have witnessed over the past four years,” the survey concludes, “particularly on transgender youth, it is remarkable that dedicated educators and active student advocates have held the line as powerfully as they have.”
Indeed, Truong is not deterred and has high hopes for the next Congress. In particular, GLSEN is pushing the reconvened body to finally pass The Equality Act, a bill designed to protect LGBTQ+ people in all federally funded programs, including public schools. Although the Act passed the House in 2019, it foundered in the Senate after President Trump indicated his opposition to it.