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Schools full of homophobia: researcher

Says many kids bullied, fearful

By: Nick Martin

14/09/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 18

Prof. Catherine Taylor is researching homophobia in schools across Canada.

MIKE.APORIUS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image

Prof. Catherine Taylor is researching homophobia in schools across Canada.

High schools are "the land that time forgot" in the ongoing battle to eradicate homophobia, laments University of Winnipeg education and communications Prof. Catherine Taylor.

"It's a non-issue for so many people these days. They don't recognize how bad the situation is for so many people," said Taylor. She and University of Manitoba sociology Prof. Tracy Peter are conducting a national survey on homophobia in schools.

"Kids are being tormented and terrorized, and very little is being done about it," she said.

Taylor says the findings of their first phase are not surprising -- the vast majority of gay and lesbian students who responded to the survey reported verbal homophobic attacks in their high school, sometimes physical abuse, and could identify areas of their school where they don't feel safe, such as washrooms, gym change rooms, and hallways.

The result was hardly surprising when teenagers freely use as pejoratives words such as "fag" and "queer" in an environment where few students are brave enough to step forward and say such terms are wrong, said Taylor.

As well, "A lot of straight kids are bullied homophobically at school," she pointed out.

The national survey of homophobia in Canadian schools is providing a data base remarkably similar to surveys in the United States and United Kingdom, she said.

Taylor said 85 per cent of the respondents to the first phase of the online, anonymous survey are LGBTQ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning -- but the second-phase responses that she and Peter are now analyzing should draw far more straight students.

The researchers got consent from many school divisions across Canada this past winter to distribute extensive second-phase surveys in high school classrooms. In some parts of Canada, students themselves could choose whether to take part; in many, students under 18 needed parental consent.

Taylor cited Louis Riel, Seven Oaks, and Evergreen school divisions for enthusiastically endorsing the research project and for urging their principals to promote it within high schools. Evergreen's Gimli High School has an especially strong Gay Straight Alliance group, she said.

There was a strong response even though all three divisions required parents' written consent, Taylor said.

The fourth Manitoba division to take part was Winnipeg School Division, whose anti-homophobia education policy a decade ago was truly ground-breaking, Taylor said.

But WSD did not promote the survey, she said, even though the division left the decision to take part entirely up to students 16 and older. Only four WSD high schools took part -- she won't identify them -- and principals did not actively promote the survey, she said.

"We had less uptake in WSD than in the others," Taylor said. "Our greatest success was where there was a strong buy-in at the division level -- that didn't happen in Winnipeg School Division."

WSD officials could not be reached.

Taylor said she was surprised at the welcome reception the survey received in Toronto and Ottawa, whose school boards are so inundated with survey requests from university researchers that they usually say no.

"The entire province of Newfoundland and Labrador signed on, because the minister of education said this has to be done," she said.

Vancouver's school board does not involve parents at all in school discussion of sexual orientation -- schools treat it as mainstream in school curricula, Taylor said. "We have a solid representation of Asian students" from Vancouver.

Taylor said the more detailed second-phase results should be made public in December, and her research group is applying for funding for a third phase to interview teachers across Canada.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Survey report online

The first-phase report of The National Climate Survey on Homophobia in Canadian Schools can be found at: http://climatesurvey.ca/report/ClimateSurvey-PhaseOneReport.pdf

The survey was a 54-item questionnaire made available online and in print. Questions were of three kinds: demographic (e.g., age, province, sexual identity), experiences (e.g, hearing gay used as an insult), and institutional responses (e.g., staff intervention, safe-school policies).

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 14, 2009 A4

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18 Commentscomment icon

I can't believe that some people have commented that this isn't even an issue. For one thing, I'm pretty sure a national survey is a more legitimate source of data than your opinion. For another thing, as a lesbian women who graduated from a Winnipeg high school only two years ago, I can tell you that the results of this study are real. My best friend, who is also gay and out, wasn't even able to attend our grad because he was badly beaten a couple days before to the point where one side of his face was unrecognizable. A couple other people I went to school with waited until university to come out because they were to afraid to in high school. This is a problem and It should be dealt with as it's own issue because the the experiences gay teens go through are very unique. You are coming to terms with who you are and trying to still accept yourself as a decent human being, and at the same time people all around you are trying to tell you that you are sick and in the wrong. If you still don't think this is an issue maybe you should read up on gay teen suicide rates. Thanks

to smilemb;
Your posts are always rambling,confusing,jumping from one un-related topic to the next.Please work on your grammar,and stick with the subject of the article.Thank you.

Hey smilemb you wanna pass the dutchie this way?

Very excellent idea. This study should have been done a long time ago. By identifying how bad a problem is, where people are abused the most, where people get these ideas, and some of the intimidation tactics among other things, we will be able to begin addressing the problem at its core. Homophobia is a major problem in high schools and surprise - adolescents learn more about life and ideas from their peers than they do from the teachers. High school is a place where so many people learn to become homophobic by so much peer pressure.

I am very happy they are doing such a broad study on the issue to better understand its effects, the root causes, and how to address it.

PeggerBoy, don't try to understand "smilemb." They post all the time and NEVER make one bit of sense. Like they're in their own world or something.

"A lot of straight kids are bullied homophobically at school" might as well read "A lot of KIDS are being BULLIED at school".

Bullies will use whatever they figure is the most hurtful when terrorizing their victims. And few effective measures are being employed in general.

Stop studying the problem and do something about it.

The headline shouldn't read "schools" it should read "Society full of homophobia". Schools are merely a microcosm of society. If parents spoke to their children about issues surrounding homophobia then perhaps schools would be more inviting for students. Unfortunately, schools are often singled out in headlines because unlike many parents they are the ones who are willing to tackle the issue of homophobia.

This will endure the self to know the reality of why we need to see what we really do not. Well if I studied to anwser this do I get paid to answer? nope I studied long enough to see if I could be paid. That is me, I did not study human anatomy as a kid, nor did I grow up learning what human antomoy has some related matter to adult relations. Thus why it has any tool to relevance to school class times. Yet again it brings locker room studies. What and where yet why would studies yet to evlovle around anatomomy preferences to orientations to choices in adulthood human anatomomy? Does it begin in the class or the locker rooms and or off campus? what is the purpose to seperate orientations to improve the quality of an existant education system to fit the populus of Winnipeg's new and rising generations of today? Can you not get pais for this? or can you get paid to assist to resolve?

All the content of this study could have been included with the bigger study/prevention of bullying. Whether it's race, gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, religion...it's all bullying when kids and adults are being tormented and terrorized. Stop lamenting about this specific study not getting enough attention and focus on the umbrella problem of bullying.

To smilemb" What????

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