A safe place for the youth
Discrimination against the LGBTQ community of students
Time for Change
my goal for this website is to be a safe place where voices can be heard and conversations can be held while making change. My end goal is to see a physical change in the school system and try to show that LGBTQ accommodations and History belong in the school system.
Importance of this Movement
Empowering the Community
The issue I wish to discuss for my social action project is the lack of support and education towards the LGBTQ community of students within schools. If you realize it or not, there are members of this community amongst your school. Walking around every day feeling discriminated against. Issues I've noticed within my school or around other schools include, but are not limited to; no non-confirming bathrooms, bullying, and no educational classes talking about the LGBTQ community. Events and information around the LGBTQ are part of America’s history, so why is it never being discussed in the classroom? Why does the board of education fear the teachings of these subjects? Why must students step out of their way to find the support and knowledge they wish to have when the school can just provide.
Changes I wish to see by speaking out against discrimination.
issues I've noticed
Curriculum
School's educational system
Changing up the curriculum and adding in classes and lessons on the LGBTQ community can solve three big issues. One being suicide prevention, fewer acts of hate or bullying, and discrimination. Bullying is a big issue, whether students or staff realize it or not, it has become socially acceptable to use the terms gay, boy, girl, and trans as an insult. I’ve walked around my school and heard things like “that’s gay” “he looks like a girl” (vice versa) and “I bet she’s gonna be trans.” to describe something they see as wrong or bad. Which is completely rude and hurtful towards students of this community. That's where the lessons and classes could come in handy, educating the students about the role the LGBTQ community played in history and how to not be cruel towards anybody from the community could help kids realize how their words do hurt. Education on this topic could save lives.
Unisex Bathrooms
disregarding the gender assigned at birth when comes to bathrooms
Another issue I’ve noticed is the lack of unisex bathrooms in school, yes I do see how this could be an issue but if you look besides that point, how do you think people who do not identify as a gender that is on their birth certificate or the people who identify as neither feels when they are forced to use a bathroom that they don’t feel matches with their gender. It downgrades and takes a toll on people's mental health. They’ll feel as if they could never be themselves.
Impacts
How discrimination and rejection affects someone
According to www.c-hit.org “The Connecticut average for suicide attempts for heterosexual high schoolers was 5.5 percent. Connecticut averaged 29 percent for gay and lesbian youth, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. About 19.6 percent of bisexual youths in Connecticut had attempted suicide.” These statistics are basically saying the LGBTQ youth are more likely to attempt suicide than non-members. Which could be fixed, it could be solved. Just doing something as little as the schools having a Gender Sexuality Alliance could help so many people. Taking action when a teacher sees bullying can help. “There needs to be more attention paid. Adults need to manage their own biases so they aren’t passing them on to their children. We need authority to meet the needs of these kids, and we need adults to intervene,” McHaelen said.''
Safe Place Form
This form is completely anonymous. feel free to express yourself and share ideas or concerns, when I receive responses to this form I will share them if you give me permission, on this website for other people to view and see. no judgement <3