Minnesota's GLBT Students

Learning depends upon a supportive school environment that promotes the educational process. This much is obvious—students who daily face serious risks to their health and safety cannot succeed in school. Unfortunately, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in Minnesota must often focus not upon classes and homework but on keeping safe.

For this reason, the Minnesota Legislature made certain to include Minnesota’s public schools in the 1993 Human Rights Amendment. Without the 1993 act, programs such as Minneapolis’ "Out 4 Good" and Saint Paul’s "Out For Equity"—in fact, any student services for gay and lesbian youth—could disappear overnight.

Preparing Gay & Lesbian Students For Success

The very first recommendation of the final report of the Governor’s Task Force on Gay and Lesbian Minnesotans calls for the creation of a "safe environment" in schools for gay and lesbian youth (August, 1995). One message was made clear in every city visited by the Task Force: gay and lesbian youth are at risk and their needs are not being met in many of Minnesota’s public schools. The need in Minnesota is not for a single "safe zone" in one school or to create a segregated school exclusively for gay students. Instead, school boards, administrators, teachers, and parents need to build safe and welcoming school environments for gay and lesbian students in their own districts. It is the 1993 Human Rights Amendment that makes this possible.

Every child in Minnesota deserves a good education—on this, we can all agree. School administrators and teachers genuinely desire to provide a supportive learning environment for their students. But many educators and parents in Minnesota face real barriers to providing a quality education their gay and lesbian students. As communities begin to address the needs of their gay and lesbian students, the 1993 Human Rights Amendment provides the legal framework to ensure that local schools have the authority to work with their own specific circumstances to improve the educational environment in their own schools.

Real Risks, Real Needs

Gay and lesbian youth today are subject to increased risks for violence, drug use, STDs, and other substantial health concerns directly related to abuse and harassment based upon perceived sexual orientation. According to the 1995 Seattle Teen Health Risk Survey (the local version of the Center for Disease Control’s National Youth Risk Behavior Survey) gay and lesbian youth, in comparison to their peers, are subject to increased risk factors. For example, they are almost twice as likely as their heterosexual peers to be threatened with or injured by a weapon at school (18.6%) and (understandably) almost twice as likely to feel unsafe or afraid at school (20.9%). 

Rather than focusing upon preparing for college and a productive career, gay and lesbian students are instead forced to focus upon simple survival. Harassment, violence, and fear inevitably take their toll. It should be surprising to no one given these circumstances that researchers have found a significant link between suicide risk and sexual orientation [For example: G. Remafedi, et al., "The Relationship between Suicide Risk and Sexual Orientation: Results of a Population-Based Study," American Journal of Public Health (1998, 88): 57­60].

Against The Odds

It is easy to understand why this increased level of stress in the lives of gay and lesbian youth diminishes performance in school. Beyond those everyday challenges faced by their classmates, to succeed in school gay and lesbian students must overcome additional, serious barriers. The University of Minnesota GLBT Programs Office conducted youth focus groups in 1997 for the GLBT Educational Encouragement Project. Gay and lesbian students reported the effects of harassment and violence due to sexual orientation on their participation in school:

• "It has made me think of dropping out. I don’t want to get involved in anything because people are so homophobic. I just try to get through the day."
   
• "It has made me more isolated, especially in terms of conversations about relationships, and dating, distanced from my friends and peers."
   
• "It made me stop. I was teased, and very badly bashed by being gay and in school. I was kicked out of my house and working seems to be more a priority for survival, than doing something that I want, like going to a school that I’m uncomfortable with."

Successful adults begin their careers as successful students. For many students in Minnesota, school is not a path to advancement and a solid career—it is a place of violence and harassment. Gay and lesbian youth can succeed in life, but only if they are given an opportunity.

The 1993 Amendment - A Beginning

School boards and administrators in Minnesota are now beginning to seek assistance in helping GLBT students succeed against these odds. The 1993 Human Rights Amendment deserves a lot of credit for these positive developments. Any weakening of the 1993 act, either by direct repeal or passage of some kind of "no promo homo" provision in educational or human services legislation, would leave gay and lesbian youth without any recourse. Minnesota cannot abandon its responsibilities to gay and lesbian students.