Message from:
The Coalition for Safer Schools of NYS, PO Box 2345, Malta, NY 12020
John Myers, Director of Operations and Programs
Email to: saratogany@aol.com
The Real or Perceived Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Protection Project

===================================================================

Chicago Tribune, June 28, 2003
435 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60611
(Fax: 312-222-2598 ) (E-Mail: ctc-tribletter@tribune.com )
( http://www.chicagotribune.com )
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/north/chi-0306280048jun28,1,2376417.story

Forum aims to help gay teens in school
Anti-harassment efforts discussed

By Angelique Soenarie, Tribune staff reporter

Andy Hunt said she felt the pain of betrayal when a teacher allowed another student to continue harassing her about her sexuality.

Hunt's 10th-grade class at a west suburban high school was discussing "Boys Don't Cry," a movie about Brandon Teena, a transgender female who was murdered in 1993 in Nebraska.

She said a boy in her class began harassing her about being a lesbian.

Hunt, now 18, spoke on a youth panel this week at the University of Illinois at Chicago during a forum on preventing anti-gay harassment in schools. UIC's College of Education and The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network sponsored the program, which they hope will help teachers become more aware of the challenges facing gay teens.

Though the student who harassed Hunt was suspended, she said she felt the teacher should have stopped him before he became threatening.

Stacey Horn, an assistant education professor at UIC who organized the program, told teachers during a session on youth identity that most teens have difficulty with sexuality as early as middle school.

They "think every single person is looking at them and that others know what they're thinking about," Horn said. "Our sexual identities are not our identity, they're a part of who we are."

Cyrus Solhkhah, a director of inpatient psychiatry at Children's Memorial Hospital, said that teacher understanding is vital for gay teens in school.

At Calumet Academy High School in Chicago, principal Daya Locke said she hopes that her open-door policy means students and staff feel comfortable talking about problems that might arise regarding a student's sexuality as well as matters of race and religion.

"We have workshops in regards to labeling [because] there are no perfect beings," she said.

Char Cepek, an English teacher at Lyons Township High School in La Grange, said she attended the forum because she wished she had the opportunity to support her son when he was in high school.

"He 'came out' to me at 19 after he graduated," she said. "Whatever I can pick up here, I hope to use it to help out. It is very important that they know there is support and they know they're OK just the way they are."
============================================================================
This message has been distributed as a free informational service for the expressed interest of non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Subscribe at saratogany@aol.com

John Myers
Director of Operations and Programs
(518) 587-0176

This joy I have the world didn't give it to me

and

the world can't take it away

Return to P.E.R.S.O.N. Project Home Page