Image via Pixabay by Bergadder

BY JENNIFER
MCGREGOR
PublicHealthLibrary.org

LGBTQ youth spend the majority of their time in school, so it is imperative that schools create accepting and supportive environments to ensure safety and wellbeing. When schools create inclusive environments, LGBTQ youth are at a lower risk of developing depression, becoming addicts, and committing suicide. There are several things schools can do to create inclusive environments, as listed below.

Educate and Promote Inclusive Leaders and Allies

Studies show that creating supportive school environments for LGBTQ youth improves their educational outcomes. Inclusive schools such as this significantly reduce the amount of physical and verbal abuse, and overall discrimination that LGBTQ students face on a daily basis. In fact, these students report being verbally and physically harassed at school twice as often as their heterosexual peers. By educating faculty and staff on how to support their LGBTQ students in meaningful ways and implementing inclusive policies, administrators can ensure their teachers and counselors are able to create an educational environment that includes all students.

Keep Lines of Communication Open

Communication is key in order to create a supportive environment for LGBTQ youth. Administrators and counselors should encourage parents and students to start a discussion about students who struggle with sexual orientation or gender identity. School officials also need to communicate with teachers and other staff members when LGBTQ students experience bullying so that they can be extra diligent in watching for the warning signs of LGBTQ victimization.

It’s also important for school nurses and health teachers to have accurate information about gender identity, sexuality, and health. This will equip them to teach LGBTQ students and treat them with compassion and understanding.

School officials and counselors especially need to be available for these students to come to them for support. Offices need to be established as safe havens for LGBTQ students so they know they have a place to go, and can feel comfortable approaching school staff. This is important, since issues like victimization and problems at home should be expressed by students in a safe setting.

Understand the Risks LGBTQ Youth Face

LGBTQ youth are harassed more often than their heterosexual peers. A national survey shows that nearly 80% of LGBTQ students are harassed at least once at school. Victimization affects students’ school performance, but it also leads to depression, anxiety, and other health issues. As a result, these youths are more likely to have discipline issues, or even drop out of school. Teachers and counselors should meet with these students and help them to stay on track at school while maintaining a safe environment for learning.

With this comes a higher risk for substance abuse. These youths have to deal with the typical challenges of going through adolescence in addition to the harassment and possible rejection by their peers and families. They often turn to alcohol and/or drugs to cope with their challenges. It’s important to note that transgender youths often experience more harassment, and suffer more emotional issues as a result, than their LGBTQ peers. Thus, they are at a very high risk for substance abuse. That’s why school counselors and teachers should be aware of the warning signs for substance abuse and have a protocol in place for helping students.

LGBTQ youth are also at a higher risk for suicide. Schools may help to prevent suicide by “addressing stigma and prejudice at the institutional and individual level, forming partnerships across youth-serving, suicide prevention, and LGBT youth agencies… and responding to the issues of LGBT youth.” Schools may begin by implementing training for faculty and staff members to recognize and respond to warning signs for suicide and other risk factors. Developing peer support programs and implementing staff advocacy programs are also helpful actions.

Schools have a responsibility to create a safe, welcoming environment for all of their students. Education, communication, and awareness are the first steps toward helping LGBTQ youth.

Jennifer McGregor has wanted to be a doctor since she was little. Now, as a pre-med student, she’s well on her way to achieving that dream. She helped create PublicHealthLibrary.org with a friend as part of a class project. With it, she hopes to provide access to trustworthy health and medical resources. When Jennifer isn’t working on the site, you can usually find her hitting the books in the campus library or spending some downtime with her dog at the local park.

The post How schools can help LGBTQ students first appeared on Lesbian.com.

The Obama administration extended on Friday a policy counting same-sex marriages as equal to opposite-sex unions for the purpose of federal student financial aid, although the change could increase the amount of money a student would have to contribute toward an education.

The policy, announced by the Education Department, is the latest in a series of policy developments bringing the Obama administration into alignment with the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Under the new guidance, a student or a parent of a student, will be considered legally married if they’re in a same-sex marriage when applying for aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The new policy applies to a same-sex marriage included on the application even if the applicant lives in a non-marriage equality state.

Read more at Washington Blade

Washington Blade is America’s leading gay news source.

The post Dept. of Education to recognize same-sex couples first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Jeydon Loredo

BY LILA SHAPIRO
Huffington Post Gay Voices

When Jeydon Loredo, a transgender student at La Feria Independent High School near the Texas Gulf Coast, wore a tuxedo for his high school yearbook senior photo in September, the school principal told him it wouldn’t be included because it violated “community standards.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, on Wednesday threatened in a letter to sue the school district in federal court unless it allows Loredo’s tuxedo picture in the yearbook.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

The post School bans transgender student’s yearbook photo first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Barb Mariani and
Tippi McCullough (right).

BY REBECCA KLEIN
Huffington Post Gay Voices

Longtime teacher Tippi McCullough thinks it’s wrong that she was forced to resign from her job at Mount St. Mary Academy in Arkansas, and now she wants an apology.

On Oct. 16, the same day that McCullough married her female partner, Barb Mariani, school administrators told her that she should resign from the Catholic school or face termination. Principal Diane Wolfe reportedly told McCullough she had violated her contract’s “morality clause,” which allows the school to fire employees who stray from Church lifestyle teachings.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

The post Catholic school teacher forced out after marrying lesbian partner first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Affirmations, metro Detroit’s community center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies (LGBT), is working with Michigan Educational Partnership (MEP) to offer an Alternative High School program, beginning October 2013. Affirmations is currently accepting applications for the 2013-14 school year.

Affirmations’ Alternative High School program is designed for committed and motivated students 17 and above, who are interested in earning their high school diploma. Students can take advantage of accessible and effective learning spaces more conducive to their needs.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

The post Detroit LGBT center offers alternative high school first appeared on Lesbian.com.

A North Carolina schoolteacher was reportedly punished last week after showing a Macklemore and Ryan Lewis music video to students.

Alexander County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jeff Peal told local outlet The Taylorsville Times that school officials deemed the “Same Love” video “inappropriate” and “outside the bounds of the curriculum.” He said the teacher was disciplined but is back in school this week.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

The post Teacher disciplined for showing ‘Same Love’ to class first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Former Bishop Watterson High School physical education teacher Carla Hale

BY KELLY MORRIS
TheSeattleLesbian.com

Carla Hale will not be returning to Bishop Watterson High School after being fired when she was accidentally outed in her mother’s obituary.

Hale listed the name of her domestic partner in her mother’s obituary and was fired when it was released. According to the diocese, Hale was “fired because she publicly disclosed an extramarital relationship that violates the tenets of the Catholic Church and her employment,” according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

The post Lesbian fired after accidental outing in obituary first appeared on Lesbian.com.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law Monday that ensures the state’s public schools will take responsibility for the well-being of all students, including the transgender student population. This signing comes after transgender high school student Ashton Lee of Manteca, California, delivered nearly 6,000 petition signatures to Gov. Brown’s Sacramento office, in support of the proposed legislation in late July.

The bill, called the School Success and Opportunity Act, or AB 1266, was introduced by assembly member Tom Ammiano and co-authored by Senator Mark Leno and Senator Ricardo Lara.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

The post Bill to protect transgender students signed in Calif. first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Imagine living every day in a body that isn’t your own. It’s completely foreign to your brain. It feels, looks and works differently than your mind would expect it to. When you try to fix this frustrating, broken connection, people discriminate against you and strip away your rights. Transgender people go through this every day. If this isn’t challenging enough, add trying to access and pay for health care. And then add going to college.

Transgender students face a multitude of hurdles in college, like finding gender-neutral, inclusive bathrooms and housing and using preferred names or gender in paperwork, as well as admission itself.

Read more at Care2.com

Care2 is the largest online community of people passionate about making a difference.

The post Making the case for trans-inclusive health plans for college students first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Emerson College in Boston. (Photo: Allston Dave)

BY MORGAN WELCH
dot429

There are multiple issues to consider when looking at colleges; Princeton Review’s annual list, which covers both two-year colleges and four-year universities, rate each institution on multiple criteria for the consideration of prospective students, including LGBT-friendliness. Predictably, schools from California and New England crowded the most LGBT-friendly list, while Southern schools were likely to be rated as least friendly towards the community. However, there were some surprises.

Not everyone considers the Princeton Review’s findings reliable, however; Campus Pride points out that the surveys include only one question on LGBT issues: students are asked if they agree or disagree with the statement “students, faculty, and administrators treat all persons equally regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.”

Among the most LGBT-friendly schools:

01. Emerson College (Boston, MA)
02. Warren Wilson College (Asheville, NC)
03. New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)

Among the least LGBT-friend schools:

01. Grove City College (Grove City, PA)
02. Hampden-Sydney College (Hampden Sydney, VA)
03. College of the Ozarks (Point Lookout, MO)

Read more at see the top 20 rankings in both categories at dot429.com

The post The most (and least) queer-friendly colleges first appeared on Lesbian.com.