Anti-LGBT Discrimination in Education, from Preschool On

A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) highlights anti-LGBT discrimination in education, from preschool through college.

The report, “We the People: Why Congress and U.S. States Must Pass Comprehensive LGBT Nondiscrimination Protections,” covers a variety of areas, including housing, hiring and wage discrimination, credit, education, health care, and access to public services and accommodation. All of these can impact parents’ ability to provide for their children — but for the sake of brevity, I want to focus here on education.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Windsor that led to federal recognition for married same-sex couples, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance to Head Start grantees clarifying eligibility guidelines for children of those couples. The CAP report notes that HSS told grantees that “family support and parent engagement activities should be inclusive and supportive of single, coupled, and married LGBT parents.” At the same time, says the report, “no federal legislation explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in early education programs, and even fewer protections exist for private programs.” Children have been denied preschool enrollments because they have same-sex parents — but even when it doesn’t come to that, “LGBT parents must make the difficult choice between placing their children in programs that are not accepting of their family or struggling to provide an early education that is welcoming but more expensive or located further away.”

Additionally, “many early education programs would also benefit from a better understanding of how to support the self-expression of transgender and gender-nonconforming children during an important period of child development. When early childhood providers lack the tools to provide affirming care, the effect can be harmful.”

In K-12 education, the report says (drawing largely on previous research from GLSEN), “Only 13 states plus the District of Columbia have nondiscrimination laws that specifically protect LGBT students, while Wisconsin has protections based on sexual orientation alone. However, many of these state laws also do not apply to private schools. While some states have specific legislation protecting students from discrimination in education, others define education as a form of public accommodation.” The federal Title IX provides some protections to transgender and gender-nonconforming students, but only to public schools that receive government funding — and the lack of federal guidance specific to transgender and gender-nonconforming students means schools and educators may interpret existing protections in ways that allow discrimination.

The result is that LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT “experience troubling rates of violence and harassment in school settings, exclusion from school and extracurricular activities, and inequalities in treatment by school personnel.” High levels of being bullied or harassed correlates to lower GPAs, and “denying LGBT students an equal opportunity to pursue education and obtain diplomas contributes to negative health outcomes and decreased well-being, including high rates of suicide attempt, school drop-out, poor mental health, and homelessness.”

Deepening the problem is the fact that homophobic remarks or negative remarks about gender expression may often come from teachers. Additionally, zero-tolerance policies may punish all of those involved in an altercation, bullies and victims alike. Astutely, the report also notes that the impact is broader than just the intended targets: “Exposure to bullying also has negative implications for the mental health of bystanders — meaning the presence of bullying can lead to a poor learning environment for the entire school community.”

Nearly a quarter of students in the GLSEN survey reported that their schools have prevented pupils from discussing or writing about LGBT topics during class assignments. Sometimes, this goes beyond individual schools or teachers. Eight states have laws that prohibit educators from discussing LGBT issues or requiring them to portray same-sex relationships in a negative light. And many schools continue to hinder the creation of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs (GSAs), despite guidance from the U.S. Department of Education stating that public secondary schools must allow them if they allow other student clubs.

Lack of protections continue in higher education, as approximately 80 percent of degree-granting colleges and universities in the U.S. do not have nondiscrimination policies inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Harassment is still pervasive, and transgender students may face ongoing obstacles as schools refuse to recognize their self-identified gender.

The Education section of the report concludes, not surprisingly: “In order to ensure that LGBT students have access to the foundational tools they need to succeed, policymakers must establish basic protections at all levels of education so that all students have the opportunity to achieve their aspirations.” I’m assuming they also mean children of LGBT parents and students perceived to be LGBT — a point they made earlier but that seems to be missing from this final statement.

Still, it’s easier said than done. Just last week a 12-year-old boy in California died by suicide, after relentless bullying for his perceived gender nonconformity — being the only male cheerleader in his school and loving fashion design and art. (Whether bullying was the sole cause of his suicide is an open question; it’s my understanding that this is rarely the case, although bullying may exacerbate suicidal ideation and must be addressed regardless.)

I take heart, however, in knowing that LGBTQ protections and inclusion in schools are further along than they were 10 or even five years ago. Is it too much to hope that awareness of these issues rises to match that of marriage equality, which has seen such success of late?