“That’s was gay”: Living and Learning with Homosexuality in the High School Atmosphere

By Allison Schnieder

“That was gay.”

  If we were to walk through the halls of our school, we would most likely hear this statement made at least five times. But do we know what we mean when we say it?

  Homosexuality is a term that causes most high school students to cringe. It’s a topic most of my peers shy away from or, when someone is brave enough to bring it up, causes awkward silences intermingled with nervous giggles and side comments.

In speaking with English teacher, Jan McIntyre, it became apparent that while we aren’t typically beating GBLT (Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgendered) kids up anymore, there is still a definite discomfort with homosexuality in our school.

“In my ten plus years I have seen a major shift in attitude towards our GBLT young adults. I’m not saying that our gay kids are totally accepted, but I’m seeing more tolerance and a lot more acceptance,” said McIntyre.

  RAL senior, Trevor Scott gave me slightly different feedback.

 “What we need now is acceptance. It goes beyond regular teasing. It is getting worse in high schools,” said Scott.

According to a study published by The New Press, 45 percent of gay males and 20 percent of lesbian females experience physical or verbal abuse in high school and 28 percent of these young people feel forced to drop out of school due to harassment based on sexual orientation.

“I still hear a lot of ‘gay bashing’ as a put down for people, to silence people,” said McIntyre.

 By taking what a person is and using it as an insult, I feel we are insulting the people themselves. I, personally, would be hurt if someone took something that was a part of me and turned it into insult.

Saying “That’s so Christian” when given an assignment we don’t like would be hurtful to those who actually are Christian. Stating that it’s so “tennis” or “pep band” when a person irritates us would be putting down all of the people who fall into whatever group we are using to express our discontent.

“I just think that people need to know that homosexuality doesn’t affect how athletic someone can be, how intelligent someone can be, or how capable a person is of caring about others and doing good in our world,” said RAL junior, Bill Davenport.

 I believe we use homosexuality as a negative very lightly and very often. What I think we need to realize is that when we do this, we are degrading a portion of our school’s population

“People being different doesn’t mean they’re wrong,” said McIntyre.

Whatever our beliefs are about homosexuality, whether they are personally, religiously, or scientifically based, I don’t believe that it changes the fact that we need to be accepting of those who are homosexual.

“I’m still having the pressure of the Senior Project, I’m still dealing with problems with parents at home, I’m still trying to find a job; I’m just an everyday student, I just have a different ‘lifestyle,’” said Scott.

In an effort to change the views our community has about RAL, let’s let them know that we care about each other as a group by ending our use of demeaning and derogatory terms and accepting others based on their character, not who they’re attracted to.