44 The Storm Before the Rainbow: Lack of LGBTQ+ Representation in Schools – Jaxin Bohn
Jaxin Bohn is from Richmond, IN and is studying Secondary Education with a focus in English. Professor Kelly Blewett would like to celebrate this piece and said, “Jaxin’s essay ‘The Storm Before the Rainbow: Lack of LGBTQ+ Representation in Schools’ is passionate, creative, and powerful. I enjoyed learning alongside Jaxin about this important topic.”
The Storm Before the Rainbow: Lack of LGBTQ+ Representation in Schools
Two thousand twenty-two hasn’t been a great year for the LGBTQ+ community: books about us being banned in schools in Texas and the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado. The discrimination and hate have made me question how things could change. It starts in schools. Some people may think that LGBTQ+ individuals are represented in schools. Some schools allow students to express themselves freely and have LGBTQ+ clubs. Still, most people in the Midwest aren’t aware of the lack of education and diverse curriculum. Students should be taught material that includes people from different cultures and backgrounds; the non-inclusive traditional view of education needs to end. The goal is representation, not whole classes dedicated to LGBTQ+ topics and history. There are solutions that will benefit LGBTQ+ students and all other students.
One example of how education is lacking is from William H. Greens’ “Singular Pronouns and Sexual Politics.” His article from 1977 explains how students are confused about when to use common-gender singulars–which could be avoided if schools taught they/them/their as singular and plural. It’s interesting how conversations involving LGBTQ+ individuals were had during the 70s, yet we were still having conversations like this in 2022. Greens wrote,
Sexual politics today apparently demands such a change [use of they/them/their in American academics]; it is arguable that socio-political changes- even changes in sexual roles [the way gender biases shape our views on roles and responsibilities] have displaced pronoun paradigms.
Greens’ survey had college students from English classes determine whether they/them/their were classified more often as common-gender singulars (words that can describe a person without including their gender) or more often as specific-gender singulars (words that describe a person using their gender). Fourteen percent of students determined common-singular are plural pronouns- meaning they think they/them/their are plural pronouns. This is true, but they must understand that they/them/their is also singular. He found that most students lack an understanding of common-gender singulars and often will assume gender based on what feels natural. “Many found it natural to call an actress she, but not to call a teacher he. (152)” This is a mild consequence of lack of education because students have an implicit bias about how they/them/their should be used and assumptions on gender roles. The problem is we can’t put people into categories based on gender or pronouns. It’s also worth noting that assuming someone’s gender is never a good thing, even if it feels natural.
Simple changes in thinking for someone who is accustomed to LGBTQ+ cultures, like knowing when and how to use they/them/their pronouns correctly, are complex for people who aren’t a part of the culture. As stated, educating people could help decrease discrimination and hate, but what’s stopping schools from moving forward with teaching LGBTQ+ representation? There is a clear political divide in what is appropriate to be taught. The divide between supporters and non-supporters causes an environment that isn’t welcoming to LGBTQ+ representation because the LGBTQ+ community is a political hot-topic, and schools are afraid to teach with LGBTQ+ material. According to Ileana Najarros’ 2021 article in EducationWeek titled “Teachers Are Divided on Teaching LGBTQ Topics,” “Teachers fear parental pushback; they face a dearth of curriculum options, and even when there are resources available, they may not know what to look for; they may not have received training on the subject, or they simply don’t want to get something wrong” (2). These factors cause discomfort for teachers, with only fifty-seven percent of teachers, in the latest national EdWeek Research Center survey, are willing to teach issues that involve LGBTQ+ topics. Clearly, there is a massive problem with a lack of education that involves LGBTQ+ topics, curriculum, and representation.
I spoke with KT Lowe, the assistant librarian at Indiana University East, and they are non-binary. They shared their life story and a ton of history they know. I was pleased to learn so much and speak with someone who is in the process of changing their pronouns legally. KT is very knowledgeable, and they pride themselves on sharing knowledge and learning it. And I, a gay man, question why LGBTQ+ topics aren’t taught in schools. KT shared the story of James W. Loewens’ book, Lies My Teacher Told Me:
James Loewen was a historian for Mississippi, who wrote a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me in which he compared textbooks widely. So we have textbooks from the nineteen fifties to the nineteen eighties; he went through all these textbooks and explained how much they don’t teach. And it was just appalling! To my knowledge, he was the first person to expose the difference between California and Texas textbooks. So it’s appalling that we have a lot of whitewashing in the culture; there are many reasons it’s not any one thing. The education system is constantly walking this tightrope to appease parents, donors, and local businesses. All these people with stakeholders have interest in schools, and you’re trying to please everyone, and the students lose.
The balancing act just isn’t working, and students lose out on understanding the LGBTQ+s’ beautiful culture. KT and I also shared agreeing opinions on how schools should be handling teaching LGBTQ+ topics. We both believe schools make atmospheres that make LGBTQ+ individuals seem different, but in a way that reflects judgment instead of celebrating those differences. There is a lack of LGBTQ+ topics, curriculum, and understanding. There is a need for sex education courses, lessons that represent LGBTQ+ historical events, and care for LGBTQ+ students. There are schools that do a great job of including LGBTQ+ topics and curriculum, but there is a demand from the LGBTQ+ community and allies for change.
The most valuable and essential addition to the curriculum must be an inclusive sex education course. It’s important to understand what LGBTQ+ sex ed is; some of the topics included safe sex practices, healthy relationships, healthy pleasure, dealing with sexually transmitted infections, and knowing your body and its needs. David Olivers, author of “Let’s Talk about (Queer) Sex: The Importance of LGBTQ-inclusive Sex Education in Schools” in USA Today, spoke with Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, the director of GLSEN, about the climate survey, “When we exclude LGBTQ+ young people from comprehensive education, we make them more isolated, behave in more risky ways, and they are further pushed out and pushed into dangerous situations where negative outcomes are more likely.” Pushing out vulnerable students isn’t good; LGBTQ+ youth are more at risk of committing suicide. Having a curriculum that appropriately teaches students about understanding LGBTQ+ culture, history, and sex ed would possibly decrease suicide rates in LGBTQ+ youth. “The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.” (The Trevor Project).
LGBTQ+ history has a right to be shared, the good and the bad. It has a place in history class alongside other topics that share significant historical progress for different groups of people. Teaching students about LGBTQ+ history and explaining its significance would allow them to understand LGBTQ+ people better, and the fear of the unknown would go away. I have focused on non-binary individuals in my research because I had less amount of knowledge about how their culture and ideologies have evolved through history. (I lack knowledge due to not learning about it in school.) I found two texts very interesting, and I believe they are perfect examples of history that most people don’t know about but would benefit them too.
The articles “Liminality and Gender Fluidity in Shakespearian Dramas” and “A Brief History of Singular ‘They.’,” both written by English professors, show that gender ambiguity, gender-neutral pronouns, and gender-neutral terms aren’t modern-day concepts, even if society assumes they are. The benefits of using and accepting someone’s expression of themselves are critical. In “A Brief History of Singular ‘They,'” Dennis Baron, professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois, shared, “The reinvention of the traditionally plural pronoun may seem sudden, but its second meaning isn’t as modern as you may assume: The word has appeared as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in English literature for centuries.” and “the earliest known instance of the singular they can be found in the medieval poem William and the Werewolf from 1375.” This means the first use of ‘they’ in the singular form was 647 years ago. This explains away the idea of gender-neutral terms being a modern-day concept.
Skipping forward in time, Shakespearian dramaturgy made women into strong characters and offered insight into the socio-political debate around gender roles and responsibilities. During this era, women were not allowed to perform in plays, so all the female characters were played by men. This allowed men to express themselves by playing a female character, subtly being the first form of a drag queen. “In contradiction to this, some critics consider feigning a ‘male’ appearance as a tool to reinstate gender stereotypes while some consider it a remarkably free-flowing, liminal tendency on the part of the characters. (68)”
Interestingly, this phenomenon can be interpreted in contrasting ways; it probably depended on the type of man playing the female characters. Some men might have been stereotypical and offensive to women, but others might have used these female characters to express their feelings. This was the beginning of the expression of gender identity. Gender ambiguity, gender-neutral pronouns, and gender-neutral terms aren’t something that woke teenagers and liberal democrats made up in the 21st century to be different and trendy; you would never know, though, because there is an apparent move to limit and stop LGBTQ+ information in schools.
Change starts in schools. Students should be taught material that includes people from different cultures and backgrounds; the non-inclusive traditional view of education needs to end. The goal is representation, not whole classes dedicated to LGBTQ+ topics and history. There are solutions that will benefit LGBTQ+ students and all other students. In a perfect world, students in 8th grade and up would learn and talk about LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom. This would be when most students would begin going through puberty and need to learn about their bodies and safe sex. I think it would also be a good time to discuss the history that would be beneficial for all students to know, so they all could better understand what it means to be part of the LGBTQ+ community. Teaching students would only inform them, and it is not the teachers’ job to encourage or discourage students from navigating their sexual identity or orientation; they are there to provide students with information to help them understand the culture of people.
Work Cited
“Facts about LGBTQ Youth Suicide.” The Trevor Project, 25 Oct. 2022, https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/article/facts-about-lgbtq-youth-suicide/.
Najarro, Ileana. “Teachers Are Divided on Teaching LGBTQ Topics.” Education Week, Education Week, 31 Jan. 2022, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/educators-divided-on-whether-schools-should-teach-about-lgbtq-topics-survey-finds/2021/12.
“A Brief History of Singular ‘They’.” Oxford English Dictionary, 29 Mar. 2019, https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/.
Green, William H. “Singular Pronouns and Sexual Politics.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 28, no. 2, 1977, pp. 150–53. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/356103. Accessed 7 Oct. 2022.
Kazmi, Sarah Syed, and Esha tir Raazi. “Liminality and Gender Fluidity in Shakespearian.” Journal of European Studies, ProQuest, 2022, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2689025874.
Loewen, James W. “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything American History Textbooks Get Wrong.” Amazon, NEW Press, 2019, https://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281.
Oliver, David. “Let’s Talk about (Queer) SEX: The Importance of LGBTQ-Inclusive Sex Education in Schools.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 8 Aug. 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/08/05/sex-education-importance-lgbtq-inclusivity-schools/8046137002/.