Education is by no means a topic limited to academics.
Social movements and historical settings have expressed this time and time again. Through open discourse, logic and -oftentimes- morality, there’s no limit to the cultural advancements people can make! The week’s webinar was all about thoughts on navigating schooling and social settings as an ally to the LGBTQ community. Run by Kate, it proved to be super interactive and a great place to ask any questions regarding allyship in a comfortable setting!
Kate is a high school senior, soon to be studying Conflict Studies and Human Rights in post-secondary. She aspires to have a career in psychology or human rights, with impressive initiatives on her roster of extracurriculars. She is one of 40 selected parliamentary pages in the House of Commons, and an Academic Director at Model City Hall. She also takes part in LGBTQ initiatives throughout her school board, is gay, and as is reflected in her pastimes, is passionate about helping those around her!
Keep reading to learn of some ways to be an ally, how to take topic-based initiative around school, and simply why inclusion is important.
School Inclusion
The issue of LGBTQ acceptance has progressed exponentially and fabulously over the years, notably in the media. RuPaul’s Drag Race has made people forget what the definition of a drag race actually is, and being homophobic is quite honestly outdated. But in her webinar, Kate specifically targeted schools as the setting in which to portray LGBTQ allyship. School is a very formative and impactful setting and so it’s crucial that all student demographics feel accepted and cared for. No one has to be reminded that real-life and TV bear little resemblance, social change is much slower in our curriculum-bound classrooms.
Speaking of allyship and compassion in a time like ours remains necessary. LGBTQ students make up 4% of the student population, but face all forms of bullying at disproportionate levels. They are at risk of experiencing instances of peer isolation, being unwantedly outed (when someone’s identity/sexuality is made public without their permission) or being addressed with slurs and disrespect facing naming and pronouns. General behavioral contempt in the school setting is not always directly exacted by other students. When a school is not publicly accepting of LGBTQ youth, if for example it doesn’t have a sort of GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance), students will often feel the pressure to hide this facet of their identity.
Kate’s Experience
Kate’s personal experience with being gay throughout middle school and high school was varied. She finds that she didn’t get the brunt of the aggression and lack of understanding that many LGBTQ people have the misfortune of encountering. But she found the need to hide her identity for a number of years, witnessing other “outed” peers being bullied. This took a large toll on her self-image and mental health and she recounts it as a very frightening time.
Later, throughout high school, while she felt her teachers were passably accepting and she wasn’t bullied in a direct way, Kate was still isolated from her peers and at times had her identity thrown back at her as an insult. It was a painful experience, let alone for a child coming to terms with their identity.
How to be an ally
Through the use of social media as a tool for rallying support on various social issues, users have been subjected to a pesky (although the implications represent a less cute-sounding issue) consequential side-effect: the presence of virtue signaling and performative activism. It’s important to make the distinction between genuine allyship and superficial performance, one is useful and the other wastes space. Kate ensured to remind us what really constitutes allyship.
“Being an ally is an action not a label. It’s less of what you say and more of what you do.”
Being an LGBTQ ally defines a cisgender (someone who identifies with their gender assigned at birth) and/or heterosexual person who isn’t homophobic, racist or racially prejudiced. And as being an ally is symbolically a verb, an ally should not be a bystander when faced with instances of discrimination.
Here are Kate’s school specific suggestions on how to enact allyship:
Putting your pronouns in virtual meetings, social forums
If your identity is something you’re comfortable with people having immediate access to, consider making your pronouns public. It’s a supportive gesture to non-cisgender people whose identities are situationally less accepted. It’s a shorthand way of letting others know you’re a safe person to be around and aims to normalize the public display of identity that many use to inform others on how to address them. Also, it shows ownership and pride in your personal identity!
*Remember to respect people’s names and pronouns, even when they aren’t there.*
2. Helping to start a GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) at your school
You can be a moving force in creating a safe space for queer people if such a space doesn’t already exist at your school. As Kate mentioned, not having the freedom to express a large facet of one’s identity can be emotionally taxing. Having at least one safe space on school grounds can bring immeasurable comfort.
3. Standing up when you’re exposed to bullying and/or slurs directed at your peers or derogatory comments on queer identities.
4. Wearing your heart on your sleeve!
As a subtle way to show your support, (just like with pronouns) is to wear a rainbow on your person. A shirt, a pin, a sticker on your binder, it can be anything. A rainbow best includes all identities on the spectrum and physically shows you’re a safe person to be around.
And remember, these are Kate’s ideas and suggestions. There are tons of other ways to be an ally within school and beyond! Be kind, compassionate, employ critical thinking, brush your teeth twice a day and celebrate one another’s differences. Some people joined Kate’s webinar because they were afraid to ask their genuine questions around friends for fear of sounding distasteful. Just as they got answers, we hope you did too! Below you can find some great resources to take note of. See you next week!
Kate’s Resources
The Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Youthline: 1-800-268-9688
Youthline.ca
Kids Help Phone:
Kidshelphone.ca
Cited Source
RecordsFinder (2021, April 28). End the silence on lgbt bullying. Retrieved April 30, 2021, from https://recordsfinder.com/guides/end-silence-on-lgbt-bullying/
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