By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

An extensive study released last week by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, in conjunction with the Family Equality Council and COLAGE, shows that GLBT parents face significant discrimination from school officials, teachers and other parents when they get involved with their children’s schools.

“Almost a fifth of parents reported that they felt that school personnel failed to acknowledge their type of family (15 percent) or felt that they could not fully participate in their child’s school community because they were an LGBT parent (16 percent),” the report stated. “Parents described events in which they were excluded from the school community, subjected to hostile behaviors from school staff and other parents, having to deal with general discomfort and ignorance or having their parenting skills called into questions because they were LGBT.”

The discrimination takes place despite the fact that GLBT parents, the report found, are generally more involved in both school activities and in their children’s education than their straight counterparts.

“For example, 68 percent of LGBT parents reported contacting their child’s school about his or her school program for that year, compared to 38 percent of parents nationally,” the report stated.

The 141-page report was written by Joseph Kosciw, a psychologist and family counselor who now serves fulltime as GLSEN’s research director, and Elizabeth Diaz, a sociologist and research associate at GLSEN. Kosciw and Diaz surveyed and interviewed 588 GLBT parents with children in K-12 schools and 154 middle and high school students with GLBT parents. The surveys took place in 2005.

The report included stark accounts of discrimination.

An 11th grader told the report’s authors, “In Spanish (class), we were doing a project that involved describing our home and introducing our family. I talked to my teacher and explained my situation, and she said it would be better for me to say I had a single mother and not mention her partner at all. It made me mad, so I made a point of including my other mom, and I ended up failing the project.”

More than half the GLBT parents surveyed—53 percent—reported being excluded in some way from activities at the schools their children attend. Some of that was attributable to outright bias, while in other instances it seemed to be more a case of ignorance and lack of education on the part of school officials.

“My daughter was bullied by a lunch lady who insisted that every child has a daddy,” one lesbian parent reported. “When I followed up with the teacher, principal and assistant superintendent they all conveyed to me that this was simply a ‘misunderstanding’ and a great deal of time and effort was spent to help me understand the lunch lady’s perspective and ‘background.’ I repeatedly indicated that I want my child to be safe and respected at school and this includes respecting her family (two moms) experience.”

It’s important, the authors concluded, that schools have specific policies and education to address homophobia and that they take a proactive role in combating homophobia in the classroom.

“GLSEN’s research related to the school experiences of LGBT students indicates that few schools have positive LGBT resources, such as inclusive curriculum or a safe school policy that includes specific protections based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity,” the report stated. “For students with LGBT parents, this lack of supportive resources may also negatively affect their school experience. Furthermore, LGBT families may be invisible in representations of family life. If an elementary school library does not include books that represent different types of families, including LGBT families, then those students with LGBT parents may feel excluded or that their family is somehow strange.”

GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings said the report should be viewed as a call to action for our nation’s schools.

“Family and education are two of the most important aspects of children’s lives,” Jennings said. “This report casts doubt on schools’ inclusion of different kinds of families in our education system. LGBT parents are actively engaged in their children’s education, yet are often not accepted by school communities. Further, their children are often harassed in school simply because of the makeup of their families. All families in a school community should be valued and respected as equals.”

The complete report, “Involved, Invisible, Ignored: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Parents and Their Children in Our Nation’s K-12 Schools,” is available in PDF format at www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2271.html.