Respect for All

Kevin Jennings raises awareness for LGBT students.

Through more than 2,500 high school clubs known as Gay-Straight Alliances, GLSEN empowers students and educators with the skills and resources they need to stop anti-LGBT bullying—work that earned Jennings an NEA Human and Civil Rights award. He spoke with Tomorrow's Teachers editor Kristen Loschert about the issues LGBT students face and ways educators can make a difference.

Why did you start GLSEN?

I sort of came out in sixth grade, but like a lot of kids who get harassed for "being gay," it wasn't anything about my sexuality that prompted the harassment. It was because I was a boy who did his homework and paid attention in class and did all the things boys weren't supposed to do. I was harassed relentlessly through my junior high and high school years.

When I graduated from Harvard, I decided to become a teacher. I was pretty much forced out of my first job at a school in Providence, Rhode Island, because I was gay. And when I went to my second job I had a gay student who was really struggling. I saw how miserable he was and how my own staying in the closet was conveying to him a very damaging message that this is something to be ashamed of.

I made a little promise to myself right there, and said, "I will do whatever I can so that the next generation has it better than we had it." So, I started GLSEN.

How does the harassment impact students?

We know that students who are subjected to frequent harassment have demonstrably lower grade point averages—almost a full letter grade. We also know that they are much more likely to skip school. Over 31 percent of LGBT students have skipped at least one day of school in the past month because they are simply too afraid to go.

Why has harassment of LGBT students been tolerated for so long?

Primarily because nobody has ever told young people it's wrong. And sadly, according to our National School Climate Survey, in 83 percent of cases where students are harassed because of their sexual orientation, teachers rarely or never intervene.

I'm not saying teachers are the problem. Very few teacher education programs address these issues in any way. And when they do, it is at the discretion of individual instructors and is not woven into curriculum. So we continue to send teachers out there who have no training, trying to figure it out on their own. And that's a recipe for disaster.

Today, the average LGBT high school student comes out between 15 and 17. So they're coming out in school systems that have no more policies than they did when I was in high school, with teachers who have no more training.

Is there anything preservice teachers can do?

Start asking your professors, "When are we going to talk about this?" Then take advantage of the many resources that exist now. GLSEN has a program called the GLSEN Lunchbox with a do-it-yourself teacher training program. Teach yourself, if you have to. Because, in the end, our job is to make sure that all kids can achieve their potential and to remove whatever barriers exist to them being able to do so.

For more on GLSEN's work, as well as educator resources, visit www.glsen.org.