Bay Windows - July 1, 2004
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com.

"I am particularly surprised at the state's grade, but kudos to GLSEN for undertaking this," said Henry. She applauded the organization for measuring each state's progress and shortcomings around GLBT youth safety in schools, but she said the Bay State's middling grade does not reflect much of the work being done throughout the state to protect youth.

"I wonder at their methodology," said Henry. "There are some things that we do and have done for all these years that are unique and that didn't get counted."

She said Massachusetts is the only state that provides state funding to gay/straight alliances (GSAs), although she admitted that much of that funding has been lost due to budget cuts. She said the Commonwealth is in a class by itself in terms of state funding for safe schools programs and teacher trainings in GLBT issues.

"Nobody else has that kind of infrastructure," said Henry. To Henry's knowledge no effort was made by GLSEN to contact the Governor's Commission in preparing the report.

GLSEN's survey examined each state's laws affecting GLBT youth, including safe schools laws, antidiscrimination laws, sexuality education requirements, and local safe schools policies. The survey also factored in general information about each state's education system, including student/teacher ratio and per-pupil expenditure, and it deducted points for any state whose education policies explicitly stigmatized GLBT people.

Only two states, New Jersey and Minnesota, received an A grade. California, Vermont, and the District of Columbia scored Bs; Connecticut and Wisconsin joined Massachusetts in the C range. Eighty-four percent of states earned an F, including New York, whose Harvey Milk School is the first publicly funded school in the country for at-risk GLBT youth.

GLSEN did not respond to requests to comment for this story. But in a June 28 statement, GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings said the report "highlights what many safe schools advocates have feared - that our nation's policymakers have failed to give schools the policies and programmatic support they need to change environments where bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity are the rule and not the exception.

"In classrooms where 'faggot' is heard more often than the Pledge of Allegiance and 39 percent of LGBT students report being physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation, our schools and the states that govern them are failing," said Jennings.

Most of Massachusetts' point deductions were in two areas: transgender-inclusive laws and sexuality education policies. The GLSEN survey penalized the state because its safe schools laws, state antidiscrimination laws, and local safe schools policies protect students based on sexual orientation but not gender identity or expression.

Ashlee Reed, executive director of Project 10 East, which helps students faculty advisors start and sustain GSAs in schools, said the GLSEN report shows a major shortcoming in the state's policies around trans youth.

"I think that the report really further indicates ... that we're not doing enough to ensure that queer youth are safe in schools," said Reed. She said that in Massachusetts "it's clear that transgender youth don't feel safe in schools," and she believes a change in the state's safe schools laws are necessary to ensure that protections for trans youth are enforced.

Henry believes the GLSEN report underestimated the state's work to make schools safer for transgender students. She said the Governor's Commission has "been invested programmatically" for at least the past seven years in making sure that transgender students are safe.

"I think there are states like ours that do not fulfill that standard [of trans inclusion] in legislation per se... but do in programming," said Henry. She said the commission includes trans issues in its teacher trainings, and she said there are many teachers that work to make sure their schools protect both transgender students and their gay, lesbian and bisexual peers.

Yet Henry said she and other advocates have been lobbying the state for years for formal trans inclusion in the safe schools law, and that a formal change would give the commission "more clout" when working with schools on transgender issues.

Massachusetts received a zero grade for its sexuality education policies because local school districts rather than the state have control over deciding whether to offer sex ed classes and what information to include. Henry said she does not think the zero grade reflects the number of schools around the state that offer sexuality education to students.

According to the Mass. Department of Education's 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 92 percent of high school students learned about AIDS or HIV infection in school. Half of all high school students say they were taught in school how to use condoms.

Henry said the GLSEN survey did not take into account what she sees as two of the most important factors in making GLBT youth feel comfortable in schools: the presence of GSAs and of openly GLBT faculty. She said students overwhelmingly cited these factors at a December hearing of the Governor's Commission.

The impact of GSAs on GLBT youth is "absolutely huge," said Henry, noting that Massachusetts has a particularly large number of GSAs. The GLSEN report, which included information about GSAs, but did not factor them into the state's grade, estimated that Massachusetts has about 310 groups. In contrast, New Jersey, which has about 500 more public schools than Massachusetts, has approximately 67 GSAs.

Reed said that in recent years Project 10 East has seen an increasing number of GSAs throughout the state. The greatest obstacle in sustaining those GSAs, she said, is in securing administrative and faculty support to maintain the groups.

Though Henry questions GLSEN's methodology, she welcomes the report if it inspires the state to improve its programming for GLBT youth. Reed agrees that policy-makers and advocates should use the report as a guide for improving programming.

"I think it's important to take a step back and not only look at the work that we are doing ... but looking forward and seeing what we can do better next time," said Reed.

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