Rather
than face more relentless taunting for another year, an overweight, 12-year-old Florida
boy instead hanged himself last week. In blame-the-victim fashion, news reports
pronounced that the boy had been “sensitive to teasing from other kids at
school.” But if the school atmosphere permitted the tormenting of that boy,
it’s safe to say that plenty of other children are fair game for bullies, too.
Although no hard numbers exist, anecdotes abound: “Faggot” or “dyke” is the
put-down of choice for school-age kids these days, and it’s not just aimed at
youths who “look gay.” These taunts are flying out of kids’ mouths when they
truly want to savage another person. And often, fists fly along with the words.
But is it possible to start diffusing the underlying assumption behind a word
like “faggot” — that being homosexual is the worst thing you can be — early
in children’s development? Can we teach kids in elementary and middle school
about famous gay and lesbian people, and explore with them in age-appropriate
ways what being gay means and does not mean? And in so doing promote respect
and love for all?
That’s what Academy Award-winning documentarian Debra Chasnoff set out to do
four years ago when she planned a series of educational videos on how to teach
children about gay issues. But she hit a snag early on when she discovered
there’s a real dearth of information for educators on the subject. The current
conservative political climate, which is incredibly hostile to the mere mention
of homosexuality, has made many teachers afraid of talking to kids about gays
and lesbians, Chasnoff says. This same atmosphere, however, only made Chasnoff
work harder to ensure the film’s completion. (The director is pretty bold
herself; upon accepting a 1991 Oscar for her film Deadly Deception about
General Electric’s role in nuclear weapons production and destruction of the
environment, she thanked her life-partner Kim Klausner, becoming the first
person ever to come out at the Oscars.) She and producer Helen Cohen took their
project to a more basic level and sought out teachers in the U.S. who are
pioneering their own, home-grown gay issues curricula. The product of their
work and research is the documentary film It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay
Issues In School, currently running at the Austin Gay and Lesbian
International Film Festival.
“We decided to make this film to really try to take on the climate of fear and
misinformation,” says Chasnoff, speaking from her San Francisco production
office, “and we hoped it would de-mystify what it would mean to do this kind of
education with young kids. And inspire educators to think about ways they could
do it in their classrooms.”
It’s Elementary tours six public and private elementary and middle
schools where teachers — the majority of whom identify themselves as straight
— are approaching gay issues in a variety of ways. A fourth-grade teacher in
New York City encourages her students to brainstorm on the words “gay” and
“lesbian,” and to talk about the roots of their associations, assumptions, and
attitudes. An eighth-grade social studies class in San Francisco explores
stereotypes about gays and lesbians, and then has a opportunity to ask a young
homosexual man and woman about themselves. An elementary-school principal in
Cambridge, Mass., decides to offer her school as a site for “Love Makes a
Family,” a photo exhibit of families with gay and lesbian couples at the heads
of households.
The educators in the film all demonstrate commendable creativity and ingenuity
toward the subject, and sensitivity toward all children, never “leading” kids
in their responses, and never admonishing them for their answers. But a few are
openly bewildered — for example, a fifth-grade teacher whose class views the
photos and narratives of the families with gay parents quickly sees that his
students aren’t disturbed by it. He realizes that his students “are ready for a
lot more than I’d given them credit for.” Another elementary-school teacher,
who freely admits that her Puerto Rican heritage did not predispose her to be
open to homosexual matters, says that positive lessons about gay families
affirm other minority groups as well — hers, for example.
Oh, but the most amazing part is the kids. They say some of the darndest
things. “I think people who want to stop gays don’t know what gay is about and
why people are gay,” is the way a third-grader explains homophobia. “I think
it’s just the way a person is. You can’t really change it,” says a
fourth-grader about the nature of being gay. On why the term “gay” is used at
all, one young boy says, “When you have somebody you like, you’re usually
happy. Maybe that’s why.”
In another class, when a child being reared by a lesbian couple reads an
award-winning Mother’s Day essay on her “two moms,” the child’s classmates
admire her for “standing up for” her parents, against the disapproval of
others. Most of all, perhaps, the children glean that an atmosphere in which
it’s okay to hurl the word “faggot” at one person makes it okay to hurt
everyone. “It makes you feel weird in your stomach,” says one child.
But on the other hand, It’s Elementary also reveals that without some
early education, the damage done by the teenage years is sometimes harder to
work against. An African-American girl, confessing that she felt strange at
first about learning that one of her teachers was a lesbian, declared that
education in gay issues was good “because I know how it feels to be
discriminated against.” But a Latina girl, while admitting to having strong
biases about gays and lesbians handed down to her from her family, is not quite
ready to see that homophobia affects her, too — her gay-hating brother insults
her for acting too happy around her own female friends. Still another student,
his lips curling in a little smirk, asks if it’s true that gay men keep clean
houses and if “dykes” always have short hair.
Yes, one thing is abundantly clear — kids already “know about” homosexuality,
but their knowledge comes mostly from two exceedingly poor sources: television
(especially those odious daytime talk shows) and each other. Besides trying to
combat violence, as well as the high rate of suicide and drug abuse among gay
youth, better information is needed for another reason, says Chasnoff. Over and
over in It’s Elementary, children say they’re taunted by others for
expressing too much affection toward friends of the same sex. And that makes
them feel bad.
“It’s really clear to us that every child in every classroom is affected by
anti-gay prejudice,” says Chasnoff. “Two girls hold hands with each other on
the playground in third grade and they get called lesbians. What kind of
message are we letting kids get about a friendship?”
What’s more, says Rob Linne, a board member of the Austin chapter of the Gay,
Lesbian, and Straight Teachers’ Network (GLSTN), anti-gay prejudice extends to
students’ curriculum choices as well. Woe to the girl who’s interested in
agriculture courses, or a boy who doesn’t like sports, he says. Never mind what
kids who really are gay go through.
What to do? The Austin Independent School District (AISD), while not quite
bold enough to announce any classroom exercises, has at least allowed some
staff development in gay issues. The School District conducted
diversity-training sessions convering a number of issues including matters of
sexual identity. AISD counselors met with outreach specialists last fall to
learn more about the problems facing gay youth, “and that’s the kind of
education we need,” Linne says.
In November 1994, the AISD Board of Trustees approved a policy that attempts
to punish sexual harassment, including harassment because of sexual
orientation. Various religious leaders protested the move, and vowed to
overturn the policy, but still other members of the clergy in Austin offered
their support. Trustee Geoff Rips, who introduced the subject into the board’s
debate, said the policy appears to be working. “Our action sent the message
that that behavior isn’t appropriate,” he says. “I’m sure the policy’s not
perfect, but I’m not hearing about incidents on campus now, like I used to.”
So much for deterrents to anti-gay activity — what about more preventive
measures, such as the ones presented in It’s Elementary? Filmmaker
Chasnoff and producer Cohen had a pretty difficult time getting into the
schools they found. Many administrators and parents would allow access to the
campus, but wouldn’t go on camera; the students depicted may not be very
typical, then, having been selected by their parents to participate in the
film. But Chasnoff says she’s not trying to present them as a random sample.
“What we tried to do is make the case that children are perfectly capable of
having a dialog about these issues,” she says. “Our point is not to say that
this is what all kids think; it’s to say kids can think. That they can
have their opinions about these issues, and the roof does not blow off.” Others
seem to agree, as Chasnoff’s office has recently been flooded with requests
from parents for video copies of It’s Elementary to show in their
communities. n
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues In School is showing at the
Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival on Sunday, September 8, at
5pm at the Dobie Theatre. Hoping to get wider distribution of the film, GLSTN
will sponsor a fundraiser/reception from 7-9pm at Cup O’Jane, 100 E. North
Loop, following the screening.
This article appears in September 6 • 1996 and September 6 • 1996 (Cover).