Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

emain rare. Why they are not making policies statutory and such
initiatives compulsory – many reasons, the religion card is one I’ve
heard a lot, in my opinion, not an excuse. Although many religions
seem to contain much homophobia in their rhetoric, so do they also
contain prejudice against each other, and I’m yet to hear the
Government stall on racism policy for this reason. I do hear them
taking the tone that views of all religions can be accepted within
schools, but any prejudice on the basis of religion against another
person will not be tolerated – so why is homophobia excluded from
this?
8. Given that young people are often unaware of their own sexuality
and/or gender identity during their school years, why do you think
they are singled out for homo/bi/transphobic bullying?
Prompts: Visible signs? Behaviours perceived as ‘gay’? Do you think
this type of singling out can affect how a young person thinks about
their sexual and/or gender identity?
My views: I feel the performance of gender through masculinities
and femininities from an early age influencing notions of
‘normality’ is central to homo/bi/transphobia, in fact I think it is at
the route. Homo/bi/transphobia is basically gender phobia. We have
been conditioned to believe there are two genders, male and female,
that they act in particular ways, masculine and feminine and that they
desire each other, anything that deviates from this model is not normal
and therefore a target for discrimination. In this way heterosexuality
as normalised and privileged and the normative models of gender
legitimate subject positions, alienating LGBT subjects – I think this
is compounded within schools, when in fact the school is the perfect
site for these misconceptions to be addressed. We can see from
Stonewalls School Report 2007 that the culture of the playground and
the classroom is likely to have important effects on young people at a
time in their lives when they are particularly vulnerable and are at a
pivotal point in negotiating their identities.