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

AM:…yes you are absolutely right its kind of what the Government wants is, results,
results, results but they cant see that actually results would be better if kids were happy.
(inaudible)
H: If kids aren’t happy then they are not going to perform well are they.
AM: Um, a few of you have mentioned a lot about other peoples perceptions of you, and
like looking at you and seeing things about you. I wonder how these perceptions, do you
think they actually affected your own understanding of yourself? Did you just kind of like
think you know it’s rubbish, it just went right over your head…
V: {it totally screwed me up}
AM: …or did you sit down and think God, you know is what they are saying true?
H: I just didn’t bother anymore [//] I juts kind of like, the only sort of purpose of my life
was just to think about other people and that and that like should always come before like
my needs, my needs ever like that I should just used to empathise with other people and
just think about that and just analyse like every single situation, but I shouldn’t take that
into account, like if someone didn’t like me it was never because of anything that was in
them, it was always because they didn’t like me…
AM: {Was that a short-term thing or was that something that you are still trying to deal
with?
H: It will always be there.
V: We love you Helen!
AM: Ok, does anyone have anymore points about um firstly short term effects, we’ve
kind of covered academic achievement and um attendance at school, anyone got any
comments about effects?
T: You can have like, if if you’ve been bullied for like so long, you grow up thinking that
its wrong and it’s like…
AM: {That homosexuality’s wrong?}
T: …yeah you grow up thinking its wrong and um that you just shouldn’t be that and you
try faking to be someone that you’re not and then you’ve got, you’re always in that same
mental state that um a part of you must be wrong to be that way [//] it’s quite stupid
actually.
AM: Ok, what about more long term affects? I mean looking around the room, without
assuming, I’m guessing you are all under twenty-four, maybe even a bit younger than
that, so you’re still quite your still quite young. But I mean I personally think we develop
until the day we dye anyway, so like…