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

needs to be wariness that such responses can be damaging. Sue Sanders, Co-Chair of
Schools Out, echoed these fears when talking about ways of coping with prejudice, she
said, ‘there’s burying yourself in your books completely and getting yourself into
University and then burning out the first year’ (Transcript 4: 37).
The way Helen coped was very different to Von and it was obvious that she had been
badly affected by her experiences at school. She showed very negative perceptions of
herself and her ability to succeed in anything; this is also a common response by LGBT
youth to such experiences (see Warwick et al., 2001; Ellis and High, 2004; Rivers, 2004).
I asked Helen if she felt her self esteem issues and problems with trust were short-term,
she replied simply, ‘it will always be there’ (Transcript 1: 22), and later in the
conversation went on to say, ‘I just feel like I’m not going to succeed [//] really. That I’m
just gonna fail’ (Transcript 1: 36). The way Helen spoke came across as unsure, scared
and extremely vulnerable.
Many of the young people felt they have not achieved the academic success they might
have if they had not been bullied. Silver, at 25, provided a longer term perspective on
academic achievements. He left school before achieving any qualifications and as a result
he says ‘it’s been harder to get the right job that I want or to go to the right college to get
into University’ (Transcript 2: 9). Silver was trying to get his life back on track and
showed that positive experiences can come out of negative ones. Being that bit older than
the young people in the focus group, Silver had the luxury of retrospect and indeed
commented that some of the effects of his experiences were not immediately apparent
and have materialised over the years since he left school. This is something that I can