“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
That familiar refrain by Glinda, the witch of the north – from “The Wizard of Oz” movie – has been a rallying cry at gay and lesbian rights gatherings since 1979.
The sentiment engendered by that phrase recently gained some professional mental health support with the release of a study from the University of Arizona’s Frances McClelland Institute of Children, Youth and Families – and posted on the National Institutes of Health’s MedLine Plus website – about the health benefits of youths “coming out,” by being open about their gender and/or sexual identities in their schools.
Evidently, as so many adult celebrities have attested – including comedian Ellen DeGeneres, Apple CEO Tim Cook, actors Ellen Page and Jodie Foster, entertainer Joel Gray, athletes Michael Sam, Darren Young and Jason Collins, “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts, and so many others – being closeted, or maintaining the illusion of hetersexuality, is difficult; as is choosing to make one’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ) identity public.
For high school students, the issue is sometimes a matter of life and death.
The Arizona study, featured in the Feb. 11 issue of MedLine Plus, points to higher levels of “self-esteem and life satisfaction and lower levels of depression among those who were open about their sexual orientation or gender identity in high school … than those who did not reveal, or tried to conceal, their LGBT identity.”
“The thing that’s encouraging is that we’ve found being out is good for you,” Stephen Russell, study leader at the University of Arizona, said in a university news release.
A 2013 study from the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, also published by the NIH, supports Russell’s statement. That study states, “Lesbian and gay youths living in counties with fewer school districts with inclusive anti-bullying policies were 2.25 times more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year compared with those living in counties where more districts had these policies.”
That study concludes that “School climates that protect sexual minority students may reduce their risk of suicidal thoughts.”
Understanding the labels
The “queer” and “questioning” labels are used to identify transgender individuals, or “someone who does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth,” according to the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center’s website. The Kingston Center’s site says the “Q” also stands for “genderqueer,” defined as “someone who does not conform to society’s expectations about gender,” and “queer,” defined as “political statement, as well as a sexual orientation” and as “a simple label to explain a complex set of sexual behaviors and desires. For example, a person who is attracted to multiple genders may identify as queer.”
It should be noted, the site continues, that “many older LGBT people feel the word (queer) has been hatefully used against them for too long and are reluctant to embrace it.” It advises readers not to identify someone as “queer” unless they identify that way themselves.
Rondout High School is one of many schools throughout Ulster County that are making efforts through Gay-Straight Alliances, Diversity Clubs and other educational activities to insure a safe environment for all of its students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“For the most part everybody [in Rondout schools] does their part to make sure everyone’s comfortable regardless of their sexuality or socio-economic status,” said Chris Wynkoop, a teaching assistant at the high school who, until this year, ran the school’s Diversity Club for eight years.
“It’s refreshing in many ways,” added principal Bob Cook, “Students are very tolerant – more so than the adults.”
Almost every school in the county has resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and the Gay and Lesbian Students’ and Educators’ Network known as GLSEN is involved with teachers in most districts, Wynkoop said.
According to the GLSEN Hudson Valley website, “Nationally, GLSEN works to ensure safe schools for ALL students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The Ulster sub-chapter of GLSEN Hudson Valley, “has been an endless and essential source of encouragement, training, support and resources,” wrote Kingston High School social worker and Gay-Straight Alliance advisor, Amy Kapes, in a December 2014 GLSEN fundraising letter. “There have been several [Gay-Straight Alliance] initiatives and events that would not have been possible without their guidance, collaboration and/or financial support.”
According to the Kingston High School website, “Kingston High School was the first high school in the nation to air public service announcements by GLSEN.”
County resources
Kingston and Rondout high schools are not alone in Ulster and Dutchess counties.
Rob Conlon of GLSEN Hudson Valley, said his organization is working to educate students and faculty in the Ellenville, Highland, Kingston, Marlboro, New Paltz, Onteora, Rondout, Saugerties and Wallkill districts in Ulster County and in the Hyde Park, Red Hook and Rhinebeck districts in Northern Dutchess County.
Transgender students are also provided a supportive environment in Rondout schools, Wyncoop said, adding that Rondout High School’s transexual students are allowed to use the bathroom assigned to the gender to which they identify.
Additionally, the high school as well as the Intermediate Junior High provide support to parents of children who are questioning their sexual preference and/or identity, officials said.
Cook, who served as a math teacher for 10 years, assistant principal for one year and has been principal for two years, said LGBTQ students are increasingly comfortable “being more involved and vocal … everybody is more aware, nobody is making fun outwardly. They just go about their day.”
The Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center also provides resources to help schools and students.
In an email, the Center’s program director Vanessa Shelmandine stated, “We often hear from transgender youth in particular, who have been grappling with their schools’ varying levels of resistance and/or fears and lack of knowledge. We’ve helped the youth by attending school meetings with parents, faculty and administrators, as well as holding phone conferences, and providing more formal training directly at the schools.
“In Ulster County, we’ve assisted transgender youth at two different schools that were not sure how to address the students’ name and pronoun changes, as well as bathrooms and gym classes assignments. Both students have now successfully transitioned at school and received the appropriate access to bathrooms, locker rooms and gym classes,” she wrote.
Shelmandine said she’d recently seen the father of one of those students who described the Center’s intervention on his son’s behalf as “the turning point for us’ that ‘made all the difference.”
At the Rondout Intermediate Junior High School, assistant principal Melinda DiMaio and student assistance counselor Megan Marquis said they strive to make their school safe for all students. “Everything is an invitation to a conversation with a student,” DiMaio said, adding that junior high school is a time when students are “just figuring themselves out and growing into their sexuality generally.”
DiMaio said she seeks to make the school “a safe space and an accepting space for all of our students by letting them feel like this is a home for them.”
