Gay and Lesbian Students: Understanding Their Needs

In an average US secondary school 10% of the student population is homosexual, yet only a small number of American school districts have taken positive steps to address the problems associated with gay and lesbian students in the predominantly heterosexual educational setting. This book aims to raise awareness of the problems encountered by these adolescents in schools and of the effects of these problems on the dropout rate, academic achievement, substance abuse, AIDS, teenage pregnancy, school violence and suicide.; Designed to promote understanding and dispel myths about gay and lesbian tennagers, the volume also makes curriculum suggestions to advocate self-acceptance and tolerance and to reduce homophobia among heterosexual teenagers. It seeks to explain how institutional homophobia has affected the belief system and behaviour of a large segment of the American population. Various themes concerning the origins of sexual development are discussed, as is information concerning students who are children of gay and lesbian parents.