Recently, Scotland has made the decision to imbed LGBTQ classes into their curiculum in all public schools. This proves to be a historic moment in the LGBTQ community as the deep history behind LGBTQ rights isn’t offered in current history classes.
Scotland wishes to progress this movement nationwide by the year 2021 and the topics included in this class will include the discussion of homophobia and the history behind gay rights. Another addition to the curriculum will include transphobia and the fight for transgender rights. In a Life in Scotland for LGBT Youth, it is stated that “71% of LGBT young people experienced bullying in school on the grounds of being LGBT. This is a rise from 69% in 2012 and 60% in 2007.”
Various students here at Pleasant Valley identify with the LGBT community, one of them being current senior, Erin Balzer. “It’s important for people to be educated about what LGBT people have been through,” Balzer continued, “we’ve suffered enough and it is time for people to be supportive of a person’s identity no matter what it is.”
In a study that took place in 2016 by the University of Iowa, “26— the percentage of LGBT youth in the U.S. who reported struggling with acceptance by their families, bullying at school, and a fear of being open about their sexuality (LGBT Bullying Statistics 2014).”
There is still a percentage of young people who are open about their sexuality or gender outside of being cisgender or straight that experience bullying in the United States. The number of people who identify with the LGBTQ community has increased and with that, rates of bullying and verbal harassment are going up as well.
With this new addition to the curriculum, Scotland hopes to help end bullying and help give LGBTQ resources to reach out for help as well as help improve their confidence by giving them notable figures to look up to.
Various people are inspired by Scotland’s actions and are working to have this sort of curriculum inserted into their very own education systems. Maybe we will see something similar at PV someday.
Mark Murphy • Dec 2, 2018 at 4:21 am
As a PROUD Gay PV Graduate from 1983 please know while PVUSD may not incorporate curriculum today, there are resources for those who may want to feel SAFE!
I highly encourage promoting the Gay-Straight Alliances organization as a way to combat bullying and encourage those young people (I was one of them…) to be who they are.
https://www.iowasafeschools.org/iowa-gsa-network/
I send you MANY well wishes and for having open and honest conversations.
Mark Murphy PV Grad 1983