Volume 26, Number 2
March/April 2010
Beyond Gay-Straight Alliances
Research shows why family support is critical to helping LGBT students succeed
By MICHAEL SADOWSKI
Beyond Gay-Straight Alliances, continued
Beyond Gay-Straight Alliances: Research shows why family support is critical to helping LGBT students succeed
Beyond Gay-Straight Alliances
Decades’ worth of studies point to the importance of parental involvement in K–12 schooling. Yet when it comes to programs and policies related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, families are often deliberately left out of the conversation, according to several leading experts in LGBT youth development. Even in schools where LGBT-positive programs such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs—support and advocacy groups for LGBT students and their “straight allies”) exist, these are often kept low-key. Obviously, educators need to exercise care when discussing individual LGBT students—some may not be “out” to family members, or some parents and caregivers may not be supportive of their children’s LGBT identities. But in some cases, they say, family involvement is absent, or even avoided, for fear of controversy.
“The assumption is that families are going to be unsupportive at best,” says Caitlin Ryan, a researcher at San Francisco State University, who has studied the issues affecting LGBT youth for more than three decades. Evidence from Ryan’s research, as well as several recent school-based initiatives, however, suggests that parents and caregivers can be important allies in the success of LGBT students, and that schools’ unwritten “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies around LGBT issues may do more harm than good.
This is an excerpt from the Harvard Education Letter.
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Decades’ worth of studies point to the importance of parental involvement in K–12 schooling. Yet when it comes to programs and policies related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, families are often deliberately left out of the conversation, according to several leading experts in LGBT youth development. Even in schools where LGBT-positive programs such as gay-straight alliances (GSAs—support and advocacy groups for LGBT students and their “straight allies”) exist, these are often kept low-key. Obviously, educators need to exercise care when discussing individual LGBT students—some may not be “out” to family members, or some parents and caregivers may not be supportive of their children’s LGBT identities. But in some cases, they say, family involvement is absent, or even avoided, for fear of controversy.
“The assumption is that families are going to be unsupportive at best,” says Caitlin Ryan, a researcher at San Francisco State University, who has studied the issues affecting LGBT youth for more than three decades. Evidence from Ryan’s research, as well as several recent school-based initiatives, however, suggests that parents and caregivers can be important allies in the success of LGBT students, and that schools’ unwritten “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies around LGBT issues may do more harm than good.
