High School Students More Accepting of LGBT Peers Than the School Officials Are

During the past couple of weeks, there has been some publicity about high schools and homosexuality. During the weekend of October 30, 2011, a major breakthrough occurred for gays, and mainly for gay teens; one of the first lesbian couples was crowned homecoming king and queen in the nation. The girls are seniors at Patrick Henry High School in California. They received a lot of support from their peers and teachers, and also received a lot of negative feedback. The fact that the girls were nominated and received the most votes to be the homecoming king and queen by their peers suggests that they had a significant amount of positive support.

Another homecoming incident involving a lesbian couple did not receive so much positive support, however, it did receive the attention of the ACLU. A high school in Mississippi, Itawamba Agricultural High School, canceled its prom this when school officials learned that a female student intended to attend prom with her girlfriend. In this situation, the ACLU stepped in and filed a law suit against the high school alleging that the high school officials violated the students’ first amendment right to freedom of expression.

These events show that there is a growing acceptance and tolerance of gays and possibly other minorities in high schools. The fact that the student body is leading in supporting their peers by voting the lesbian couple in as homecoming royalty shows that perhaps this younger generation of students is really learning some acceptance or even embracing diversity. Compare this situation to the situation in Mississippi where we have information that the school officials (the older generation) were the ones that perhaps were a bit homophobic…whereas, we don’t know from the CNN article what the other students’ reactions were.

In order for minority groups to be accepted by the majority group, there is some type of revolution or years, sometimes decades, of social change. We may very well be at the cusp of social change in relation to the acceptance of gays and lesbians. It may be that our high school populations are showing indicators of acceptance and are the leaders in this social change.

References:
http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-students-crowned-americas-first-lesbian-homecoming-140805984.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-11/living/mississippi.prom.suit_1_prom-students-aclu?_s=PM:LIVING