Are Schools Safe Spaces For Queer Staff?
A Personal Experience.
To preface this, I wanted to say that this is one of those questions which I suppose is all to do with opinion.
It is reported that, 97% of Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual pupils report regularly hearing homophobic language in school. As well as this, secondary school teachers consider transgender students the least supported in school, with only 7% saying that the school supports them. As someone who was in high school throughout the 2010s, I feel like this is something I can relate to. I have mentioned in previous articles how schools do not support LGBTQIA+ students, including the one I attended.
The article where I discussed the lack of support in schools for LGBTQIA+ students is linked here, if you want to take a read.
https://medium.com/@benrobinson137/is-education-lgbtqia-inclusive-927f99bedaea
I can also second the fact that homophobic language is rife in schools. Even to this day, I still hear pupils use the word ‘gay’ as an insult on the playground. This is something which I feel should have been left in the 2010s. I want kids in the 2020s to be able to go to school and feel safe. Not only that, but as a staff member, I want to be able to feel safe at work.
For me, the idea of being able to go work with your nails painted and have some sort of gender expression is particularly important. Across my time working in a school my sexuality is something which I have never been particularly open about, simply because you never know how people will react. Of course, you hope that no one will have an issue, however that cannot always be the case. A lot of children do not understand what being LGBTQ+ means, and with that comes lack of knowledge about the language that they are using. The concept of going into work with your nails painted and feeling comfortable with that is paramount to me. You hear about some schools which dislike male staff members having painted nails as it is unprofessional,’ whereas women can freely paint them. To me, this has underlying hints of homophobia I suppose. Something as basic as nail painting should not be reserved for one gender, and then frowned upon when the other does it. Like I say, this is a huge thing for me as I want to be able to go into work and not feel like what I am choosing to do as a way of expressing myself is frowned upon. Thankfully, I have not felt this way. However, it is not to say that many people do not.
I recall working within the same year group as a SEND student who used the word ‘gay’ as an insult, or joke, frequently. This was something which I once heard on a corridor and the teaching assistant who was working with him chuckled. For me, as a gay staff member, it is hard to hear your peer laugh at language like that, and not respond in a way where they educate the child on what was wrong. Do not get me wrong, I am fully aware that a lot of children know no better, and it is learnt from home, but with the use of this language in schools must come the educating about why it is wrong. That is what creates a safe space for queer staff. Teaching staff who ignore this kind of language, or even go as far as laugh, are the reason some schools do not feel safe for queer staff members.
On the other hand, I have worked one to one with a SEND student who has been beyond embracing about sexuality and gender expression. There have been situations where sexuality has come up in conversations and he has openly asked me ‘are you gay,’ I have never disclosed it to any of the kids at any job I have had, however he always does the reassuring ‘it’s okay if you are.’ It gives you a little faith that the world really has become a kinder place for younger children.
I have worked in an extremely diverse school, and even though that has brought so much to my life, it has also caused me to question things too. In recent years same sex couples have been taught as one of the family units when educating the children about family and relationships. This is a huge step forward for how we are educating young people going forward. However, our school was heavily Muslim, and with that I found that a lot of the children did not respond well to seeing LGBTQIA+ families. This is not me trying to stereotype people of certain religions, this was just how it was for me. One of the children turned round to me and just said the word ‘weird.’ It is heartbreaking because you know that it is not meant to be harmful. I also reiterate the point, a lot of the kids know no better, but I have also found staff who feel the same. They have been taught all their lives that homosexuality is not the norm, and you do not feel confident opening to them about your life, or showing who you really are. This is a point I have become conflicted with because on one hand it is their belief, then on the other it makes me feel uncomfortable. Even sometimes not knowing where some of the staff stand on their beliefs surrounding homosexuality makes you uncomfortable. This is without even knowing what their actual standpoint is. It can leave you in a tricky situation, but as always, I lean on the side of hoping that this is not something that will continue for much longer, I have found that most staff who work in schools are open minded. However, this discrimination (religious or not) could happen in any workplace.
To link back to my previous discussion about wanting to feel accepted by your co-workers, I feel like respect plays a huge part in this. For me, if I have the respect of my colleagues, that is my goal. Of course, we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are, but in many diverse environments the chances are that you will never be 100 percent accepted. However, if I am respected for my work and what I do at work, acceptance of my lifestyle comes second. This is because if I am respected, then I am automatically going to feel safer at work than I would if I were disliked for my sexuality and colleagues let that bleed over into our work. Not only this, but schools are a teaching environment and melting pots of culture and diversity, the likelihood is that if you work with a colleague who does not agree with your lifestyle, then there is always room for learning and growing if you both respect one another.
Of course, there is always the other side of the coin. I can sit here and be optimistic about education and staff members who work within it, and talk about learning curves all I want, but you will always find a bad egg at some point. So, what happens when this occurs? If your workplace no longer feels like a safe space for you, and your being discriminated against because your queer, then this is an issue. Luckily, there are usually rules and staff policies in place to protect you. The moment you feel discriminated against, it is important to report this, that way you can squash an issue before it even begins. There are also laws in place whereby your workplace simply must protect you against this kind of discrimination. Thankfully, this means that schools really should be a safe space for staff members, as whenever an issue arises it should be as easy as reporting it. Again, for many people this is not always the situation, and work can be a tricky place to feel accepted, whether you report an issue or not.
Are school’s safe spaces for queer staff? This was the question on my mind when I sat down to write this piece. It is an easy conclusion for me to reach in that I have never had any issues. Schools are all about nurturing, learning, and expanding our mindsets, so for queer people they should be a safe place. However, there will always be times where we meet people who do not agree with our lifestyles. This could be children we work with, colleagues, and even parents. Wherever you go in life someone will have an opinion that challenges the way we live, schools are no different, because as I have said several times in this article, schools are a melting pot. I would like to believe that schools and the education system in general has become a kinder place form queer people, as well as children, in recent years. Even though there are still challenges with supporting LGBTQIA+ students, there has been huge steps forward taken in recent years. On top of that, dealing with differing opinions on my lifestyle can always be met with teaching and educating others about it. And for me, since working in a school, I have felt so welcomed and embraced. It certainly feels like a safe space to me.
