Hostility Against LGBT Youth Increases in Rural, Low-Income Areas, Report Says

Discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth often increases in rural and so-called impoverished areas, according to a new report by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which believes school librarians can play a significant role in helping to stem this kind of harassment.

“We’ve found that having a supportive school staff member can help mitigate these effects,” says Emily Greytak, senior research associate at GLSEN. “And librarians play a unique role in that they have the potential to reach all students, unlike teachers who usually only connect to students in their class.”

Greytak, along with other researchers at GLSEN, dove deeper into its 2007 National School Climate Survey, uncovering data that showed that victimization increased against LGBT students depending on the size and socioeconomics of a school’s community and that students in these areas were less likely to have access to information about LGBT people, history, or events in their school library.

In rural areas, just 23.7 percent of students could find resources on LGBT subjects at school, compared to 31.7 percent in urban schools and 44.6 percent in suburban schools. “If there were higher levels of college-educated people, and lower levels of poverty, there were fewer victims,” says Greytak.

While GLSEN hopes to see student harassment of any kind end, the group believes media specialists in these at-risk areas could make a difference in bringing discriminatory incidents down. That’s one reason why GLSEN has partnered with the American Library Association, says Greytak, to help librarians identify ways to assist students.

Linda Braun, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), agrees that libraries can play a primary role in helping LGBT students feel safer and believes that making the school library a safe place is the first step. “I don’t mean safe from guns and knives, but that you can be whoever you need to be,” she says. “The materials are there, a librarian is there, and you can be safe in this space.”

GLSEN offers a Safe Space Kit on its Web site along with other tips and resources for educators on how to help LGBT students who need a protected space from other children —and perhaps even their families—so they can find answers to questions they’re having.

School librarians can also check Internet filters to make sure that sites offering guidance to LGBT students or anyone curious about these subjects aren’t blocked. Learning how to respond to those who criticize some materials in the library is also key, as well as double-checking that policies meant to make it easier for students to locate materials about LGBT youth don’t actually make them more uncomfortable.

“It’s very easy to have something on the shelf, but not so easy to publicize that,” says Braun. “I’ve heard about putting a pink sticker on a book. It’s an interesting idea, but that can call you out. So it’s all about making sure a teen feels safe.”