Overcoming Homophobia in Physical Education Christina Fernandes 214229066 Section A Saba Ali Tutorial 06 Provisional Essay Outline and Paradigm Statement 19 October 2015 2015-2016 KINE1000 6.0 Socio-cultural Perspectives in Kinesiology York University • Preventing homophobia in physical education classes should be addressed by creating a more informative education curriculum, awareness of successful homosexual athletes and teaching students the importance of individual rights. Thus, the awareness homophobic issues in physical education will be eliminated. • The gendered sexuality of physical education includes challenges for young homosexuals. The curriculum should place more awareness about sexual gendered bullying in school and more focus should be given to understanding the needs and finding safer and more welcoming ways for these young students to participate without fear (Kerry S. O’Brien, Heather Shovelton & Janet D. Latner, n.d). • Physical education classes should bring in homosexual athletes so that they can can look at the journeys of how they were involved in sport, peaking into barriers they had to face. They should use these examples to inspire young people who are in the same situation or to display a message to other students that, homosexuals should not be discriminated. • The issue of gender prejudice is well known to athletes who have participated in sports and continued to pursue their dreams. These individuals should
The true purpose of Queer Bodies: Sexualities, Genders, & Fatness in Physical Education is to shed light on how students who identify as queer bodied maneuver through physical education courses in school. Over the course of her book, Sykes examines each issue of gender, sexuality, and fatness separately and analyzes each population individually, providing insight to each specific queer bodied group. A ‘queer body’
[The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) organization at my high school, which meets twice per month, generated a list of concerns that they shared with school administration. The focus was specifically about gender identity, the lack of support from school staff, and the daily scrutiny they face as a result of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Through collaboration with my colleagues it was evident that there had been an increase in teacher and student referrals surrounding gender identity. The feedback from GSA clearly identified that as a school we are not meeting the needs of our LGBT students and those struggling with sexual orientation. Members of the GSA clearly feel that teachers ignore negative comments like “gay” and “faggot” when they hear them in class, that teachers may not clearly understand gender neutral language, and that our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) students do not feel safe and protected in school. Students needed support advocating for their right to use a restroom, correct pronoun, etc., requiring district, community, parent, and colleague
This paper explores the documentary Training Rules directed by Dee Mosbacher and Fawn Yacker, who released the film in March 2009. This film is about how women’s collegiate sports dealt with homophobia in the league, and it focuses primarily on Pennsylvania State University’s Rene Portland, who was the women’s basketball coach. Under her coaching, she had a “No Lesbians” policy that all the girls had to accept or else they risk being kicked off the team and losing their scholarship. This documentary recounts the instances where some of her players felt discriminated against when they just wanted to play basketball, and their testimonies tell how the university’s basketball program came under fire because of sexual orientation discrimination.
Up until recently a person could not be gay in the military. Homosexuals were honorably discharged from the military. In 1993 President Clinton attempted to change this tradition. He received much opposition from politicians, citizens and the military. The result was a compromise, a don't ask, don't tell rule. This meant that the military personal was not to inquire about sexual preference, and that service members were not to be blatant about their sexual orientation. Another macho activity is sports. Gay men in sport have not been accepted. " There is much at stake in maintaining the silence about gay men in sports and in discouraging gay male athletes from revealing their identities"(Coakley 234). To even talk about homosexuals in sports would threaten the system of gender classification. The fact is though there are homosexuals in sports and they are discriminated against. In the locker room athletes use anti- gay banter as part of daily life. Homosexuals in sports live in fear of the truth about their sexuality coming out. Although recently studies have shown that organized sports are becoming less homophobic. People in sports are becoming more tolerant of homosexuals. But the value of a homosexual athlete is of core importance. " Gay athletes with high human capital are much more likely to come out of the closet to their teams than are gay athletes with medium or low human capital"(Anderson 12). As homosexuals are slowly accepted
My goal since beginning high school has been to create a safer school environment for LGBTQ students. Although the climate has become much more tolerant, bullying and discrimination are still rampant in the hallways, the classrooms and the Facebook statuses of students at my school.
In my paper I will be discussing homophobia in schools and how it affects students and even teachers. Homophobia in schools is the leading cause of suicide and depression among teenagers and young adults. I believe that this is a crucial situation and needs to be addressed both at home and in school. School officials must be permitted and comfortable with addressing issues of homosexuality and homophobia that students may have. This is crucial in not only enabling a LGBT teenager to get an education that is in a non-hostile environment, but also in enabling the student to become a strong confident adult.
In the last few decades more and more young individuals identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, which has sparked a level of interest in educators, as well as researchers to determine the amount of students who feel uncomfortable in their school settings, and why. This research paper will inform educators what the need to understand and protect the students in their classroom in order to create a more diverse, healthy and cooperative learning environment for all students. When students are in the educational setting they should not be afraid to attend school or be uncomfortable; educators should make their classrooms and their school a safe havens for all students, no matter their sexual preference. The purpose of this paper is to inform the readers about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community history, how it suffers harassment, prejudices, school difficulties, policies that are in place to assist students, as well as some possible solutions to assist in the education setting.
The first article I read, titled “Pro Sports, still homophobic in 2014”, was about how there is still a lot of homophobia in professional sports even in this day and age. The author, Hudson Taylor, discusses different controversies that happened within the professional sports community that range from alleged gay accusations toward Green Bay Packers quarterback all the way to statements made by Vikings assistant coach encouraging the idea of placing all gays on an island and nuking the island until it glows. Taylor discusses how when he was in high school he was part of the group that felt strongly against those that made fun of the gay community but did nothing about it because he felt as if it wasn’t his place nor his battle. He told how in college his world changed completely once he witnessed how accepting his theater friends were to people with different sexual orientations and how he ultimately found his voice and started speaking out. Because of that experience, Taylor is now the founder of a program called Athlete Ally, where he travels the world empowering the athletic community to stand up against homophobia in sports.
The article, “We must celebrate gender and sexual diversity in our schools”, published by The Conversation in 2016, written by Lucy Nicholas argues that the Safe School’s Coalition is out of touch with the science of sex and gender identity. Essentially, Nicholas claims that the Safe Schools Coalition needs to be updated and modernized to suit young LGBTI students. She explains that the only way to effectively tackle homophobic bullying is to go beyond tolerance and actually change the attitude of the wider school population.
Homophobia is a historic institution that has impacted the experience of many educators over the years. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans* (hereinafter referred to as queer and trans*) educators, administrators, students, and staff have always been a part of shaping America's schools; however, they have often learned creative strategies for remaining in the closet in order to protect themselves from “ostracism, parental outrage, punishment, and even dismissal” (Blount, 2005, p. 1). Riling against social shifts of (non-)acceptance, there have been documented cases dating back to the mid-1800s where educators have written letters to same-gender partners expressing their sexual and emotional desires. Blount (2005) specifically mentions that Addie
Sykes and McPhail argue that in physical education, the usual focus on physical skills may be accompanied by latent messages about sexuality and gender. They argue that physical education typically presumes heteronormativity. For male students in particular, certain assumptions about masculinity. In their study, the construction of masculinity includes the persecution of the feminine, aggression, rough-housing, and injury.
Boy’s sexuality is another key issue that is associated with cheerleading. Moreover the stigma that transpires from the participation in cheerleading, boy’s participation in female dominant sport surely raises questions their sexual identity, understood within the viewpoint of gender. Boys that choose to cheer are observed and identified as gay. For example, before I became a male cheerleader, my Dad made the assumption that all men who did cheerleading were gay. I know that at first I was cautious of becoming a cheerleader due to the idea that your sexuality would never be left alone. After deliberating this matter with the other older kids that participated in cheerleading, Isaac rested assured that the other kids doing the sport did not
inspired by this and launched a multipronged education campaign to fight the use of anti-gay language and bullying. In the cases previously discussed there has been a constant repetition of how the principals react to the bullying. No matter how many complaints the mothers of these children filed, no solution even resulted. The schools never made an effort to do anything to stop this. The fact that this can continue on is unacceptable considering that it is the schools’ responsibility to care for all their students.
Among men, ages 13 to 29, who identify as gay or bisexual, statistically are shown to be more prone to contracting HIV. (Hannah Slater, paragraph 7) This is due to the lack of proper education directed towards LGBTQ+ individuals. While going through school K-12 children, who identify as LGBTQ+, are not provided with education regarding their health, history, or anatomy. Often, they are not represented in literature or films that a school may show. This is, according to many, because it is inappropriate for a professional school environment. Though, students, along with the schools themselves, can really benefit from having an LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum.
Areas of particular relevance to health educators include heterosexual bias in sexuality education curriculum and textbook context, AIDS education, hate violence, adolescent suicide, and health education research on lesbian and gay topics. Strategies for eliminating homophobia include professional development of health educators and curriculum change at the university level” (Baker, 1991, np). Other researchers like Black, Oles and Moore (1998) “reported on a study of the relationship between students' attitudes toward women and toward gay men and lesbians and changes in those attitudes during social work courses at two universities. The study found a significant relationship between students' levels of homophobia and sexism. The relationship was stronger for female students than for male students and varied by race and academic major. The article also discussed the implications of the findings for changing social work curricula” (np). Barry (1998) explained “that a series of contemporary theories that had been used to explain homophobia. Structural, feminist, comparative, gender panic, queer, and socio-historical theories rely on the premises of a diverse set of scholarly disciplines, and in turn, generate their own objects of analysis, whether `homophobia', `heterosexism', or `heteronormativity'. While the current flourishing of gay and lesbian studies had generated important insights into the workings of homophobia, analyses have also