Students return to school as conservatives target LGBTQ youth – Statesman Journal
Billie Henderson remembers walking to her car at Oregon’s West Linn High School in 2019 to find the word “queer” and several phallic symbols drawn on the back windshield.
Around the same time, the school’s athletic booster club had started bringing a Chick-fil-A truck to football games, Henderson said. The fast-food restaurant has made headlines nationally in years past for its executives’ comments and financial donations to organizations that oppose people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning.
In response, Henderson and the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance organized a walkout that drew more than 200 students and a couple dozen parent and community supporters, as reported by West Linn Tidings. Participants shared experiences of harassment, name-calling, slurs and vandalism they endured in school.
“Students had been sending in complaints about homophobia and transphobia being rampant in the school for years,” she said.
Henderson, now 20, is about to begin her junior year at Willamette University in Salem. She’s among thousands of LGBTQ students nationwide returning to classrooms at a time when lawmakers and activists are pushing to ban or limit their rights in K-12 schools and beyond.
Students and supporters are preparing themselves and pushing schools to do more to protect the LGTBQ community. And activists like Henderson want opportunities like what’s in Oregon to be available everywhere.
“I wouldn’t have survived if I didn’t get access to hormone replacement therapy and began my gender transition, and just having a support system around me,” Henderson said. “For those students who are going through that in the states that have anti-trans laws being passed, I’d just say to find your people. They need to find the people who support them and who will be there for them.”
Efforts targeting LGBTQ students
State legislatures across the country considered dozens of bills targeting LGBTQ youth this year, with the number of proposed measures focused on access to bathrooms and locker rooms and transgender students’ participation in K-12 school sports exploding, according to Education Week.
Florida and at least 10 other states have blocked the use of Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care, though a few, including Hawaii, are expanding the same kind of care. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s child protection agency to investigate parents who seek gender-affirming care for their children as child abuse, though a judge has blocked some of that order.
A Utah judge recently blocked a ban on transgender students participating in school sports, but students now face a commission that will decide whether they can play on a case-by-case basis.
Oregon has seen some action as well.
Locally, in Salem-Keizer Public Schools, a group of parents and community members unsuccessfully pushed for the removal of “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe that discusses topics such as asexuality and being nonbinary, meaning someone does not identify as either male or female.
“My view of the world has become so cynical over the years that now when I’m seeing the horrendous amount of anti-trans legislation being passed and the book bans and all of this terrifying stuff, I feel like I don’t really process it a whole lot,” Henderson said. “I just kind of see it and just think, ‘Oh, that’s going on.’ “
Read more:Salem-Keizer rejects second book ban request, keeps ‘Gender Queer’ in local high schools
The suicide rate among LGBTQ youth has escalated over the past three years, according to the Trevor Project, a national nonprofit focused on suicide prevention efforts for LGBTQ youth. About two-thirds of LGBTQ youth surveyedtold the nonprofit that current and proposed state policies have had a negative impact on their mental health.
Henderson, who is majoring in politics, policy, law and ethics and was recently featured in the youth mental health documentary “Hiding in Plain Sight,” said she wants to become an attorney one day. She wants to get kids out of the justice system and prevent them from entering in the first place.
Henderson said more educators need to listen to students and believe them when they bring forward accusations of harassment, racism, homophobia and transphobia. Sensitivity training to better identify and respond would be useful, she added.
Other LGBTQ students who spoke with the Statesman Journal declined to be named or photographed. They said teachers and counselors without personal experiences with these issues often need to be “retaught” or made aware of things such as gender dysphoria and not outing students to people they’re not ready to tell.
Oregon laws provide some protection
Even with the discrimination she’s faced, Henderson said, she still feels fortunate to live in a state that’s “relatively safe for a trans person to live” and receive gender-affirming treatment.
Oregon has long been a leader in supporting trans people.
In 2007, for example, the Legislature amended the Oregon Equality Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, regardless of gender identity or transition.
In 2016, the Oregon Department of Education released a guiding document for districts on how to make schools inclusive and safe for trans students. The guidelines have been considered by Basic Rights Oregon to be “among the most progressive in the country” and served as a partial model for the Obama administration’s federal policies.
The recommendations include using students’ preferred names and pronouns and implementing policies to address harassment, intimidation or bullying against transgender students.
And in 2017, Oregon passed House Bill 2673, the state’s first stand-alone transgender justice law, simplifying the name and gender change process for Oregon birth certificates.
More recently, in the 2021 legislative session, state lawmakers passed the Data Justice Act, which requires healthcare providers collect, with informed consent, the sexual orientation and gender identity information from patients, and provides funding to the Oregon Health Authority to develop a database that provides insight into LGBTQ health disparities.
Oregon lawmakers also last year passed the Crown Act, which, in addition to protecting Black students and other students of color, impacts LGBTQ student-athletes who want their hair to align with their gender expression.
Salem-Keizer Public Schools this past February introduced several new policies with the goal of increasing the “safety, wellbeing, education and success” of transgender and non-binary students as well.
Among the policies is one stating students, staff and visitors may use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity. It also directs schools to ensure that gender-neutral, single-occupant bathrooms are accessible to anyone.
School policy:Salem-Keizer school district has new transgender student policies. Here’s what they do
Oregon also has laws and policies that require suicide intervention plans in grades K-12, allow teenagers age 16 and older to make their own medical decisions without parental approval and permit students to participate in gender-separated activities, such as boys’ or girls’ sports teams, based on their asserted identity.
For those who don’t have these state protections, Henderson said, it’s important students find help wherever they can, whether that’s at school, via online communities or somewhere else.
“I wish I could say to just move to the closest state that is actually accepting of you. But obviously, that’s not realistic for everyone,” Henderson said. “So, I say the most important thing is just to find that group of people who will be there to support you.”
Reporting from USA Today contributed to this story.
Natalie Pate covers education for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips to her at npate@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6745. Follow her on Twitter @NataliePateGwin.
From the archives:Advocates, families and transgender students push for progress in Oregon schools