LGBT Youth in High School: Struggles of Being Different in a Heteronormative Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community in high school face tremendous difficulties as they grow in societies where there is heterosexuality engaged (James, 2010). Heterosexuality has for long been presented as the only accepted orientation and the youth are thus not free to self-determine the gender identity. Thus, homosexuality is regarded as deviant. This has contributed to high rates of victimization, risky behaviors of infecting HIV, substance abuse and also violence more so when it comes to the rivalry between the LGBT youth and the heterosexual. The abuse against the LGBT youth in high school has led to many cases of truancy, dropping out of school, extremely poor grades and having to repeat a grade. In a school organization that I worked for, there was a need to lead the process of change for the LGBT youth to ensure that they felt normal and there were fewer issues of marginalization based on sex.

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Type of Change Made

The change that I brought about was an advocacy campaign for LGBT youth. I made sure that the school recruited counselors who talked to the students and made sure that they were aware of their gender identity and sexual orientation as well as accepting who they were. Through the campaign for the non-marginalization of the LGBT, I made sure that every student was aware of philosophical tenets that they should live by which are rights, respect, and responsibility. It was necessary to have these changes because it was not until every student recognized the role that they served to abide by the values (Jones & Brazzel 2014).

Teaching about rights, the campaign taught every student that the youth have an inalienable right to have complete health information about their sexual orientation. They also had a right to confidential services for reproduction and a secure stake in the future. We offered comprehensive sex education to the students which were necessary to ensure they learned that the small group of LGBT youth were no different from them.

Teaching about respect, the campaign stated that every youth deserves respect regardless of the existing differences. To value another person means to partner with them in terms of design, and program evaluation on policies that have an impact on their health. In the section of responsibility, we taught that it is the role of society to provide young people with tools that were necessary to safeguard sexual health. The campaign helped to reduce the rates of discrimination and harassment as they had negative impacts on the well-being of the youth (Kotter, 1998).

Causes of Initiating the Change

The main cause of initiating the campaign was the continued negative impact of victimization of the LGBT youth in the school. The level was too much and we needed to mitigate these effects. It was evident that these students were not performing. More specifically, they missed classes on most occasions with very many excuses. There was a case of transfer for one of the students who was an LGBT with the reason that the school environment was becoming unbearable.

Another cause of initiating the change was that the majority of the students who were heterosexual complained about the LGBT youths saying that they were not worthy to mingle with them. Cases of psychological and physical harm were the norm of the day and there was a need to foster climates of respect and strategies to respond to harassment. We made sure to develop school policies that protected these students from being harassed by others. We also trained them in times of crisis and suicide intervention. The support from other teachers and the head of the school department helped tp provide counseling to the students on how to accept the others.

Managing the Change

The main way that we managed the change was through instilling the three values to every student and monitoring the use in their everyday activities around the school and also outside (Glor, 2014). We made sure that students stuck to the school policies about harassing LGBT youths. Normally, these students are quiet and seem hopeless hence the reason for others taking advantage of them. We had to make sure that all the school staff, teachers and also administrators were sensitive to the topic of LGBT and responded positively towards their existence.

Creation of peer-to-peer support was necessary to ensure that other students knew what was expected of them in supporting the LGBT youth. We managed to create systematic and sustainable change in the school that provided insight towards advocating for the rights of the LGBT students which was to respond to their negative experiences with heterosexuals. Managing the change was quite easy especially because there was a relevant advocacy team that saw to it that there is no marginalization or victimization of students.

Creating Buy-In

We managed to gain support from others to create a realization of the process through resonating with people more logically. The gain we got from buy-in was that we were able to create more support groups for the LGBT people. We taught other students on how they could understand the status of others in terms of their sexuality and create relationships that were based on trust and also respect. The students were able to clearly understand the change that we meant to bring and we gave correct answers to all their questions. We handled the feedback they offered and made appropriate follow-ups on the progress of the students.

Results of the Change

The results of the advocacy campaigns for the LGBT people were that there were improved grades and better social relationships with the students. In the end-term results, we noticed that there was a tremendous improvement of the students. There was also a reduction in the rate of missing classes which helped in improving the grades. We also noticed that there was more confidence that they portrayed compared to the period before the campaigns. The change helped to encourage the students to show respect and be responsible for their colleagues and friends.

What Else Could Be Done Differently

If there was an opportunity to go back and redo the change, I would have included programs in the change that would create a forum for voicing the needs and desires of the LGBT group. This way, it would have been easier to form policies towards their personal preferences that would make them more comfortable in the school (Mims, Hof, Dinsmore, & Wielechowski, 2016). Using an open group format for the program would help to provide a neutral and flexible platform to meet the issues and problems of the LGBT group.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I had the best experience when managing this change and it resulted in success where we created a safe environment that allowed students to support each other. Majority of schools do not support the LGBT youths while there is not much that they can do to change their sexuality hence the need to accept these individuals as part of the larger group.

References

Glor, E. D. (2014). Building theory about the evolution of organizational change patterns. Emergence: Complexity & Organization, 16(4), 1-23. https://journal.emergentpublications.com/article/15327000160402/

James, W. (2010). Responding to Harassment of LGBT: Youth in Schools. Advocates for Youth. Retrieved from https://advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/storage//advfy/documents/snapshots_v2.pdf

Jones, B. B., & Brazzel, M. (2014). The NTL handbook of organization development and change. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. Retrieved from http://repository.umy.ac.id/bitstream/handle/123456789/14739/Isi%20telaah%20buku%20perilaku%20organisasi%20dan%20pengembangan%20organisasi_rev%204%20juli%202014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y#page=37

Kotter, J. (1998). Successful change and the force that drives it. Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era, 458-466.

Mims, M. J., Hof, D. D., Dinsmore, J. A., & Wielechowski, L. (2016). Empowering LGBT Teens: A School-Based Advocacy Program. Retrieved from https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/article_240ec024f16116603abcacff0000bee5e7.pdf?sfvrsn=90d6442c_4