AUSTIN, Texas — A new University of Texas at Austin study looked at the ways schools can create safer environments for LGBTQ students.
- Policies create safer environment for all students
- Study used data from 2013-2015 survey
Researchers found that policies focusing on sexual orientation and gender identity are associated with safer and more supportive environments for both LGBTQ youth and all students in general.
MORE | Read Full Study
“These have been controversial, politicized issues. The reality is there are LGBTQ kids and families in every community, and we just need to create environments where everybody can learn. There is pretty clear research evidence for what makes the difference, and it makes a difference for all kids,” said Stephen Russell, chairperson of Human Development and Family Sciences at the UT College of Natural Sciences.
HELPFUL LINK | UT Austin College of Natural Sciences
Lauren Rodriguez and her 15-year-old son, Greyson Rodriguez, who is transgender, made the trip to the Texas Capitol from Coryell County many times during the last legislative session to fight for the rights of LGBTQ people.
“I hated dresses. I hated the color pink. I really loved Hot Wheels and Nerf guns, all the typical male things,” he said. “Everyone kind of wrote it off as tomboyish. When I was little I kind of protested saying I was a boy. At a certain point, I kind of realized that was who I was.”
Days before his 13th birthday, Greyson told his mother.
“I don't care what your gender or your name [is]. I mean, you're still this great, funny, dinosaur-loving, amazing, goofy, extremely smart child that I've been raising,” Lauren Rodriguez said.
Greyson started his transition while attending middle school.
“Everything kind of went really south. A lot of kids who had already bullied me for other reasons for being a nerd or whatever they decided, found a whole new set of ammunition, somehow learned a whole new set of insults that they had figured out. [They] called me ‘it.’ I've been sprayed with perfume once on the bus,” said Greyson.
“If you don't have support from your school administrators to make that intervention, the truth is, it's just easier to keep teaching math." -- Lauren Rodriguez, mother of transgender teen.
Instead of focusing on his classwork, Greyson said he was planning the safest times to go to the bathroom or the quickest ways to get to the next class to avoid being bullied. He was experiencing anxiety.
“It got to the point where he literally would be like, ‘I’m too sick to go to school.’ And kept trying to miss school. Then it was like, ‘Mom, if you make me go to school, I don't know if I can survive this.’ And I was like, ‘That's all I need to hear,’” Lauren Rodriguez said.
For the past two years, Greyson has been homeschooled.
Russell’s study draws from a 2013 to 2015 survey of California students and principal reports about school policies. He said they are four key strategies that are linked to student well-being and academic achievement, and that can reduce truancy and homophobic bullying:
- Inclusive and enumerated policies that protect all students from discrimination
- School personnel support and training
- Student-led clubs that promote inclusion and a positive school environment
- Access to LGBTQ-related resources and curriculum
Russell is working alongside Equality Texas and OutYouth in a new initiative called, Stories & Numbers, to help students, parents, and educators in developing these supportive environments.
HELPFUL LINK | Equality Texas and OutYouth website
Today, Greyson said he is doing well academically and he plans to attend college. His mother, though, believes he deserves the social experience of attending high school.
“I would want a school that just kind of lets everyone be themselves and be who they are and not discriminate against anyone for anything,” said Greyson.