"So you think I should be shot?"
Unteaching Homophobia

by Lisa Jeffs

When I walked into a downtown Toronto school last fall to speak to a high school class, I didn't expect a warm and fuzzy reception. As I would be talking about issues of concern to lesbians, gays and bisexuals, I anticipated the usual amount of subtle heterosexism ("I don't mind gays as long as they don't flaunt it"), or the occasional display of blatant lesbo/homophobia ("One of them queers had better not come on to me, man."). What I didn't expect was to be told that, because I am a lesbian, I should be killed.

Without a
second's
hesitation she
answered
"Yes. "


As representatives of the Toronto Board of Education's Human Sexuality Program, Steve Soloman and I had been asked to speak to this particular class because the teacher thought the students were lacking awareness on lesbian, gay and bisexual issues. The students were disruptive throughout our presentation, and most of them spent the time laughing, whispering, or divulging their worst experiences with lesbians, gays and bisexuals to their neighbours or to us. I suppose we could have walked out. Or we could have asked the most disruptive students to leave, which would have left us with an audience of about three. Instead we decided to persevere (1).

The comment on the value of my lesbian life came about three quarters of the way through the presentation. The class had been getting increasingly rowdy when a student sitting near the front stated loudly, "All of them should be shot." In the few seconds my mind had to formulate a response, I thought of how one of the main reasons for going into classrooms as an out lesbian was to personalize the issue for young people. If a name and face can be attached to "queers" then we will no longer be somewhere "out there" (on Mars, for example); we will be living, thinking and feeling human beings. Since I had been talking with this class for almost an hour, I thought maybe I had become a real live person, who also happens to be lesbian. With this in mind, I questioned the student's sincerity. "So you think I should be shot?" I asked. Without a second's hesitation she answered "Yes."

"À votre avis, on devrait me tuer?" : Désapprendre l'homophobie
par Lisa Jeffs

Je travaille au Conseil scolaire de Toronto dans le Programme de la sexualité humaine, lequel organise des cours de perfectionnement professionnel pour les enseignantes et enseignants des cycles primaire et secondaire; des ateliers pour les personnes s'occupant de jeunes; des services de ressources sur des questions relatives aux lesbiennes, aux homosexuels et aux bisexuels; et des groupes de soutien pour les élèves et le personnel du Conseil scolaire. Ce programme a été mis sur pied en 1985 après le meurtre de Ken Zeller, bibliothécaire scolaire homosexuel, par cinq étudiants d'une école secondaire.

Dans le cadre de notre travail et pendant les présentations que nous faisons dans les classes, nous sommes exposés à tout, des commentaires quelque peu homophoniques à des menaces de mort. En tant que lesbienne, le manque de connaissances sur les questions concernant les lesbiennes me perturbe souvent, car on part du principe qu'elles sont les mêmes que celles des homosexuels. Cela s'applique au Conseil de Toronto qui ne considère pas nécessaire d'avoir deux emplois à plein temps, l'un occupé par une lesbienne, l'autre, comme c'est le cas actuellement, par un homosexuel.

Toutefois, pour appuyer davantage les élèves lesbiennes, homosexuels ou bisexuels, le Conseil scolaire met sur pied en septembre 1995 un programme scolaire de transition pour les jeunes courant des risques. Tous ceux et celles qui estiment qu'ils et elles ont été aux prises à l'homophobie et la lesbophobie pourront le suivre.


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