Tutorials in tolerance
High school student educates teachers and peers about gay and lesbian youth.

Ashley Arrowsmith was shocked by the stories of fear and beatings. Two months ago, the Kennebecasis Valley High School student was attending a teen conference in Woodstock. The seminar was for young leaders confronting homophobia, anti-semitism and racism. During a break, the gay and lesbian youth were asked to stay behind and discuss their experiences with homophobia.

Arrowsmith had no stories to share. But what she heard that day opened her eyes to the fear and hatred other students face.

One woman told of being beaten by a group of teens that carved ‘Die Dyke’ in her right arm. Another talked about being beaten so badly she needed surgery to repair broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder. A third woman sitting next to her spoke of being drugged, beaten and raped by someone who heated up their jewellery and branded her back.

“I’ve been hospitalized four times,” she told the group.

Later that weekend, Arrowsmith returned home to find e-mail waiting for her. The woman sitting next to her had sent a message saying that her girlfriend had been attacked by a group of teens and badly beaten.

Sitting in front of her computer, Arrowsmith thought of the stories she had heard that weekend. Something had to be done, she thought. A top student and a gifted athlete, she would soon be graduating and moving to Toronto to attend York University.

It would be easy to simply ignore the issue. But she couldn’t. She had to do something to help this women and others in the same situation.

“This issue has to stop. It affects not only the lives of queer youth but also their friends and family,” she says.

An idea began to form. If she could teach students to educate their classmates, then maybe she could help reduce homophobia. Maybe she could make things better for this woman and others in the same situation.

Entitled “Project E for Education for Enlightenment for Everyone”, the plan is an ambitious project conceived by Arrowsmith to fight fear and misunderstanding of gays and lesbians in the school system. Student leaders will learn ways to break down discrimination and create an open environment in the schools. Then they will return to their communities and teach others what they have learned.

May 10 was the first workshop. Roughly 100 students from Hampton, Rothesay, Belleisle and Saint John converged on the school for a one-day workshop that addressed such topics as myths about homosexuality, homophobic language and stresses facing gay and lesbian youth.

It is the first time such a plan has been implemented in New Brunswick and it has come about because of the efforts of Arrowsmith. She hopes it will spread throughout the province.

“This lack of information is probably why the problem exists in the first place,” she says.

For Arrowsmith, 17, homophobia is a personal matter. Openly gay since Grade 9, she is one of a few thousand gay and lesbian teens in the New Brunswick school system. But unlike many, she has never experienced hatred towards gays and lesbians, thanks to a school administration that has worked to create a liberal atmosphere.

“KVHS is very open school,” she says. “You just don’t hear about that sort of thing happening in Saint John.”

Debby Warren runs the provincial Safe Spaces program, a group making communities safe for youth. The Moncton woman says New Brunswick is failing its gay high school students. Violent beatings, fear and suicide are common but often go unreported, she says.

Most don’t even tell family or friends. “It is the burden of living a double life,” she says.

Warren says the school system is one of the front lines and the best spot to fight homophobia. Attitudes and beliefs are formed in the classrooms and the schoolyards and it is here that people first learn to be homophobic.

She says that it is hard to gauge the impact of homophobic actions because nobody has gathered stats for New Brunswick. But one recent study on adolescent suicide published by the University of Alberta reflects many of the stories she has heard.

According to the Teen Suicide Research Project, gay youth are nine times more likely to commit suicide than straight teens. Roughly 30 per cent of successful suicides are committed by gay and lesbian youth. Nearly all gay and lesbian suicide attempts occur between the ages of 16 and 21.

And 45 per cent of gay males and 20 per cent of lesbians reported experiencing verbal or physical harassment because of their sexual orientation in high school.

Warren says that with numbers like those it is hard to see the day when hatred towards gays and lesbians will be eliminated.

“I don’t think it will ever go away, ” she says.

Bill Ryan agrees. Ryan teaches sociology at McGill University and he was one of the speakers at the conference Arrowsmith attended in Woodstock. Four years ago, he helped found the Safe Spaces organization.

A gay man, Ryan was raised in the Moncton area and often comes back to speak to students and teachers. He says that New Brunswick is leading parts of Canada in its attempts to create a hate-free school system.

Two years ago, the Lord government passed Policy 701, which sets out standards for a harassment-free school. And every year, the province spends roughly $5-million to eliminate discrimination in the school system. These efforts are more than other provinces have done, he says.

Ryan compares it to the struggle for civil rights and he is glad to see students like Arrowsmith taking on the challenge. “I think she has clicked into something that maybe other schools haven’t clicked into yet,” he says.

Today, it is easier for gay youth to be open, says Ryan, and many are stepping out of the closet at an earlier age. Thanks to the media and television, many youth are getting the message that they have the right to affirm themselves.

But it is also a dangerous step to take if they aren’t ready to deal with the violence and prejudices they will encounter. “That takes a tremendous amount of courage because even though there are more kids coming out at earlier ages the majority still isn’t,” he says.

Gay males usually reveal their sexual orientation between the ages of 19 and 20 while women typically wait until their early twenties.

KVHS student Randy O’Donnell, 16, was one of the students who attended the “Project E” workshop. He found that his attitude towards gays and lesbians has changed since taking the workshop.

“Definitely. It provides information on how people can be aware of what homosexuality is so that they don’t have to be afraid of it,” he says.

Fellow student Kevin Forrestall agrees. He plans to help carry “Project E” to other schools in the area.

He was never homophobic, but now he has more respect for students who are gay. “It is just part of life,” he says.

Donovan Bentley, 18, agrees. Next year, the Grade 12 student plans to enter UNB to study education. But before he leaves, he wants to help make the school system better. He has volunteered to design a website for the group and is willing to pay for it himself. “I’d be willing to front it. I don’t care. It is a good project,” he says.

Lisa Muise, 16, decided to volunteer for the workshop because she has several gay friends and she wants to make the school system better for them. “I would love to participate down the road. I think it would be really fun to teach this to other people,” she says.

After the daylong workshop was over, Arrowsmith stepped outside of the auditorium. She has impressed the other students and now, they will take her message back to their schools. In the fall, they would continue her work and with time, maybe “Project E” will spread to other parts of the province.

Over the summer, Arrowsmith is dedicated to continuing to promote tolerance. She wants to copyright the name “Project E” so that it stays a student-run project. And each day, she speaks to a few more people adding their names to the hundreds already on the list.

She wants to make New Brunswick safer for the woman who sent her that life-changing e-mail, and others who face homophobia on a daily basis, she says.

“It’s important that people realize that staying neutral means you are only standing by and letting the problem continue. People need to get active,” she says.