New push for school ally groups

High school students starting up gay-straight ally groups in Victorian schools still face resistance from school authorities and verbal abuse from other students but two organisations are lending a hand. Last week, approximately 25 young people from across the state attended the first Stand Out workshops in Melbourne to learn practical ways of tackling homophobia in their schools.

Students from year eight to school leavers attended the event organised by Safe Schools Coalition Victoria and Minus18.

Attendees learnt about setting up gay-straight alliance groups in schools and what events to hold to spread the word and get people interested, such as IDAHO Day. Safe Schools Coalition Victoria co-ordinator Roz Ward and Minus18 general manager Micah Scott (pictured) both attended the event and agreed the afternoon event was a success.

“To have 25 young people come together for the afternoon to really share their experiences of doing work to support gender and sexual diversity and challenge homophobia in their schools, there was a great feeling to it,” Ward said.

“Some students find that school administration can not necessarily block what they were doing but make it more difficult than it needs to be.”

The easiest of tasks, such as choosing a location, can prove difficult for these groups as they try to find somewhere accessible within the school which still provides some anonymity for students who are not ‘out’.

Ward said students willing to start these groups or even just propose one still ran the risk of a possible backlash from other students.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds and it does take a certain amount of courage and determination to be doing anything,” she said.

Scott, who runs Australia’s largest youth-run network for LGBTI young people, said he had heard of situations where young people were targeted. He said students still faced opposition to gay-straight ally groups in some schools, even over-exercising rules around school clubs to block them.

Scott said some students were still targeted with homophobic language. and knew of one instance where the name of the ally group was used by students to insult each other.  He said he was impressed to see people as young as 14 years-old at the workshops, since it was older students that typically started these groups in schools.

“Particularly five or six years ago that just wasn’t the case and seeing these transformed young people who are now passionate about helping other people… it’s absolutely inspiring,” he said.