As any Australian high school student would know, schools can be quite homophobic and there’s often homophobic language being thrown around. Many studies suggest that these same schools also tend to avoid teaching their students of the LGBTQ+ community nor do they include same sex relationships in sex ed classes. This means youth are very unaware, therefore creates an unsafe environment for teens and makes young queers feel not welcomed or accepted, this has drastic effects on the mentality of these kids.

Currently at secondary schools around Australia LGBTQ+ youth are being forced to sit through non inclusive mainstream sex education and witness homophobic language daily. Every day, schools are causing young queers to feel like outsiders. Clearly, this needs to change to ensure the young LGBTQ+ community can feel safe and accepted whilst getting their education.

As a high school student, I have had to sit through multiple sex education classes but not once have same sex relationships been touched on. They make it seem like gays are a touchy subject that we shouldn’t talk about but they won’t hesitate to talk about sex and drugs with their students, that’s ridiculous. Not only does this make young queers feel ignored and frowned upon but it means heterosexuals are often  uneducated on the community and are almost unaware that they exist and are just normal people, this lack of knowledge then leads to homophobic behaviour.

An Australian study conducted in 2015 by Jacqueline Ullman called Free2Be explored the schooling experiences of Australia’s sexuality and gender diverse secondary school students. Many students nation-wide were interviewed and results found that a startling 94% of students had heard homophobic language at school, with 58% of these young people reporting hearing this language daily. Of those who reported classmates using this language within earshot of school staff, less than 5% reported that these adults had constantly intervened to put a stop to its use. Since this study there has been little action taken to change this and I would image numbers are more or less the same.

Being a high school student, I can confirm that almost daily I hear homophobic language, and not once have I seen a teacher act on it which is just unacceptable. They act like it’s no big deal when in actual fact it is very offensive and such slurs have historic meaning which students must be educated on. Schools who do not include same sex education recorded an increased number in bullying, simply by educating kids we are reducing homophobia and bullying in our community.

Same sex inclusive sex education may be a part of the curriculum, but it is often skipped over by teachers or taught to kids in third person as if those with same-sex attraction are outsiders. For example, they say things like, you need to make sure you're safe and use protection, when talking about heterosexuals however when talking about homosexuals they would say, gay people do or lesbians should, you would never hear them say straight people need to. Although, generally not meant to be harmful, such language creates a barrier and pushes those already at risk, further into the closet. If not taught at schools' kids will resort to the internet for information which never ends well.

Not only does this have an impact on LGBTQ+ individuals, but it affects the knowledge, beliefs and experiences of all people. Students who have been harassed due to their sexual orientation have lower educational aspirations and reduced school achievements. They often will struggle mentally whereas students at schools who do have inclusive education will feel safer and more motivated at school. I am baffled to why this issue still exists, its 2020 and this should be way behind us already but here we are, we need change.