Z D Matthews Unit 102083 DSJL

Sexual Diversity as a Social Justice Issue

influencing feelings of Student Alienation

Diversity, Social Justice and Learning

Unit 102083

Z D Matthews
Z D Matthews Unit 102083 DSJL

Australian students, along with students around the world, face many issues and struggles

throughout their schooling career. Whether this surrounds class content, making friends,

stress and anxiety, or conflicts between personal beliefs, schools and policy makers should

aim to alleviate as many of these challenges faced by our youth. Students who fall into a

minority are often faced with additional or exacerbated challenges within a school context.

Students who are sexually diverse face a unique range of personal and social issues

depending on their public identity and if this matches their personal identity, with

discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ)

students regularly considered typical behavior and leading students to feel alienated from

their peers (Ferfolja, Jones Diaz, & Ullman, 2015).

Mitchell, Patrick, Heywood, Blackman and Pitts (2014) identified that approximately 21% of

Australian secondary school students identified as sexually diverse, either due to attraction

only to those of the same sex, to individuals of both sexes, or expressing uncertainty

regarding their sexuality at the time (students who responded with uncertainty may have

identified under other sexualities that were not listed as option in the study). The education

system is predominantly reflective of heteronormative ideals, and often leaves students who

do not fit these characteristics to find that the curriculum is not tailored to cater to both

students who fit the heteronormative ideas as well as students who are sexually diverse.

Where previous programs aimed to meet the needs of each student, conflicting opinions have

led to their removals in schools, such as the Safe Schools program that will be explored

further in this essay.

[...]
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Sexual diversity has a range of definitions, branching from continual development of the

understanding society has of what sexuality is. In a heteronormative mindset, views on

sexuality dictates that a heterosexual experience is the normal and expected experience, and

anything else that falls under sexual diversity is abnormal and may even be considered wrong

under this mindset (Jackson, 2006). [...]

When students are faced with something new or something they do not understand, they often

respond negatively, which is also seen when students first learn of peers who are sexually

diverse. Rawlings (2016) explores the type of bullying present in schools, comparing

American research stating gender-based bullying, based around heteronormative

expectations, is faced by 80% of all students at some point during their schooling career no

matter their gender or sexual identity. For students who identify as LGBTQIA+ or sexually

diverse, they will hear on average eight comments a day that are of a homophobic nature with

approximately 30% of these remarks being made or overlooked by their teachers and other

school staff. These negative responses from peers towards the sexual identity of an

LGBTQIA+ student can lead to alienation of the identified student, as well as generalized

negative comments creating a feeling of alienation and isolation in students who have not

publicly shared their sexual identity. Where remarks are made or ignored by school staff,

students may begin to feel that there is no one they can turn to for assistance, guidance or to

confide in regarding their sexuality, furthering the feelings of isolation and alienation.

The Safe Schools program, established by the Victoria Government in 2010, was

implemented nationwide in 2014 to provide students with a more inclusive environment

(Louden, 2017). This not only included offering information regarding sexual diversity and

the differences students would experience due to their specific sexuality, but also with
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resources to educate about and prevent the occurrences of gender and sexuality-based

violence and aggression as part of an overarching anti-bullying program (Rawlings, 2016).

The Safe Schools Coalition Australia (2019) website outlines that the program was

supportive of the wellbeing of all students as well as the schooling community as a whole to

include educators, parents and careers as well.

In 2016, the program was the face of political controversy as politicians shared negative

opinions regarding the content and the need and intent of it, calling it ‘radical sexual

propaganda’ and ‘a promotion tool for the gay and lesbian lifestyle’ (Mckinnion, Waitt, &

Gorman-Murray, 2017). The program lost national funding in 2017, leading to its removal

across the country, with the Victorian government being the only one to personally fund the

program to continue its work.

A feminist standpoint on the content covered within a classroom when discussing any form of

diversity, sexual or otherwise, should provide all students with an equitable coverage of all

topics within their education, as was being provided by the Safe Schools program. This is

where students should learn about the different experiences students face depending on their

sexual diversity. The prominent example is within sex education in physical development,

health and physical education (PDHPE) and science classrooms. A student who is only

attracted to the opposite sex may not find the process of heterosexual reproduction to be

relevant to them, but a discussion on alternative reproduction methods would allow students

to be aware of their options, while still being relevant to students of opposite sex attraction as

traditional methods may not be an option for them in the future. Discussing sexual health is

also a lacking area for students who are sexually diverse, Mitchell et al. (2014) found

students who identified as same sex attracted to women were often not aware that they could
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still contract sexually transmitted illnesses or diseases when having sexual contact with

another female, leading them to take sexual risks simply because they were not aware there

was a risk in the first place.

The removal of the Safe Schools program saw the removal of materials aimed to provide

sexually diverse students with the information they needed for themselves, as well as

information heterosexual students needed to have a proper understanding of their peers,

which in turn influenced their acceptance of sexually diverse peers. The idea that the program

itself would influence a heterosexual student to ‘become’ sexually diverse is counter argued

by biological determinist views. This theory explores gender and sexuality as factors

determined by genetics rather than being simply a social construct (Dunn, 2010). An

individual’s sexuality is as genetically pre-determined as their height; however, it may have

environmental factors that influence the expression of sexual diversity among individuals.

The simplest example of this would be a sexually diverse student not expressing their

sexuality or keeping it a secret by acting as a heterosexual individual, due to concerns as to

how other students and adults may respond. By removing the program, sexually diverse

students are unintentionally being given the message that what they are feeling and

experiencing is wrong and not of real importance, and therefore is irrelevant in a classroom

context. When these beliefs are being directly or indirectly made by individuals in power, in

this case politicians who fought for the review and removal of the program, teachers and

parents that participate in or ignore issues of bullying or did not fight for the continuation of

the Safe Schools program, students are left feeling further isolated and alienated. With peers

being in close proximity and in large numbers, feelings can spread quickly at this level, but

when it is those in power, it leaves students feeling that they have no one to turn to regarding
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the issues they are facing including personal issues or issues caused by their peers such as

bullying.

Within the classroom it can be difficult for teachers to address these issues when they arise as

this may make sexually diverse students feel they are thrown into the spot light and can lead

to potential unwanted attention. Eisenberg, Madsen, Oliphant, & Sieving (2013) explore

some of the root causes of teachers not providing students with the sexuality education that

teachers believe students deserve. The most common barriers to sexually diverse education

was structural, including having concerns regarding responses from parents, students and

administrators if sexually diverse content was included, and challenges posed by restrictive

policies. It can be problematic to try and incorporate topics into a classroom when these

structural barriers are in place and each subject area and year level is different in the way that

it can incorporated. Both in and out of the classroom context, schools need to have clear

guidelines regarding inappropriate behavior surrounding sexual diversity include bullying

policies that specifically outline that negative comments and actions about another students

sexual diversity will not be tolerated. The incorporation of school uniform policies that allow

students to wear what is more comfortable for them is also an ideal change that is slowly

being seen. This would be inclusive for students who feel the uniform does not allow them to

express themselves appropriately, such as girls not wanting to wear a skirt either out of

personal preference or practicality, making it ideal whether it is linked to either their

sexuality or general preferences for their clothing.

Individual teachers can also work to incorporate appropriate content for LGBTQIA+ students

within their classrooms. In science and health classes, making the classroom a safe space

when discussing sexuality and sexual health can allow students to open up and ask questions
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when needed. However, simply giving students the approval to ask these questions is not

going to solve the problem. As outlined by Eisenberg et al. (2013), student comments and

feelings surrounding sexual diversity acts as a barrier for this style of education and needs to

be factored into a teachers plans for addressing these topics. Students who are not public

about their sexual diversity are less likely to ask the questions they need answers to, so

providing methods for these students to ask, such as a question box, can give more students

access to relevant information. In areas where sexual diversity is not directly relevant to the

content, incorporating work by sexually diverse individuals, or about sexually diverse

individuals can help challenge the heteronormative views that many hold. In an English

classroom, this could be providing texts about sexually diverse characters, or texts by

sexually diverse writers, showing either that these individuals are no different to their

heterosexual peers, or allowing students to be exposed to challenges faced by sexually

diverse students in a less direct way.

To truly provide students with an equal, fair and equitable education and limit, with the hopes

of eliminating, student alienation, education regarding sexual diversity along with similar

topics such as gender diversity and sexual health, needs to be incorporated into all schools. A

national program that outlines what needs to be taught and provides teachers with the

methods and materials to teach the content within the program, needs to be created and

distributed. The Safe Schools program was a step in the right direction, providing those exact

methods and materials, however, the removal of the program after only 4 years at a national

level, may have done more harm than good through the unintentional negative messages sent

to students who are sexually diverse. Overall, students who identify as part of the

LGBTQIA+ community or as sexually diverse, are still facing inequality and a lack of equity

within the classroom, something all members of society should want to see corrected.
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References

Dunn, K. (2010). Biological determinism and LGBT tolerance: A quantitative exploration of

biopolitical beliefs. Western Journal of Black Studies, 34(3), 367-379. Retrieved

from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/528029044?

accountid=36155

Eisenberg, M., Madsen, N., Oliphant, J., & Sieving, R. (2013). Barriers to providing the

sexuality education that teachers believe students need. Journal of School Health,

83(5), 335-342. http://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12036

Ferfolja, T., Jones Diaz, C., & Ullman, J. (2015). Understanding sociological theory for

educational practices. Australia: Cambridge University Press

Jackson, S. (2006). Gender, sexuality and heterosexuality: The complexity (and limits) of

heteronormativity. Feminist Theory, 7(1), 105-121. Retrieved from

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Louden, B. (2017). FactCheck: does the Safe Schools program contain ‘highly explicit

material’?. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-the-safe-

schools-program-contain-highly-explicit-material-87437

McKinnon, S., Waitt, G., & Gorman-Murray, A. (2017). The Safe Schools program and

young people’s sexed and gendered geographies. Australian Geographer, 48(2), 145-

152. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049182.2016.1248751
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Mitchell, A., Patrick, K., Heywood, W., Blackman, P., & Pitts, M. (2014). 5th national

survey of Australian secondary students and sexual health 2013. La Trobe

University, Australia: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society

(ARCSHS)

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Rawlings, V. (2016). Bullying linked to gender and sexuality often goes unchecked in

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sexuality-often-goes-unchecked-in-schools-55639

Safe Schools Coalition Australia (2019). Resources. Retrieved from

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/resources