Gay and lesbian educators: past history/future prospects.

Although lesbians and gay men in education have been an invisible population, modern computer information retrieval techniques provided a mechanism to investigate the history of case law on gay and lesbian teacher dismissal and credential revocation. This legal framework was then augmented by social history gathered from newspapers and articles, and interviews with the parties involved in the legal or political debates. After presenting a history of the emergence of legal rights and political influence, the author discusses current trends in the employment rights and personal freedoms of gay and lesbian educators.

Living in two worlds: the identity management strategies used by lesbian physical educators.

Twelve lesbian physical educators participated in an in-depth phenomenological study of their work experiences in relation to their identities as lesbians and teachers. All study participants held two assumptions: that they would lose their jobs if their lesbianism were revealed, and that female physical education teachers are negatively stereotyped as being lesbian. Participants most often engaged in identity management strategies designed to conceal their lesbianism, such as passing as heterosexual, self-distancing from others at school, and self-distancing from issues pertaining to homosexuality. The less common risk-taking behaviors included obliquely overlapping their personal lives with their professional, actively confronting homophobia and supporting gay and lesbian students, and overtly overlapping the details of their personal and professional lives. The authors conclude this paper with recommendations for challenging homophobia and heterosexism in physical education.

Addressing the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth: the origins of PROJECT 10 and school-based intervention.

This research chronicles the formation and expansion of a counseling and educational program for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth called PROJECT 10 at Fairfax High School. A model program was tested during the academic year 1985-1986, and is now being implemented throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District and in other schools across the nation. Fifty self-identified homosexual students were interviewed in order to clarify the needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual teenagers in relation to their school experiences. Additionally, a questionnaire study of 342 respondents from the general student population was undertaken in order to chart the beliefs and attitudinal changes of those teenagers who experienced school-based educational programs that portrayed homosexuality and bisexuality as variations on a continuum of human sexual expression and emotional attachment. Suggestions for further research are discussed.