Sex/uality Artifacts

My artifact was a video clip from the organization GLSEN’s new national survey. The video clip was describing the different experiences the LGBTQ+ community and how we as a community and school system can make it a better environment for everyone. During the video, it was discussed that there are over 8,000 middle and high school LBGT students in the U.S. and that number is growing since 2013.  Progress is being made to ensure that no matter what your identity every student has a safe place to thrive and learn. GSA’s are a way this progress is being made. GSA often run clubs and organizations for the LGBTQ+ community in schools. Students have said that having GSA’s in their schools have made them feel safer and they were able to focus more on their school work. Also when GSA’s were present in schools students were victimized less by their fellow students. GSA’s are an amazing tool to use but since 2013 only half of LGBTQ+ students have these in there schools. Having this positive and supportive representation in there schools helped them to preform better academically and socially. Not having GSA’s or any representations of the LGBTQ+ community in the school rather it be teachers, in the curriculum, or socially has a negative affect on students. Students have experienced bullying and hate language from students in their schools. Because they don’t have the support they need from the schools they tend to avoid school all together. This tends to lead to lower academic reports.

This artifact relates to our class because during class on the day I gave my artifact presentation we had to read an article titled “The experience of LGBT youth in America.” My artifact relates a lot to that article because it reemphasizes the experiences LGBTQ+ youth go through that were talked about in the article. The GLSEN video discussed different ways we could be more  proactive in making sure these students have more positive experiences than negative ones. My artifact also relates to class because even thought same-sex marriage is now legal in all states. People are still mean. Like stated during my presentation, if we all treated each other like human beings first, with dignity and respect, the differences wouldn’t matter so much.