Understanding Homosexuality

Scholarship on homosexuality, gay and lesbian identities, history, and culture came to universities too late for most elementary and secondary school educators, leaving them unprepared to deal with these subjects. Moreover, some teacher education faculty still neglect these topics out of moral scruple, fear, or inattention to new research and practice. Yet teacher education and training must incorporate these issues, if only because the plight of homosexual adolescents has become increasingly apparent.Understanding Homosexuality, Changing Schools, written by veteran teacher and university instructor Arthur Lipkin, provides a foundation in gay/lesbian studies and offers models for equity, inclusion, and school reform. It is designed to help teachers, administrators, counselors, and policymakers understand the significance of gay and lesbian issues in education; to aid communication between gay and lesbian students and their families and schools; to facilitate the integration of gay and lesbian families into the school community; and to promote the inclusion of gay and lesbian curricula in a range of disciplines. This book is also designed to promote the healthy development of all students through reducing bigotry, self-hatred, and violence. Bringing together thirteen topics related to homosexuality and education, Understanding Homosexuality, Changing Schools makes the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience part of a democratic multicultural vision.

Arthur Lipkin, Ed.D., is an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and founder of the Gay and Lesbian School Issues Project. He is currently directing the Safe Colleges Program of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth and previously headed the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Project for the Integration of Gay and Lesbian Youth Issues in School Personnel Certification Programs.