From Silence to Safety and Beyond: Historical Trends in Addressing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Issues in K-12 Schools

The purpose of this article is to provide an historical overview of changing perspectives in education practice and literature on addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) issues in public K-12 schools. This article describes how the presentation and analysis of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues in the past 80 years have evolved into one of the primary points of contention in the battle over what values related to sexuality and gender schools should reflect. Three broad historical eras during which dominant conceptualizations of LGBT issues in education reflect important shifts in perspective are outlined: (1) Homosexual Educators as a Threat to Children (1920-1979), (2) Identification of Lesbian and Gay Youth as a Population At Risk (1980-1989), and (3) Focus on Schools as a Risk Environment for LGB Youth (1990-2002). The article concludes with a brief description of future directions that research and educational policy on LGBT issues in schools might take to build on the foundation of events from 1990-2002.