Bisexual Young Women "Invisible" in New Zealand Schools

New research of bisexual high school students in New Zealand argues young women are being let down by a lack of teacher education and awareness.

The study, from a University of Auckland researcher conducted interviews with 36 bisexual young women around New Zealand about their experiences in the school system, and found "a range of discriminative behaviours from their health teachers, including gestures such as withdrawal of attention and support, and derogatory comments about sexually diverse people."

The paper concludes that lack of awareness among both teachers and students led to the sidelining of bi students.

One participant had been "outed" by a teacher in front of her class, with the teacher asking her if she was gay after she completed a class project on sexual diversity. Another, after coming out, was prevented from using the girls' locker rooms to change, instead sent to change for physical education in the disabled toilet.

During a relationships activity in her health class, one woman said, "there was this one exercise and we had to you know fill in boxes or whatever about what we looked for in a um what we looked for in a man, whatever, and she goes 'some of you girls, um, you might be ah…romantically interested in women, but for the purposes of this exercise it will be best if you pretend it's men'."

The researchers conclude that, "While values of inclusiveness may be evident in school mission statements and policies, they may not be actively supported by discriminatory attitudes and practices of some non-bisexual staff and students."

Non-inclusive school culture may "compromise the physical and emotional safety of young bisexual women at school," they write.

Earlier New Zealand research from University of Auckland had found more than a third of gay or bisexual secondary school pupils had seriously considered suicide in the past year.
In 2007, Massey University researchers found people identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual had significantly higher rates of drug and tobacco use.

"Other research has already established that gay, lesbian and bisexual people's substance use is related to their experience of discrimination and to social stress arising from this," the researchers write.

Read the full study in the Journal of Sexual Health.