Single Sex Schools - the Best Environment for LGBT Youth
Sexual orientation describes patterns of sexual, romantic, and emotional attraction—and one's sense of identity based on those attractions. This is different from gender identity since it talks about who a person feels romantically, emotionally, and sexually drawn to. Many students experience difficulty in regards to sexual orientation since it depends on the type of society they live in. Along with other countries, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender in the Philippines still receive discrimination in the Filipino society given they are generally tolerated and not fully accepted.
Sexual minority youth are young people with same-sex or both-sex sexual attraction and/or partners or youth who self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Sexual minority youth are particularly vulnerable to adverse health outcomes in a variety of physical and mental health domains. For example, sexual minority youth are more likely than their heterosexual peers to experience suicidal thinking or attempt suicide. They are more likely than their heterosexual peers to be threatened or injured at school, skip school because of feeling unsafe, be violently attacked requiring medical treatment and witness violence and experience sexual and physical abuse, especially in non single sex schools.
Experiences with violence have been shown to be an important mediator of the relationship between sexual orientation and health risk behaviors including substance use, suicidality, and sexual-risk behaviors. Victimization and violence remain relatively common experiences for many LGB youth, with as many as 85% reporting harassment in school due to their sexual orientation. Bullying is a form of violence affecting the health of children and adolescents that may disproportionately affect sexual minority youth. Bullying is characterized as a specific kind of aggressive behavior that is unprovoked and intended to harm or disturb. The behavior occurs repeatedly over time and there is an imbalance of power, with a more powerful person attacking a less powerful one. Compared to heterosexual males, mostly heterosexual males and gay males were more likely to report being bullied. Similarly, mostly heterosexual females, bisexual females, and lesbians were more likely to report being bullied than were heterosexual females. Gay males were much less likely to report bullying others than were heterosexual males. Mostly heterosexual females and bisexual females were more likely to report bullying others than heterosexual females. No lesbian participants reported bullying others.
To summarize, same-sex schools are common areas where a student’s sexual orientation may be altered due to the environment he or she is exposed to. These types of schools provide some advantages for children including a more relaxed environment, no gender stereotypes, and a more tailored curriculum. Single-Sex schools have few indications of negative effects and is more inclined to positive effects such as locus of control, avoidance of sex-stereotyping and attitude and behaviours related to academic.
