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Janice L. Austin, Patricia A. Cain,
Excerpted from: Janice L. Austin, Patricia A. Cain, Anton Mack, J. Kelly Strader,
JamesVaseleck, The Law School and Classroom
Climate :
Advice from Gay and Lesbian
Students, excerpted from Results from a Survey:
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Students' Attitudes
About Law School, 48 J. Legal Educ. 157 June, 1998. |
| Over fifteen years ago, Bernice Sandler and her colleague Roberta Hall
began studying and writing about the chilly classroom climate for women
college students. More recently scholars have taken a look at the law school
classroom and assessed its chilly impact on women, racial minorities, and
gay and lesbian students. In January 1986 I chaired a workshop at
the AALS annual meeting that addressed some of these issues. The student
panel reported that women became disempowered in law school, that issues
of race were not handled well in the classroom, and that gay and lesbian
students felt invisible. A lesbian student from California spoke not only
about the pain of having teachers presume that GLB people did not exist,
but also of the loss suffered when the legal issues important to her community
were completely ignored in class. She cited a trusts and estates class
that never once mentioned the testamentary capacity questions that arise
in the AIDS community or the special problems that arise in drafting wills
and trusts for same-sex couples.
The responses to the law student survey show that classroom coverage
of GLB issues may have improved, but many GLB students still have cause
for concern. And the overall law school climate remains on the chilly side
for many GLB students. The Classroom Climate Eighty-seven percent of the students responding reported that GLB issues had been addressed in at least one of their classes. Not surprisingly, most of the students who reported that GLB issues had been addressed (147 out of 269) said it was in their constitutional law class. Only 36 listed wills, trusts, and estates. The three Supreme Court cases dealing with GLB legal questions, all decided after January 1986, have certainly contributed to the visibility of GLB issues in law school. Visibility alone, however, does not necessarily improve the comfort level for GLB students. Respondents complained about the way certain GLB topics were covered in class (e.g., "no critique of Bowers v. Hardwick," "discussion of Bowers v. Hardwick rushed through in 5 minutes") and spoke of their own hesitancy to discuss GLB issues in class. In response to the question "How comfortable are you discussing GLB issues in class?" 23 percent answered "very comfortable," 31 percent said "somewhat comfortable," 45 percent said "somewhat uncomfortable," and 1 percent said "very uncomfortable." This distribution was roughly replicated within particular schools, at least in those schools that generated a relatively large number of responses. The fact that a majority of the students responding feel comfortable
talking about GLB issues in class is a positive sign. The open-ended responses
from students who described themselves as uncomfortable provide
us with information that may be useful in gauging the climate in our own
classrooms.
Many of the students reported that their comfort level was primarily affected by the individual teacher or the subject matter of the class. For some, it was easier to discuss topics if someone else brought them up or if the materials raised the issues. Students who described their schools as conservative reported that they sometimes went back into the closet in law school. And often, even in law schools with gay-positive faculties and administrations, students reported that the student body seemed homophobic. When teachers dare to raise these issues themselves in class, students report that we are sometimes successful, but other times thwarted by students' snickering and similar reactions. Silence is not a good answer to such responses. The Climate in the Law School Community Those of us who teach, and who have contact with students primarily in class or in our offices, should become aware of the general climate for GLB students in the law school building. For example, I raise lesbian and gay issues in my classroom, and I include lesbian and gay clients in the problems I assign. It helps that the trusts and estates book I use also raises lesbian and gay issues. If my only knowledge came from my contact with students in the classroom, I might believe that my school is completely devoid of homophobia. But that is not the case. Because I am an out lesbian, students come to me to report incidents that trouble them. Some of these incidents occur in other classrooms. The faculty do not seem to be the problem. Rather, problems arise with other students. GLB posters are defaced in the halls. Sometimes signs are posted with negative words or images of GLB people. These incidents affect the entire climate in the building, and I believe it is useful for all faculty and administrators to understand this climate. In response to the question "Have you ever experienced homophobia in
your law school?" 66 percent of the students responding reported that they
had (52 percent "occasionally" and 14 percent "frequently"). Descriptions
of homophobic events included incidents with other students and with teachers.
For those of us who are unaware of such incidents, the following examples
are informative. Some of these may be occurring at your own school, and
you may not know about them. Yet they affect the climate for all.
Summary and Recommendations Classroom discussion of GLB legal issues can be fraught with worry for some GLB students. Some survey respondents report being mocked for their views in class. Others fear being seen as a one-issue person and having their opinions on other issues devalued, while others hope to avoid discussing GLB issues at all for fear of outing themselves before they are ready. Teachers can reduce some of these worries by raising GLB-related issues themselves in class or in their choice of materials, and by raising them in a manner that suggests they are serious and substantive. Nonsubstantive, mocking comments should be dealt with in the same way that such comments on other issues are handled. When students express views that are based on stereotypes or misinformation about lesbians or gays, teachers should probe the basis, or lack thereof, for those views. Faculty also can try to include GLB people in their classroom hypotheticals, role-playing scenarios, or research assignments. This device also can help challenge students' assumptions about other people and better prepare them for real-world practice experiences. Many respondents reported that they let stray comments and jokes outside the classroom pass without confronting the speaker or taking any other action. Thus it seems that many hurtful comments and incidents remain unchecked, and the actors may themselves remain unaware that their words or deeds can hurt. Particularly in an environment where such incidents occur without response, faculty and administrators, both gay and straight, must be as visibly supportive as possible. Support can come in many forms, from posting GLB-related materials on office bulletin boards to attending GLB student organization meetings and events. Such visible support from faculty and staff can provide a great deal of comfort to students in the face of peer homophobia. |
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