Strengths and Silences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in Rural and Small Town Schools

For more than 20 years, GLSEN has worked to make schools safer for all students; it has sought specifically to reduce the bullying and harassment targeted at students' sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students across the country, violence and harassment experienced in school affect their ability to learn. Although schools in urban areas are typically regarded as more violent or dangerous than schools in other areas, findings from our National School Climate Surveys consistently show that it is most often rural schools that may pose the greatest threats for LGBT students. It may be that community characteristics, such as religious and cultural traditions, income, and educational levels, influence individual beliefs and attitudes toward LGBT people in these areas. It may also be that a lack of positive LGBT-related school resources negatively affects LGBT students' school engagement and academic performance, particularly if they also experience bullying and harassment. Although research on the educational experiences of LGBT youth has grown considerably over the past 25 years, less is known about rural students specifically. This research report examines the experiences of LGBT students in small town and rural areas on matters related to biased language in schools, school safety, harassment and victimization, educational outcomes, school engagement, and LGBT-related resources and support. It also examines the prevalence and utility of LGBT-related resources in rural schools. Finally, this report concludes by advocating for more intentional policies, measures, and programs that protect LGBT students

Magnetic field in Cepheus A as deduced from OH maser polarimetric observations

We present the results of MERLIN polarization mapping of OH masers at 1665 and 1667 MHz towards the Cepheus A star-forming region. The maser emission is spread over a region of 6 arcsec by 10 arcsec, twice the extent previously detected. In contrast to the 22 GHz water masers, the OH masers associated with H II regions show neither clear velocity gradients nor regular structures. We identified ten Zeeman pairs which imply a magnetic field strength along the line-of-sight from -17.3 to +12.7 mG. The magnetic field is organised on the arcsecond scale, pointing towards us in the west and away from us in the east side. The linearly polarized components, detected for the first time, show regularities in the polarization position angles depending on their position. The electric vectors of OH masers observed towards the outer parts of H II regions are consistent with the interstellar magnetic field orientation, while those seen towards the centres of H II regions are parallel to the radio-jets. A Zeeman quartet inside a southern H II region has now been monitored for 25 years; we confirm that the magnetic field decays monotonically over that period.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures,accepted for publication in MNRA

The 2011 National School Climate Survey: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools

In 1999, GLSEN identified the need for national data on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and launched the first National School Climate Survey (NSCS). At the time, the school experiences of LGBT youth were under-documented and nearly absent from national studies of adolescents. For more than a decade, the biennial NSCS has documented the unique challenges LGBT students face and identified interventions that can improve school climate. The survey explores the prevalence of anti-LGBT language and victimization, the effect that these experiences have on LGBT students' achievement and well-being, and the utility of interventions in lessening the negative effects of a hostile school climate and promoting a positive educational experience. The survey also examines demographic and community-level differences in LGBT students' experiences.The NSCS remains one of the few studies to examine the school experiences of LGBT students nationally, and its results have been vital to GLSEN's understanding of the issues that LGBT students face, thereby informing our ongoing work to ensure safe and affirming schools for all.In our 2011 survey, we examine the experiences of LGBT students with regard to indicators of negative school climate:hearing biased remarks, including homophobic remarks, in school;feeling unsafe in school because of personal characteristics, such as sexual orientation, gender expression, or race/ethnicity;missing classes or days of school because of safety reasons; andexperiencing harassment and assault in school.We also examine:the possible negative effects of a hostile school climate on LGBT students' academic achievement, educational aspirations, and psychological well-being;whether or not students report experiences of victimization to school officials or to family members and how these adults address the problem; andhow the school experiences of LGBT students differ by personal and community characteristics.In addition, we demonstrate the degree to which LGBT students have access to supportive resources in school, and we explore the possible benefits of these resources, including:Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) or similar clubs;anti-bullying/harassment school policies and laws;supportive school staff; andcurricula that are inclusive of LGBT-related topics.Given that GLSEN has more than a decade of data, we examine changes over the time on indicators of negative school climate and levels of access to LGBT-related resources in schools

The 2009 National School Climate Survey: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools

National survey of the school experiences of 7,261 lesbian, gay, bisexual and trasngender secondary school students.In our 2009 survey, we examine the experiences of LGBT students with regard to indicators of negative school climate:hearing biased remarks, including homophobic remarks, in school;feeling unsafe in school because of personal characteristics, such as sexual orientation, gender expression, or race/ethnicity;missing classes or days of school because of safety reasons; andexperiences of harassment and assault in school. We also examine the possible negative effects of a hostile school climate on LGBT students' academic achievement, educational aspirations, and psychological well-being. We explore the diverse nature of LGBT students' experiences by reporting on how these differ by students' personal and community characteristics. We also examine whether or not students report experiences of victimization to school officials or to family members and how these adults address the problem. In addition, we demonstrate the degree to which LGBT students have access to supportive resources in school, and we explore the possible benefits of these resources, including Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), school harassment/assault policies, supportive school staff, and curriculum that is inclusive of LGBT-related topics.Given that we now have 10 years of data, we examine changes over the past decade on both indicators of negative school climate and levels of access to LGBT-related resources in schools

Magnetic field measurements at milliarcsecond resolution around massive young stellar objects

Magnetic fields have only recently been included in theoretical simulations of high-mass star formation. The simulations show that magnetic fields can play a crucial role not only in the formation and dynamics of molecular outflows, but also in the evolution of circumstellar disks. Therefore, new measurements of magnetic fields at milliarcsecond resolution close to massive young stellar objects (YSOs) are fundamental for providing new input for numerical simulations and for understanding the formation process of massive stars. The polarized emission of 6.7 GHz CH3OH masers allows us to investigate the magnetic field close to the massive YSO where the outflows and disks are formed. Recently, we have detected with the EVN CH3OH maser polarized emission towards 10 massive YSOs. From a first statistical analysis we have found evidence that magnetic fields are primarily oriented along the molecular outflows. To improve our statistics we are carrying on a large observational EVN campaign for a total of 19 sources, the preliminary results of the first seven sources are presented in this contribution. Furthermore, we also describe our efforts to estimate the Lande' g-factors of the CH3OH maser transition to determine the magnetic field strength from our Zeeman-splitting measurements.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceeding of the "12th European VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting", eds Tarchi et al. PoS(EVN 2014)04