Andrea,
It is unclear how big a problem it is, because we don't know how many lgbt adult learners attend adult literacy programs, and how many tried to attend only to drop out because they did not feel supported.
In terms of lack of books for youth, I don't have much experience with youth, but I do know that there are books written with lgbt characters. I don't think that they are widely available in schools or covered in the curriculum, but I could be wrong. My guess is that they are not. If would be great if they were, for a whole lot of reasons. Hopefully, there would be a different culture with lgbt individuals being more accepted, lgbt kids would feel better about themselves and feel more included, they would feel more motivated to read, etc., etc. Of course, adding books to the curriculum would not immediately get these results, but it would be a step in the right direction.
Daphne

>>> Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> 2/26/2008 11:07 PM >>>

Daphne--

How big a problem is this?  The lack of books about  gay / lesbian or 
LGBT youth for same?  I agree with your sentence about "percentage of 
nonstraight....etc."  Does anyone have an idea about the numbers?

Andrea


On Feb 26, 2008, at 9:56 PM, Daphne Greenberg wrote:


> This has been an amazing discussion! Two issues regarding diversity 

> that have been slightly touched upon, but not really discussed are 

> sexual orientation and gender orientation. I think that these are very 

> important issues that get very little attention, especially in the 

> adult literacy classroom.

>

> One area where there is lack of attention is in the area of books. 

> When adult literacy providers purchase high interest/low vocabulary 

> books for their library, they often take great care to make sure that 

> the books reflect diversity-they try to make sure that the characters 

> of the various books include diverse groups such as African Americans, 

> Christian, Chinese, elderly, Muslim, White, etc. However, even if they 

> wanted to make sure that they had a few books written at low enough 

> levels that highlighted characters with nonstraight, and/or nongender 

> conforming characters-they would have difficulty finding such books. 

> This is a shame, because the more people read, the better they become 

> at reading. In order to increase people's motivation to read, the 

> characters of books have to at least sometimes reflect people they can 

> relate to.

>

> One day, I would love to conduct research to figure out what is the 

> percentage of nonstraight and nongender conforming learners in adult 

> literacy classrooms. On the one hand, the percentage may be lower than 

> expected, because they may not feel welcome in the classroom setting 

> (for example, a teacher asks people to write about their weekend and a 

> lesbian student does not feel comfortable writing the truth about her 

> experience house hunting with her partner). On the other hand, perhaps 

> the percentage may be higher than expected, because of the large 

> numbers of gay students who drop out of high school due to bullying in 

> school. For example, here are some statistics related to children:

> - 78% of youth report that gay and lesbian youth are teased or bullied 

> in their schools and communities. 93% of youth hear other youth at 

> school or in their neighborhood use words like "fag," "homo," "dyke," 

> "queer," or "gay" at least once in a while, with 51% hearing them 

> every day (National Mental Health Association).

> It's bullying in schools, along with other forms of discrimination and 

> lack of acceptance, that lead to:

> - LGBT youth being twice as likely as heterosexual youth to abuse 

> alcohol, and eight times more likely to use cocaine/crack (The 

> American Association of Pediatrics).

> - 48% of LGBT youth having seriously considered suicide, 29% of LGBT 

> youth having seriously attempted suicide, and 30% of all completed 

> adolescent suicides in the U.S. having been committed by LGBT youth 

> (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

>

> I think that this is an issue which deserves attention in the adult 

> literacy field.

>

> Daphne

>

>

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