2004

Sexual minority youth, as they progress through elementary, middle, and secondary schools in the United States, are confronted every day with taunts, epithets, and a host of other negative, insulting, and derogatory words from their peers designed to bring them into conformity with the dominant majority culture’s view of “normal” sexuality (i.e., a heterosexual or opposite-sex sexual orientation; Chung & Katayama, 1998; Nichols, 1999; Pope, 2000; Pope, Bunch, Szymanski, & Rankins, 2003). The television programs and movies that they watch, the advertisements that they see, and their parents, teachers, school administrators, and others give them, at best, a mixed message, but more usually provide a negative view on who they are and how they will end up (Rotheram-Borus & Fernandez, 1995).