San Francisco Unified School District has a program that provides support services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) youth. It was started in response to suicide statistics showing that gay youth are three times more prone to attempt suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. We are privileged to have this program that attempts to keep our LGBTQ students in school - and alive - to graduate.

Despite great strides, we still have a long way to go in our schools: In a 2008 district-wide school climate survey, 79% of fifth graders, 84% of middle school students and 82% of high school students reported hearing anti-gay epithets.

Earlier this month Support Services for LGBTQ Youth unveiled its new Web site. The new Web pages offer grade level curriculum, policy, and resources that address family diversity, and LGBTQ issues to school site staff, administrators, and parents. On April 20, 2009, SF Chronicle reporter Jill Tucker wrote a blog about the new Web site. While the District expected mixed reactions, we gained painful insights about the bigotry that still exists. Through emails and phone calls, we heard threatening and obscene language that would never be tolerated in a school classroom.

We believe that it is the obligation of San Francisco public schools to ensure every student access to a quality education. Families deserve the right to know that their children can gain this education in an environment that is safe and free from homophobic slurs and hate speech. Each and every one of our students deserves to have the tools not only to make the world a better place, but also to be able to enter the world respectful of the diversity within it. This diversity includes sexual orientation and gender diversity.

To this end, District and California State policies include homophobic slurs as an infraction to be addressed, and appropriate vocabulary has been approved to teach children how to speak respectfully of those in our school communities as well as the larger community who may be LGBTQ. Approximately 1.5 hours are devoted to these discussions during the school year, out of over 1,000 hours of classroom instruction per year.

SFUSD has an obligation to educate children to enter the 21st Century as competent, respectful, committed adults. Respecting difference includes refraining from language that creates environments of hate. The SFUSD LGBTQ Web site has resources that may not only help our students but also those from the community at large who may not understand this fact.