The Lincoln Log

The pink triangle can be seen above teachers' doors.

San Francisco is projected as an open minded city that allows us to be who we choose, with minimal bigotry. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case in some situations. The general population assume that discrimination between sexual orientation is highly rare in San Francisco, if not, nonexistent. It’s quite often a shock for some to realize that there are people who are homophobes. Regardless of the person you are, they are still willing to shun you because of your sexual preference.

Thankfully, being in such a liberal-based community, there are many programs the school district provides that help students cope with discrimination, giving the oppressed youth a guiding hand. One of these programs, just adopted in our school this year by English teacher, Paul Cameli is The Pink Triangles.

During World War II, Nazis used the pink triangle to brand gay men in concentration camps. Jewish people were forced to wear a Star of David, and communists were forced to wear a red star. There was a hierarchy in these concentration camps. People who wore the pink triangles were at the very bottom of the social scale. When Americans liberated the camps, they let everybody free, except for the people with the pink triangles who were maintained in the prisons. Later on, this symbol was adopted as a deferential sign, giving support to gays, bisexuals, transgender, or just anybody questioning their sexual preference.

The pink triangles are a symbol to many people, representing gays. Here in the school, when you see one placed above a door, it means this teacher wants to make it known that he or she is available as a supportive resource for gender non-conformist students. This is a suggested program for a number of schools. If a teacher has the triangle above their door, it signifies that they are available to be confided in if a student is feeling harassed or bothered. This provides a safe haven for students to go to, as well as for support and an open mind to talk to.

Students are often discriminated against by other fellow classmates. The reasons for this are not limited to sex. They may breach out to race, or just conflicts between cliques. However, the suppression of gender non-conformist students is a major problem we face today among high schools. Luckily, the degrees of intolerance to these teens are considerably mild compared to that of the ones in much more conservative states. Nonetheless, discrimination still exists.

“I hear so many homophobic things; I can’t believe that these people have grown up in San Francisco. Some of the things I hear around here make me wonder what their parents are saying at home, it doesn’t sound very good. It’s scary, almost,” Cameli said.

The suicide rate for gay teens is shockingly high. About 30 to 40 percent of teens who have committed suicide are gay, yet only 10 percent of total teenagers are gay. These are more than just mere statistics, they prove that some teens are affected by this social shunning, or internal conflict between themselves, to such a high extent, they’re willing to commit suicide.

There is an estimated 250 students in Lincoln who are gay, bisexual, transgender, lesbian, or gender non-specific. Statistics show that 10 percent of population is gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, or gender non-conformists. A majority of these students are still not out of the closet yet, due to the lack of support they receive, or just plain fear of not being accepted. You would never know that if you looked around. Due to the fact that there is so much homophobia around gay students, they tend to be secretive. They realize that if the wrong person finds out about them, they may be harassed. This program allows any student who is feeling harassed to walk into a classroom with a pink triangle and be free from all judgment.

“As long as we’re sending that message to them, it’s going to make it easier for them to make that transition and move along,” Cameli said.