TORONTO - It was a black, stretch-velvet dress that outed Shawn Fowler at the age of 14.
Hours earlier, the sexy number had been tucked secretly away in his bedroom -- along with a wig, lipstick and mascara. Yet there was his sister, sashaying through his grandparents' house, only she was donning the frock.
"That was the catalyst that started me talking to my family about being gay," Fowler, now 29, recalled.
Knowing of no other venues to socialize, he had figured that if he dressed as a drag queen, bouncers at the local gay bar wouldn't dare card him. But his mom found the stash first.
Negotiating the revelation with his family was one thing; at high school there were other issues. Students set a suspected gay peer's hair on fire in the cafeteria, and guys sometimes followed him home, yelling "faggot" every time a car passed.
"In the last 15 years, things have definitely changed," he said. "But you still hear stories of youth being beaten up, or called out for any number of reasons."
"It's not an ideal world, even if we do have Will and Grace."
In 2008, more gays and lesbians are depicted in mainstream media, and annual gay pride events are more popular than ever. In major urban centres, there are often gay-positive shops, restaurants and hotels, as well as support centres and performance spaces. But greater visibility doesn't necessarily equate to greater acceptance.
"A lot of kids aren't out to their parents, a lot of kids aren't out to their friends in school, because of the stigmatization and because of the homophobia and transphobia that still exists," said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada. "I'd say it's talked about more, but it's still as difficult as it was 10 years ago."
In the first national survey on homophobia in Canadian schools, released last month by Egale Canada, participating LGBTQ teens -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and two-spirit, queer and questioning -- overwhelmingly said they're not treated as equals in the classroom. More than two-thirds, for example, reported feeling unsafe at school based on their sexuality, as opposed to one in five straight participants.
More than half of LGBTQ participants reported being verbally harassed, about half said they had mean rumours spread about them, and a quarter reported being physically harassed.
Although there are some positive social changes, like Canadians gaining gay marriage rights in 2005, the teen survey results show that LGBTQ people still aren't treated as normal, Kennedy said.
Gay teens coming out of the closet
Times and Transcript, Canada -
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