When Jamie Nabozny entered the restroom at his high school one morning, two boys assaulted him. “One pushed his knee into the back of mine,” says Nabozny. “I fell into the urinal, and another kid started peeing on me. I just remember sitting there waiting for it to get over with.” Unfortunately, the incident in the restroom was just one of many that Nabozny suffered at school because he is gay.

According to many experts, America’s schools are bastions of homophobia. Gay youth get shoved, spit on, and physically assaulted. In 1997, a Des Moines, Iowa, student group called Concerned Students recorded hallway and classroom conversations at five high schools. The group reports that the average high school student hears about twenty-five anti-gay remarks each day. Professors of education Jonatha Vare and Terry L. Norton note: “Mocked, rejected, and misunderstood by parents...