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« on: Feb 20, 2014, 09:08 pm »
Are there any queer students in any sports teams, or dance groups, or any other school-related groups of people-who-change-clothes? If so, you could speak to the adult(s) in charge - chaperons, coaches, teachers - and see how they've handled it in the past.
I absolutely agree with everyone in that the rooms should be divided by gender, if they are divided at all. I acted some in high school, and we actually had one large room (technically where makeup and other "dressed" activities happened) and two rooms coming out of that one, which were the girls' and guys' dressing rooms. We didn't tell our parents, of course, but since the dressing rooms were so tiny, and since mic-ing still happened in the big room and required stripping to undershirts, guys and girls changed together in the big room. No issues came out of that - there were so many people, and we were so distracted by trying to get dressed on time, that incidents couldn't really happen.
This happened throughout college as well (several rooms that ended up being co-ed) and has happened in more than one theatre I've worked in - most remarkably, my current theatre only has one dressing room. We could technically hang a curtain or put up a divider to separate performers by gender, but although we bring this up as an option every time (and allow for actors to tell us separately and confidentially that they'd like a divider), nobody's ever asked for it.
I bring up co-ed dressing rooms because it's a similar idea - there may or may not be a person in the mix who is attracted to someone else in the room, but attraction does not mean they will act, particularly with other people around.
I also assume your space has bathrooms - if someone is uncomfortable changing in front of others, they can always change there. This doesn't have to be someone uncomfortable around queer people - it could be someone uncomfortable with their weight, or a birth mark, scars, or absolutely anything else.
With the oppression that queer people have to live through, ranging (and depending on the state or country) from no health insurance for their partner to being fired for being "perceived" as gay (even if you're straight!), it's incredibly important to be supportive of queer youth, and to set a positive example for straight youth and adults to follow. Now's the time to firmly determine that dressing rooms are separated by gender - not by orientation - and that young men are no lesser or different for being gay (or bi, or queer, or anything else - and same applies to women).
I find it particularly surprising that this is a problem in the theatre department since there's that ancient stereotype, which incidentally has proved overwhelmingly false in my experience, of theatre attracting queer people. I know that in high school and college, all the guys in my theatre club/department were assumed to be gay. Statistically, this has happened before in your school - the kid(s) in question just happened to be closeted. And that's an important point to make - the fact that nobody's ever been vocal about being queer does not mean there have not been boys-attracted-to-boys, or girls-attracted-to-girls, changing with their gender.
It does sound like a difficult situation, and maybe a conversation with all the students (and adults) in the mix is required. This could range from an hour-long presentation with speakers to a 2-minute comment at the top of rehearsal, explaining that someone's orientation does not contradict their gender, that sexual inappropriateness will not be tolerated regardless of gender (and if it does happen, it will be punished or pursued in the same exact way it would if a straight guy snuck into the girls' dressing room, or vice-versa), and that you're a big theater family that's going to remain caring, nurturing, and loving to each other.
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