Gay youth in Whitehorse are complaining of homophobic attitudes in school and teachers aren't sure how to handle it.

That's the assessment of Jeromie Williams, the youth health protection and prevention worker with Bringing Youth Towards Equality (BYTE)

One high school student wrote: 'I constantly have threats because students at school think I'm gay.'

The 17-year-old wished to remain anonymous because he's scared for his safety. He submitted the letter, entitled 'Queer in the Yukon', to BYTE, describing his first relationship with a boy.

'I think if anyone in the Yukon, in high school, came out of the closet as gay or bisexual, then they would be beaten ... and ridiculed,' he wrote.

In 2001, the territorial Women's Directorate did a study that found 63 per cent of youth thought homophobia was a serious problem.

'There's name-calling. There's threats. There's fear. There's intimidation. There's bullying,' Williams said of complaints that have come from youth who attend a gay and lesbian support group at the BYTE office.

'If somebody was to make a racial comment in the classroom, teachers are well-equipped on how to deal with that. But when a gay slanderous joke is told, or someone is called a fag or a dyke, the teachers don't know how to deal with it, so they don't,' said Williams.

'They just don't have the information or the training to deal with issues that arise with gay and lesbian youth.'

Young people tell Williams that teachers would rather say nothing than make the situation worse. He said, in some cases, teachers fear they might be perceived as gay or lesbian themselves.

And it's not just teachers who don't know how to deal with gay issues, said Williams. It's health service providers, social workers and RCMP.

He said when issues come up, people either defer youth to other services or deal with the problem with limited information.

That's why this coming summer, BYTE will be offering an anti-homophobia workshop to various youth support workers.

Williams hopes the workshop will help adults deal with homophobic comments made by youth. It will also give them tools to help young people deal with other problems they might encounter being gay or lesbian.

'It's basically sensitivity training. It allows people to put themselves in the place of somebody else,' said Williams.

'There are other components that dispel myths. Giving out proper information, proper facts. There is a whole entire section on terminology, like what the word transgendered' means.'

Williams said the goal of the workshop is to make gay and lesbian people feel safe.

'They need people who are supportive, so they're not afraid to come out,' said Williams

The workshop is funded by the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition.

Williams, who is organizing the workshop, said it should be ready in July, in time for BYTE's summer road tour.

'We are going to all the outlying communities outside Whitehorse, doing edutainment, doing workshops, arts programming, music. There will be a marketplace for two days in every small town,' said Williams.

There will also be a one-hour component of the anti-homophobia workshop in the road show.

He said support is especially needed in rural areas.

'A lot of times, gay youth feel like they are the only ones. And in rural communities, sometimes you probably are the only one,' he said.

Williams said BYTE is the only organization that offers support to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) youth.

It offers a weekly drop-in for GLBT youth on Monday nights.

The support group began last February. Since its opening, Williams said, there have been six or seven youth who have dropped in, some on a regular basis.

According to a new Statistics Canada report on hate crimes, 10 per cent of nearly 1,000 hate crimes committed in 2001 and 2002 were against gays and lesbians.

The survey also found that people who were targeted because of sexual orientation were more likely to suffer violent hate crimes.