'I'm Aaid to Return to the Classroom': A Gay Teacher of the Year Speaks Out

Contents:

• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• ‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT
• I’M A GAY KRGARTEN TEACHER FLORIDA. THE ARE THE QUTNS I’M ASKG MYSELF.
• GAY SUBSTUTE TEACHER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER HANDG OUT PRI BRACELETS TO STUNTS
• ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL
• COLUMN: HOW 2.8 LN CALIFORNIA VOTERS NEARLY BANNED GAY TEACHERS OM PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
• BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

In 1978, the state of California proposed a law—a ballot measure wily known as the Briggs Iniative—which would've prohibed openly gay and lbian teachers om workg the state’s public schools.

In five stat—Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virgia—gay people n get legally married but also legally fired by an employer for beg gay, a Washgton Post map shows. In San Bernado, California, for example, a lbian teacher challenged her school district urt wh help om the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn, allegg that she was fired after attemptg to help the school’s Gay Straight Alliance chapter. "In the years before I had tenure, there was no way I was gog to let someone’s else’s homophobia jeopardize my reer, " Bunger said.

"My stunts mostly e om Caribbean scent, where homosexualy is tradnally owned upon, " said Lamar Shambley, a sixth-gra math teacher New York who hasn’t e out to his stunts. Although the Amerin Psychologil Associatn and numero other rearch anizatns have nclud that homosexualy do not make someone more likely to sexually abe children, Conservative anizatns such the Fay Rearch Council and the Amerin College of Pediatricians—a group that requir s members to "hold te to the group's re beliefs of the tradnal fay un" before jog—argue that homosexualy is a threat to uld help expla why LGBT teachers who are married or mted relatnships sometim enjoy a level of legimacy and acceptance that sgle gay teachers often fail to secure. "The more [homosexualy] n f to the schema that people already have about fai, the easier is for others to unrstand...

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

"But even people wh generally tolerant views toward homosexualy sometim qutn the necsy of g out, particularly a school settg. "But many LGBT teachers argue that nversatns about personal matters do happen classrooms all the time, that 's only bee society promot heterosexualy—vers homosexualy—as normal that discsns related to a teacher's sexual orientatn are kept out of class, of Teach for Ameri, agre that for herself and her lleagu, beg the closet wh an extra layer of work—and strs.

Bunger also me out after earng tenure, spired by a fellow gay teacher who never had any qualms about discsg his sexual orientatn wh his stunts.

‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT

Overall, the strs experienced by LGBT youth also put them at greater risk for mental health problems and substance e: A natnal study om 2008 found that lbian, gay, and bisexual youth are more than twice as likely to attempt suici as their heterosexual peers. "If we ever want to get to a place where people aren’t beg killed for who they are, ’s important that stunts know people who are gay and are learng that difference isn’t herently threateng, " Lazar said.

I’M A GAY KRGARTEN TEACHER FLORIDA. THE ARE THE QUTNS I’M ASKG MYSELF.

"Kids and teachers need to know that someone they know is gay, that ’s not a hypothetil, that this is about real people who they know, " Bunger said "Beg visible to the kds of kids—kids who make dangero cisns bee they’re aaid to talk—is ccial.

For Damon Zuima, a former K–8 mic tor, was important for his stunts to know that he is gay and for his admistratn to be supportive of his cisn to share so openly wh his class. When asked if he felt prsure to hi his sexualy to his stunts, Connor Schmidt, a primary school teacher Beijg who is openly gay, shared:. Jonny Vriema, a physil tn teacher Jacksonville, Florida, who intifi as a gay Christian, fears that his sire to live out his fah and teach wh relig schools will create nflict.

GAY SUBSTUTE TEACHER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER HANDG OUT PRI BRACELETS TO STUNTS

After about a the classroom, he was named the bt tor Kentucky September 2021 -- but at the same time, he said, a small but vol mory his ral town Montgomery County went after, who is gay, told ABC News that he was sgled out for actually protectg LGBTQ kids his school and their fai, which ma him a said that earlier this year, a muny member who was postg about him on social media also repeatedly went to unty school board meetgs to report predatn and so-lled child "groomg" -- a term that has bee popular nservative circl for allegatns of adults sexually manipulatg said this person, who had not named him at the board meetgs but repeatedly referenced him by name onle, also "doxxed" him and some of his stunts on Facebook by sharg their private, acrdg to Carver, he and some stunts' parents asked Montgomery County Supertennt Dr. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights Edutn bill -- which don't specifilly e the word "gay, " though broadly rtricts talk of sexualy and genr -- to law earlier this year rponse to "woke genr iology.

"Joshua Block is a staff attorney wh the Natnal ACLU’s Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr & HIV "We need to be teachg them to read or wre, to add, to subtract, " he said -- addg that "the purpose of our schools is to te kids not to doctrate them. Before the bill was passed, some Democrats unsuccsfully attempted to make more specific -- rtrictg stctn on sexual activy rather than orientatn, for though many who spoke wh ABC News said they are disappoted the law's lack of clary, some gay teachers don't see an issue wh . Pancholy's Stonewall Honor-wng novel "The Bt at It" follows 12-year-old Rahul Kapoor, who is not only figurg out his cultural inty as an Indian-Amerin but is also jt begng to realize that he might be gay.

ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL

He spoke to Edutn Week about teachg as a gay man ral Kentucky—and why recent efforts to rtrict rights for LGBTQ stunts are dangero. I have always been as gay as anythg uld be, but my first year of teachg [upon the pletn of a master’s gree, 2010], I uldn’t be.

COLUMN: HOW 2.8 LN CALIFORNIA VOTERS NEARLY BANNED GAY TEACHERS OM PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Durg Kristal Torr’s sophomore year of high school, she transferred om an all-girls Catholic school to a ed public high school. It wasn't until I was llege and had profsors who were gay that I really had any picture of what was like to be a gay adult a regular relatnship wh a fay.

“This year I've been very openly out wh stunts, but a lot of that was motivated by my first year of teachg where I was tryg to bat issu of homophobia and transphobia. ” I did a home vis where I spoke to the mom and I remember tellg her that I was actually gay and I thk really helped her and ma her feel more relieved.

As a krgarten teacher who is gay and has pictur of himself and his partner his classroom, I regularly answer qutns om my stunts like: “Mr. Calls and emails were ma to my supertennt mandg my termatn, far-right news outlets began nng headl like “Gay krgarten teacher wants to talk to his kids about his love life, ” and the number of random-number phone lls to my personal cellphone creased twofold.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

And a key part of that tn is the necsary, valuable buildg block of muny is built the classroom, the level of engagement I see my stunts mak hard to believe they are only 5 and 6 years the Parental Rights Edutn law, which crics have lled the “Don’t Say Gay” law, ultimately eros that muny. A gay Oh substute teacher was fired last week after handg out Pri bracelets to high school stunts, the latt example of LGBTQ discsn schools sparkg ntroversy amid heated bat school boards and stat around the untry.

BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS

We hear most clearly when school lears and teachers hh stunts or offer phemisms when asked about gay teachers or guardians. To suggt that queer relatnships are appropriate for children—absent any overtly sexual ntent—is herently homophobic. All at once, the first major, openly gay printial ndidate is on the ver of Time wh his hband while a work ref to expose children to a scene of G-rated gay marriage.

“A lot of tst is given to teachers, and ma seem like I wasn’t tsted bee there’s somethg wrong wh me for beg gay, ” he said.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

“It mak seem like beg gay is somethg vile or disturbg or disgtg when ’s scribed as makg children unfortable knowg that I’m married to a man. ” While the Orlando parents did not succeed havg Thollanr discipled or oted, he and other LGBTQ teachers the state worry that newly signed state law — tled Parental Rights Edutn but dubbed by crics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — will galvanize parents to take siar actn agast them.

FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

Lawmakers who support the law have repeatedly strsed that would not prohib teachers and stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub, a gay club Orlando. ”“Teachers do not go out of their way to create the moments where we’re ‘doctratg’ stunts, ” said Woods, who is gay.

GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT

Gearhart was a radil femist separatist, a munitns profsor, a Bay Area force of nature, a wrer and outspoken gay rights activist.

In 1978, Proposn 6 roiled California, ptg the gay rights movement agast the state’s moralists and brachild, if you n ll that, of State Sen. Briggs, an Orange County Republin, the iative would have ma illegal for gays and lbians to teach California’s public schools. Briggs was spired to lnch the iative by sger Ana Bryant’s homophobic “Save Our Children” mpaign a year earlier Florida’s Da did California need to ban homosexuals om teachg s schools?

He said homosexualy was worse than munism, bee spread “like a ncer” through society and led to the stctn of civilizatns. In an terview wh the Los Angel Tim’ Robert Scheer, he claimed that San Francis’s welfare rolls were growg bee homosexuals “tend to have more tert their sexual activi than workg. “Believe or not, ” said Briggs, “right now California, a teacher n stand up the classroom and say he is homosexual and troduce his wife, Harry, and not a sgle thg n be done about .