Contents:
- ‘I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO THE GAY ONE’: LGBTQ TEACHERS SAY THEY ARE FIGHTG ERASURE THEIR OWN CLASSROOMS
- 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
- “THAT’S SO GAY” | FROM A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE
‘I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO THE GAY ONE’: LGBTQ TEACHERS SAY THEY ARE FIGHTG ERASURE THEIR OWN CLASSROOMS
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. "Many crics labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill. 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. "This is the exact oppose of what we need, " Kryk, a gay fifth-gra teacher outsi of Tampa, told ABC News.
He intifi as gay. 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.
THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
And so what's next: gay marriage? A high school assistant prcipal, Cz has faced cricism om other school admistrators the unty for beg an out gay tor. But wasn’t until this school year that a parent me to her school’s office and said, referrg to Cz, “I don’t want to talk to the gay one.
Florida’s HB 1557, lloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which kickstarted a trend of attempted legislative bans on discsn of LGBTQ topics schools, was expand April to rtrict some discsns of genr inty and sexual orientatn public classrooms om krgarten to 12th gra. And though he matas his optimism the classroom wh his young stunts, the realy of beg a gay teacher a polil climate that’s bee creasgly hostile toward LGBTQ people n be much more challengg, even dangero, he said.
He’s psed lsons after overhearg a stunt e the term “gay” a pejorative way, takg time to addrs the stunt and their qutns about the word. Last year, after Florida troduced what crics lled s “Don’t Say Gay” legislatn, several other stat followed su and filed siar bills that affect whether teachers n e pronouns or nam stunts ask them to e. Many ment to thank her for her ndor or wonr how their high school years uld have been different havg an out gay teacher like her.
GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
NBC News reported on two teachers Florida and Kentucky, rpectively, the latter of whom was named Kentucky Teacher of the Year 2022, who qu their jobs after some parents and muny members cricized them for beg out gay men and sharg tails about their personal liv wh stunts. Other queer and trans teachers, particularly after Florida passed s “Don’t Say Gay” bill last year, have said they no longer feel supported or mentally healthy enough to ntue teachg, acrdg to reportg om CNN affiliate WPTV. As a gay teacher who hadn’t e out to his stunts or staff, he felt hamstng.
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.
‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT
"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.
"Even teachers stat wh legal protectn worry that homophobic school lears n still fd a way to fire them regardls. "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. "Paranoia surroundg LGBT teachers part trac back to unfound theori lkg homosexualy and pedophilia.
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... Beg gay and sgle and not relatg to people’s notns of fay is harr and somehow not as easy to tst.
“THAT’S SO GAY” | FROM A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE
"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.