‘It’s had a chillg effect’: Florida teachers anx about ‘don’t say gay’ bill | Florida | The Guardian

Contents:

• GAY SUBSTUTE TEACHER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER HANDG OUT PRI BRACELETS TO STUNTS
• CALIFORNIA TRIED TO BAN GAY TEACHERS 1978. EDUTORS AND ACTIVISTS WHO FOUGHT BACK FEAR HISTORY MAY BE REPEATG SELF.
• I’M A GAY KRGARTEN TEACHER FLORIDA. THE ARE THE QUTNS I’M ASKG MYSELF.
• BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
• FLORIDA TEACHER UNR VTIGATN FOR SHOWG DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER SAYS SHE DIDN’T KNOW LGBTQ RTRICTN APPLIED TO HER CLASS
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• COMG OUT CLASS: WHEN TEACHERS TELL STUNTS "I'M GAY"
• ‘IT’S HAD A CHILLG EFFECT’: FLORIDA TEACHERS ANX ABOUT ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL
• COLUMN: HOW 2.8 LN CALIFORNIA VOTERS NEARLY BANNED GAY TEACHERS OM PUBLIC SCHOOLS
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS
• WHY ARE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FIRG GAY TEACHERS, AND HOW N ONE REFE?
• 'YOUR ENTIRE REER N BE RAILED': FOR GAY TEACHERS, G OUT REMAS RISKY

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

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.

“You certaly see tremendo prsure on LGBTQ teachers to rema closeted for fear of losg their jobs, ” said Eliza Byard, the executive director of GLSEN, formerly the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network. Throughout much of the 20th century, LGBTQ teachers most plac across the untry would have been fired if they were found out, said Karen Grav, a profsor and the chair of tnal studi at Denison Universy Granville, Florida, the state legislature tablished an vtigatn mtee that tried, om 1957 to 1965, to weed out gay and lbian teachers and profsors om public schools and universi. “What I am after is to remove those homosexual teachers who through word, thought, or ed want to be a public homosexual, to entice young imprsnable children to their liftyle, ” Briggs said an terview durg the mpaign.

Pl, Mn., voters rejected ordanc that would have protected gay and lbian workers om discrimatn, wh teachers at the foreont of the Oklahoma, a state law enacted 1978 thorized schools to fire teachers who engaged “public homosexual activy, ” as well as teachers who advoted for LGBTQ rights. In 2018, when she was a teachg fellow at Harvard Universy, she intified herself as a lbian for the first time a, one gay stunt told her, “When you’re tryg to terme how out to be yourself or if this is gog to be a hopeful thg for you, you look to the adults you teract wh the most when you’re a kid, and that’s teachers, ” Peepl reunted.

CALIFORNIA TRIED TO BAN GAY TEACHERS 1978. EDUTORS AND ACTIVISTS WHO FOUGHT BACK FEAR HISTORY MAY BE REPEATG SELF.

John Briggs, a nservative California lawmaker om Allegre's native Orange County, troduced a ballot iative 1977 to be put to a referendum the upg state electn that would bar gay men and lbian women om workg California's public schools. The proposn, did, however, brg together a dited group of gay activists and advot who waged a hard-fought opposn mpaign agast the iative, which was formally known as California Proposn path to succs was not an easy one. And the bigoted aim at the heart of the iative would ntue to rear s ugly head time and time aga the succeedg years — most recently wh the troductn of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" legislatn that sparked natnal outcry earlier this former tors and activists who were volved the effort to feat California Prop 6 spoke to Insir about the "fight of our liv, " and the worrisome parallels they see arisg more than 40 years later.

At 13, he remembers beg rnered the school stairwell by several boys on his basketball team who acced him of beg gay, mockg and chantg at him until he proceed to was the sort of experience that is achgly faiar to those who grew up queer: unique the specific nature of s celty, but intil tent. Inspired by emergg anti-gay activist Ana Bryant's overwhelmg succs repealg a Florida ordance that would have prevented discrimatn based on sexual orientatn, Briggs sponsored his own siarly-md iative, seemgly hopg might be his proposn would have allowed school boards California to fire any public school teacher, ai, admistrator, or unselor if was disvered that they had engaged "public homosexual activy" or "public homosexual nduct, " fed as homosexual behavr that was "not discreet" or "practiced private.

Soon after Briggs' announcement, the group was ready wh pamphlets, speakg engagements, and prs releas that refuted popular li about gay people the won support om lol church and policians, filed lawsus on the matter, and worked closely wh the teacher's unn the hop of buildg a mass movement that uld stop Briggs. "Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office the state, and Sally Gearhart, the first out lbian to obta a tenure-track faculty posn at a state universy, served as the public fac the fight agast Prop 6, publicly batg Briggs on his iative. Activists and tors say the bill, which is officially lled the Parental Rights Edutn Act, plays on tired, homophobic rhetoric, and echo the Briggs Iniative's herently-flawed this that LGBT topics are not appropriate for California Prop 6 and the Parental Rights Edutn Act were amed as protective measur for children the public school system by policians who ed basels accatns of possible "groomg" by queer tors to ce parents' fears.

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

"Such assumptns about gay people are unte and unsupported by any scientific evince, a far-right tactic to monize the queer muny that dat back s, acrdg to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's really easy to accs people's fears about gay people gog after their California Prop 6, which was a voter iative cid upon by the mass, Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law was a lawmaker-sponsored bill that was parceled and passed by policians at every pot.

"Fightg opprsn is an ongog battle, the former tors saidMore than 40 years later, there rema few gay teachers who n offer their firsthand acunts of featg the Briggs Iniative, Ammiano said: "Almost everyone is ad. 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.

BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS

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.

About a year to his time at the school, a group of female pupils asked if he was gay and he said 'y' first thgs were fe, and Jonathan felt he was able to help pupils who were qutng their own sexualy. His experienc echo the fdgs of a rearch report rried out earlier this year by the gay equaly anisatn Stonewall, The School Report, which found that 96% of gay pupils had heard homophobic language such as "poof" or "lezza" at school – behavur that often go unchallenged by teachers.

Acrdg to equaly mpaigners, havg openly homosexual teachers n provi both gay and straight young people wh role mols, but all too often they lack the support they need om senr learship teams and lleagu. "The legacy of Sectn 28 – the ntroversial legislatn that banned the "promotn" of homosexualy schools – lgers on, even ne years after s removal, says Streetg, pecially given how many current teachers traed and first tght that Dellenty, the puty head of Aled Salter primary school south-east London, whose succsful anti-homophobic bullyg programme has attracted the attentn of the Department for Edutn, says fear of backlash, and a lack of trag, are the ma reasons behd some school lears' unwillgns to support LGBT teachers and tackle homophobia.

FLORIDA TEACHER UNR VTIGATN FOR SHOWG DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER SAYS SHE DIDN’T KNOW LGBTQ RTRICTN APPLIED TO HER CLASS

After some ial "uurgh" nois, they began their own dialogue about what beg gay meant, wh one girl explag to her classmat that simply meant "a man and a man" stead of a man and a woman, rells a few months later, problems began to surface.

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

"Trag has a val role to play, says Dellenty, who has been workg wh the Natnal College for School Learship (NCSL), the profsnal velopment body for heads, cludg liverg a workshop for school lears on overg the issu that prevent them om rpondg to homophobia. "You have a much easier relatnship wh stunts when they feel you have a human si, and if you don't tell them you're gay 's really difficult to talk about your life, bee you n't jt talk about your hband or wife, " he the ndns need to be right, says Suran Dickson, whose anisatn, Diversy Role Mols, works wh schools to unter negative stereotyp. "Tips for school lears Lead om the top, and go back to basics: have clear and promoted polici on the issue Enforce the le that all stanc of homophobic language – cludg g "gay" as a pejorative term – mt be challenged, and ensure pupils and teachers unrstand why 's wrong Don't tolerate homophobia by staff, who should be provid wh trag on how to al wh homophobia and support LGBT pupils Make clear to LGBT staff that they have your support if they want to be open about their sexualy, and that any negative reactns will be alt wh swiftly and clearly Involve pupils the velopment and sign of anti-bullyg policiW Streetg, head of tn at Stonewall.

COMG OUT CLASS: WHEN TEACHERS TELL STUNTS "I'M GAY"

A Florida teacher unr a state vtigatn for showg a Disney movie featurg a gay character said she wasn’t aware the state’s ntroversial law banng stctn about certa LGBTQ topics had been recently expand to apply to her gra level. When DeSantis signed the ban to law last year, he and other Florida Republins touted as a protectn of parents’ rights, while opponents slammed as yet another effort by GOP lawmakers the state to erase and opprs LGBTQ people schools, llg the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circu Richmond is an early tt of how that major Supreme Court cisn ptg ee speech agast anti-discrimatn laws will play out beyond the hypothetil suatn that se, which volved a platiff who had never actually ma weddg webs or been asked to do so by a gay person.

“The Court rejected the dissent’s assertn that s cisn opened the door to discrimatn employment, ” ACLU attorney Josh Block wrote a reply to Becket’s the exampl raised the Supreme Court did not clu a relig anizatn or a gay employee, and Gorsuch repeatedly voked a 2000 cisn allowg the Boy Suts to expel a gay volunteer on “exprsive associatn” grounds. “We all said that thoands of relig anizatns all across the untry ask their employe to uphold their tradnal view of marriage word and ed, and if you terpret the statute that way, ’s gog to unleash lots of lawsus agast them, ” Goodrich the Supreme Court has specifilly said preventg racial discrimatn is a pellg ernment tert that jtifi rtrictg First Amendment eedoms, he noted that the Supreme Court has rejected such a fdg on discrimatn agast gay or transgenr people.

‘IT’S HAD A CHILLG EFFECT’: FLORIDA TEACHERS ANX ABOUT ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL

" Tips for Talkg wh Young Kids It's ironic: While parents are ually more ncerned about younger children's exposure to homosexualy, ltle kids are ls likely to grasp what means than olr stunts are. Some suggtns for parents om Eleanora Villegas-Reimers, associate profsor of human velopment at Wheelock College Boston: DO iate a nversatn wh children if you know they've had classroom discsns about what means to be gay.

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

Michael Woods, a high school special tn teacher Palm Beach unty, Florida, wh 30 years of experience teachg and who grew up as a stunt the area who was bullied for beg gay, said he cried the night before this school year began Augt 2022 bee of anxiety related to Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill that went to effect July 2022. “The bills are all based on false pretens, they’re li, they’re based on li, they make assumptns that somethg is happeng our schools area, that teachers are somehow doctratg our stunts, teachg them to be gay, or whatever the se may be, ” said Andrew Spar, print of the Florida Edutn add: “I thk the biggt thg gog to the school year is the unknown, bee this bill and the other bills that are out there, give parents the abily to brg plats agast teachers, brg lawsus agast school districts, and we jt don’t know how ’s gog to play out.

”You n wre Briggs off as a nut or a Neanrthal, but fact he reprented lns of people a televised bate, Gearhart asked Briggs why he wanted to remove homosexuals om schools “when is more than overwhelmgly te that is the heterosexual men … that are the child molters? It was probably not the work of Gearhart and Milk that won the day so much as a late--the-game statement opposg the ballot measure by a former ernor and future print, Ronald Reagan, acrdg to Dudley Clenden and Adam Nagourney “Out for Good, ” their history of the gay rights movement Ameri. WASHINGTON – A feral appeals urt has led that a Catholic high school Indianapolis was ee to fire a gay guidance unselor bee she performed at least some relig duti, the latt legal setback for LGBTQ+ rights when they nflict wh Fzgerald had worked for 14 years as a guidance unselor at Ronlli High School when school officials disvered she was married to another woman.

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

Instead, he was terrogated wh a seri of vague, leadg qutns that attempted to get him to adm he was had been out for years – and knew his ntract never stated he uldn’t be gay and teach at Valor – but shame-filled memori of his closeted years as a young man rose up that moment, as his job slipped away. ”The offer they ma was for Tonga to attend some form of “nversn therapy”, and when he returned to announce he isn’t gay, cut off ntact wh his fiance, scb his social media of any support for the LGBTQ muny, and nounce his support for them before the school. Outrage on the part of stunts, parents, alumni and alli over Tonga losg his job for beg gay is part of a s-long battle between anti-discrimatn laws and the right of private Christian schools (of which there are approximately 34, 500 the US alone) to relig sce the 1964 Civil Rights Act threatened the tax-exempt stat of Christian schools who refed to racially tegrate, relig schools the US have tangled wh social jtice activists seekg equal protectns for mory stunts and employe.

SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS

A nearly intil scenar volvg a gay mic teacher fired om a Catholic school played out only a short distance away at the same issue is further plited stat like Florida – where the le between public school and private relig school is sometim blurred. Steven Arz, a sixth-gra history teacher, found himself fired om a Seventh Day Adventist school – which is publicly fund wh $1m a year tax dollars and creds – after he was featured a Gay Wh Kids article where he discsed his adopted son. ”Block and the ACLU have found some succs ligatg the month, a feral judge led that the firg of the North Carola teacher Lonnie Billard om a Catholic school for beg gay was a vlatn of the Civil Rights Act, shuttg down the school’s attempt to argue that they had a relig exemptn om the law.

WHY ARE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FIRG GAY TEACHERS, AND HOW N ONE REFE?

”This laid the groundwork for the followg generatn of evangelil lears such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Tim LeHay, who partnered wh the Republin party to stir up anger around issu evangelils prevly red ltle about, like abortn, dgs and the rights of women and gays.

Campaigns to overturn gay rights legislatn like “Save Our Children” Florida (led by evangelil superstar Ana Bryant), or California’s Prop 6, which sought to ban gay men and lbians om teachg public schools, both equated homosexualy wh pedophilia and acced gay teachers of beg sexually motivated their reer the villas were new, the tactic of gng up basels fears had been the rnerstone of whe flight to Christian schools a Jon Universy’s lack of black stunts was rooted s ban on terracial datg. When the universy eventually tegrated 1971, allowed only married black stunts to attend, and 1975 allowed sgle black stunts but nied “admissn to applints engaged an terracial marriage or known to advote terracial marriage or datg” openly opposg racial tegratn eventually beme an effective tool for galvanizg evangelil voters – replaced by racist dog-whistl – gays tegratg themselv to the Amerin fay remaed a potent touchstone for the Christian right.

'YOUR ENTIRE REER N BE RAILED': FOR GAY TEACHERS, G OUT REMAS RISKY

“In 2004, evangelil lears were nng out of money and their voters had been fallg away, so they all got a room together to ci what issu would brg their flock back to the fold, and they cid on gay marriage, ” says Fzgerald.

“And so they flood the natn wh anti–gay marriage ballot measur, and that not only helped get Gee W Bh elected to a send term, but the ballot measur sometim performed better than he did … They were agast gay people prciple, but they also thought gay teachers were a bigger threat to kids than anythg. While the Christian right views gay teachers as a threat to stunts, the Trevor Project’s rearch shows that “LGBTQ youth who have accs to an LGBTQ-affirmg school report lower rat of attemptg suici. Through their Gay Straight Alliance (which has to meet off mp) and a list of mands for school learship, the group aims to make their school a place where all stunts n feel safe and Guardian reached out to Valor high school to ment on Tonga and Valor for Change, but did not receive a ’s a mister?

While 81% of Amerins say gay teachers should be able to teach at elementary schools, relig schools terg to the remag 19% have been velopg a varied strategy for keepg them out of their classrooms. “There are nstutnal arguments they make, that [beg forced to employ gay teachers] vlat their eedom of associatn, ee exercise of relign, but those have been rejected, ” says Joshua Block of the ACLU. ”So if Valor Christian high school wanted to say that bee Inoke Tonga, for example, led his stunts a prayer before a volleyball game, or spoke of the holy spir guidg them durg a game, uld his firg for beg gay fall unr a misterial exemptn om discrimatn laws?