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

Contents:

• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL
• GAY SUBSTUTE TEACHER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER HANDG OUT PRI BRACELETS TO STUNTS
• ‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• FEATURED STORI
• GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'
• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL

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 him.Carver, 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 target.He 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 kids.Carver 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 rmatn.When, acrdg to Carver, he and some stunts' parents asked Montgomery County Supertennt Dr.

The most noteworthy is Florida's Parental Rights Edutn law, barrg discsn of sexual orientatn or genr inty krgarten through third gra or olr gras where would not be "age-appropriate" or "velopmentally appropriate."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." In his "Edutn Agenda Tour" advance of the Aug. 23 primary, DeSantis, a Republin, ntend the classroom was on the ontl a larger culture war and said was "wrong to ject thgs like sexualy and transgenrism to the classroom."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."But for Carver and others cril of such chang, the new laws nnot help but feel more like a personal attack."There's this systematic targetg of the topic of LGBTQ people, jt like they're havg a systematic targetg of the topic of experienc of different racial and ethnic groups," Amerin Civil Liberti Unn attorney Josh Block told ABC."Focg the attack on public schools is tryg to keep people om beg exposed to ias or experienc that whoever's power don't approve of," Block said.'The msage that this is … shameful'Florida tors like Jonathan Kryk say they are trated that the LGBTQ discsn bill was signed to law over what he scrib as more prsg ncerns for most U.S.

Teachers."This is the exact oppose of what we need," Kryk, a gay fifth-gra teacher outsi of Tampa, told ABC News.

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

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 example.Even 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 .Washgton, D.C.'s Boswa Shaw said he supports how, his view, the polici draw a clear le for children."The bill might be beneficial -- siar to the separatn of church and state," he told ABC News. 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.

And so what's next: gay marriage? One faculty sponsor of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance is facg havg her ntract termated, another is preparg to rign, and a third has been removed om the classroom. Two teachers said that the school’s prcipal asked teachers to take down gay pri flags their classrooms and offic.

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

Several stunts said that eher they or their classmat have been lled homophobic slurs and bullied, and school staff members have failed to tervene.

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

Some said they’re disuraged by the Irvg Inpennt School District’s rponse to the ncerns they’ve raised through the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) and school board meetgs, and they feel ls safe at school than they did a year ago. And advot for LGBTQ stunts are alarmed by some parents’ recent mands that schools prohib stunts om anizg Gay-Straight Allianc, llg them “pornographic” and suggtg they would turn children clash at MacArthur, a suburb northwt of Dallas, was not the rult of a new law or policy, or a public prsure mpaign at school board meetgs. “They’re not gog to e out outright and say, ‘Don’t say gay, ’” she said of the school admistratn, “but they’re gog to make as difficult as possible for you to be allowed to exprs yourself or even learn about how you feel, who you are and your inty.

” It all started wh teachers postg small rabow stickers — long a symbol of the gay pri movement — outsi their classrooms to show stunts that they were LGBTQ alli. Acrdg to her personnel file, which Stonecipher shared wh NBC News, the district’s human rourc office believed that Stonecipher had lled MacArthur’s prcipal “homophobic, ” which Stonecipher ni, and that she ma lleagu unfortable when she shared her opn about LGBTQ issu. “Bee whether the admistrators want to believe or not, there are kids who bully other kids for beg gay.

FEATURED STORI

A feral judge later tossed the 2018, the district faced cricism om LGBTQ anizatns when a teacher reported that the district banned “Love Is Love, ” a ic book created to support survivors of the mass shootg at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, followg a plat that the book featured “extreme homosexualy. Durg the meetg, stunts scribed stanc which they’d been lled homophobic slurs and been punched by classmat.

She told the stunts that some of her bt iends were gay or bi, and that she had a transgenr relative. "Aly Harb, MacArthur High School sophomore Acrdg to Victor Fsto, the GSA’s print, the equent meetgs draw jt five to 10 stunts. ’” said a transgenr stunt, a sophomore whom NBC News is not intifyg bee they have not e out to their parents.

GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'

“It jt felt very targeted towards people I knew, like they were tryg to get teachers or stunts trouble, ” said Aly Harb, a sophomore and GSA member, who was also lled for a meetg wh HR district did not rpond to qutns about the meetgs. 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.

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. You will not get a teachg license if you’re openly gay.

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

I’ve been openly gay. I'm a proud gay man, I am the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and I'm aaid to return to the classroom. I am gay!

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. Damon’s rponse to his send grar’s surprise about him beg gay was an easy one. I teach Gra 8, and I am gay, and today one of the “ol guys” ma me cry tears of pri.