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

Contents:

• ‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT
• GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR FANS LGBTQ PRI IN VIRAL PHOTO WH DONALD TMP
• CAN FLORIDA’S GAY TEACHERS SHOW PHOTOS? THE WHE HOE CLAIMED NOT.
• HOW FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL TURNED STUNTS TO ACTIVISTS
• GAY TEACHER DELIGHTFULLY SHAS TMP WH OFFICIAL WHE HOE PHOTOS
• ‘IT’S HAD A CHILLG EFFECT’: FLORIDA TEACHERS ANX ABOUT ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL
• WHE HOE SPOX FALSELY CLAIMS FLORIDA BANS GAY TEACHERS FROM DISPLAYG PICTUR OF THEIR PARTNERS
• TEACHER: I WAS FIRED FOR BEG GAY. NOW IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE
• ANALYSIS | CAN FLORIDA’S GAY TEACHERS SHOW PHOTOS? THE WHE HOE CLAIMED NOT.
• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL
• KARE JEAN-PIERRE DENOUNC 'DON'T SAY GAY' EXPANSN AND BUD LIGHT THREATS

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

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. 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.

Gay teacher Nikos Giannopoulos’ displayed his LGBTQ pri as he sported a rabow p and clutched a lacy fan an official photo wh Print Donald Tmp and first lady Melania Tmp. The memoratn as a rampage of discrimatory legislatn gog through Republin-led stateho directed explicly at transgenr than 1, 000 guts attend a piic and ncert by popstar Betty Who on the South Lawn, cludg Send Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Transportatn Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is the first out LGBTQ+ member of the Cabet, his hband Chasten, and Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Servic Admiral Rachel Leve, the first out transgenr person to be nfirmed by the among the atten were survivors of last November’s mass shootg at the LGTBQ+ Club Q nightclub Colorado Sprgs and the 2016 mass shootg at Pulse, an Orlando gay the event schled for Thursday, the admistratn lled the biggt Pri event ever held at the Whe Hoe. “When a person n be married the morng but thrown out of a rtrant for beg gay the afternoon, somethg is still very wrong Ameri, ” said the also said that Congrs should pass the Equaly Act, which amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act to clu sexual orientatn alongsi race, relign, sex, and natnal orig.

GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR FANS LGBTQ PRI IN VIRAL PHOTO WH DONALD TMP

Unr threat of havg their licens revoked, gay teachers have been forced to take down pictur of their spo om their sks and censor their classroom materials. ”— Whe Hoe prs secretary Kare Jean-Pierre, at the daily prs briefg, April 20Many rears ntacted The Fact Checker after Jean-Pierre, at the Whe Hoe lectern, lambasted an expansn of Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn Act, popularly known among crics as the “don’t say gay” law.

CAN FLORIDA’S GAY TEACHERS SHOW PHOTOS? THE WHE HOE CLAIMED NOT.

That changed earlier this month, when his admistratn cid to impose such rtrictns on all public school stunts, cludg fourth through 12th gras, wh certa ’s dispute is Jean-Pierre’s claim that unr the law, gay teachers have been forced to take down pictur of their spo or loved on. “There is no mer, for example, to the suggtn that the statute rtricts gay and transgenr teachers om ‘put[tg] a fay photo on their sk’ or ‘refer[rg] to themselv and their spoe (and their own children), ’” the filg said. ”Adari Payne, a seventh-gra teacher Wley Chapel, said he had to unrgo a week-long vtigatn after a parent plaed that his gay relatnship me up durg a math problem that volved a qutn about stunt asked Payne, 37, if he had any children.

Another stunt terpted, referencg photos of Payne’s partner on the wall and suggtg was impossible bee he was gay. 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.

HOW FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL TURNED STUNTS TO ACTIVISTS

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.

GAY TEACHER DELIGHTFULLY SHAS TMP WH OFFICIAL WHE HOE PHOTOS

And so what's next: gay marriage? 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. “As a gay teacher, as a queer male, ’s been paful for me, ’s been very paful and very upsettg, ” said Woods.

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

“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. ”Ron DeSantis, the ernor of Florida, signg the ‘don’t say gay’ bill March 2022.

There may not yet be te equaly this untry, but we are equal on paper for the very first I was born 1964, Illois was the only state that did not have an anti-sodomy law that crimalized gay relatnships. As a stunt, I never heard a teacher say a posive thg about lbian, bisexual, gay, or transgenr people.

I’m probably alive today bee of I told my mother I was gog to be a teacher she said, “You are gay. Gay teachers. Shortly after I beme the Oregon State Teacher of the Year 2014, I was fired for not beg able to keep my mouth shut after my school warned me not to say public that I was gay.

WHE HOE SPOX FALSELY CLAIMS FLORIDA BANS GAY TEACHERS FROM DISPLAYG PICTUR OF THEIR PARTNERS

As a gay man, I n make the life of Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts better by havg a picture of my fay on my sk. It might be the only time their K-12 school experience when a stunt se that gay people have normal liv wh dogs and barbecu the backyard.

TEACHER: I WAS FIRED FOR BEG GAY. NOW IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE

Bostock was fired bee he joed a gay softball league. Read that sentence but take out the word “gay. ” I was fired bee I was openly gay.

ANALYSIS | CAN FLORIDA’S GAY TEACHERS SHOW PHOTOS? THE WHE HOE CLAIMED NOT.

Take out “gay” and replace wh all the other thgs I am: gger, Irish, a lapsed Catholic, a member sce 1973 wh lifetime standg of the Archie Comics Fan Club. I’m a lot of thgs, none of which I should have been fired schools eventually reopen, LGBT teachers will walk through those doors for the first time knowg they n no longer be fired for beg gay.

“There is no mer, for example, to the suggtn that the statute rtricts gay and transgenr teachers om ‘put[tg] a fay photo on their sk’ or ‘refer[rg] to themselv and their spoe (and their own children), ’”the filg said. That me to an end a month ago when parliament passed some of the world's strictt anti-LGBTQ legislatn, which would crimalise the 'promotn' of homosexualy and impose the ath penalty for certa crim volvg gay sex. Print Yoweri Meveni said on Thursday that he supports the legislatn but has requted some modifitns om parliament, cludg provisns to 'rehabilate' gay people, before he signs blasts book bans days after Texas lawmakers advanced new prohibns schoolsGov.

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

For his extracurricular activy, he’s the Gay Straight Alliance ordator. 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.

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

KARE JEAN-PIERRE DENOUNC 'DON'T SAY GAY' EXPANSN AND BUD LIGHT THREATS

“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.