Openly Gay Profsor Adds Tolerence and Acceptance to Curriculum – The Impact

Contents:

• JSU PRI: FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSOR SHAR HIS STORY
• ‘DISAPPOTED BUT NOT SURPRISED’: WHWORTH CL TO FE POSN ON LGBTQ EMPLOYE AFTER FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSOR SHAR NCERNS
• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• PROFSOR BRGS OPENLY GAY SPEAKER AND IS FIRED BY CHRISTIAN UNIVERSY, LAWYER SAYS
• CALV UNIVERSY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STUNT BODY PRINT PAV A PATH
• OPENLY GAY PROFSOR ADDS TOLERENCE AND ACCEPTANCE TO CURRICULUM
• OPENLY GAY PROFSOR BRGS GAY HISTORY TO USF
• CATHOLIC THEOLOGIL SOCIETY AWARDS HIGHT HONOR TO ‘MARRIED’ GAY PROF
• GAY AT HLS: A BRIEF HISTORY
• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
• OBAMA’S GAY MENTOR
• OPENLY GAY MORMON TGHT RELIGN CLASS THIS SUMMER AT BYU
• OBAMA'S FIRST GAY MENTOR CALLS PRINT'S MOVE BRAVE, CYNIL
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

JSU PRI: FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSOR SHAR HIS STORY

When scribg Clements, who has spent his entire 31-year teachg reer at JSU, the word “Christian” on his bumper sticker uld also read “drama profsor, ” “advote, ” “stume signer, ” “mentor, ” “Virgia native, ” “Dragon Con judge, ” “hband, ” or untls other rol, acplishments and personaly tras of which beg gay is jt one. When people meet me, and realize that I’m gay, I hope they thk, ‘oh my gosh, he is a talented artist and an awome profsor who looks out for his stunts; he go to church and helps out the muny; he is a fun person and a good iend; he is a good hband and an awome granddad. A few weeks earlier, two schools had left the anizatn after announcg that they would start hirg married gay and lbian faculty, an unacceptable theologil posn for most member stutns.

The stat quo was somethg closer to “Don’t ask, don’t tell”: universy admistrators assumed that there were lbian and gay faculty among their ranks, but they ma a pot not to quire to their employe’ sex liv. The school would not hire openly gay faculty, but, by chance, Lee’s office was a hallway wh theatre and dance and English profsors—a r, artsy crew that was very supportive of gay rights. Issue unsettled—never actively welg gay or trans faculty, staff, and stunts, but also never adoptg a formal posn on sexualy and genr—is a way of walkg the narrow ridge, makg sure that there’s space for Christians the school’s muny to disagree good nscience.

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.

‘DISAPPOTED BUT NOT SURPRISED’: WHWORTH CL TO FE POSN ON LGBTQ EMPLOYE AFTER FIRST OPENLY GAY PROFSOR SHAR NCERNS

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. "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 PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

"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.

PROFSOR BRGS OPENLY GAY SPEAKER AND IS FIRED BY CHRISTIAN UNIVERSY, LAWYER SAYS

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. "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.

CALV UNIVERSY’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STUNT BODY PRINT PAV A PATH

But to Murashima and to many of her fellow graduat, her more sgular and unexpected achievement was havg navigated her senr year while servg as the first openly gay stunt body print the history of the landmark Christian universy Grand Rapids, Michigan. Calv is affiliated wh the Christian Reformed Church, a small nomatn that holds that “homosexual practice … is patible wh obedience to the will of God as revealed Scripture.

In the past 20 years beg openly gay Ameri has e a long way, but is a path wrought wh obstacl and challeng to navigate; however, one Mercy College profsor stands out as an example of tolerence and acceptance for stunts. While Lambert strongly feels that havg an openly gay profsor has been a rewardg experience for her, other stunts believe that the personal life of the stctor is a non-issue and should not be judged by others. However Martufi says that she has a lot of openly gay iends and that they have already done the most unfortable thg they will probably ever have to do – which is e out.

“No matter how clearly gay teachers monstrate their abily to teach, there is a large chance that stunts’ anti-gay bias uld dramatilly alter how they are perceived and treated the classroom. Though the fdgs of the study wh this particular group fd that beg openly gay n have an effect on perceived credibily and learng environment the classroom, also intifi three major pots.

OPENLY GAY PROFSOR ADDS TOLERENCE AND ACCEPTANCE TO CURRICULUM

There will be unrgraduate and graduate versns of the urse, he said, and each will foc on gay culture throughout history, cludg a closer look at Batman and Rob’s relatnship.

Johnson is also wrg a book, Buyg Gay, which scrib the history of gay mass-nsumptn before the Stonewall rts of 1969 and the impact had on the formatn of gay muny and inty. Acrdg to the pro-gay group New Ways Mistry, which has been formally nounced by both the Uned Stat Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatin for s opposn to Church teachg, Esp “led a workshop on LGBT mistry the Lato/a muny durg New Ways Mistry’s Seventh Natnal Symposium 2012.

They were headg to their meetg wh a simple requt, but one that had not yet been uttered wh the hallowed halls of Harvard Law: they wanted Harvard to sist that employers that me to mp not discrimate on the basis of whether stunts were gay. Whether each other’s dormory rooms, elsewhere on the Harvard mp, or bars and clubs Boston, homosexual men at the Law School found furtive ways to acmodate their sir whout riskg the succsful reers they unted on as Harvard-traed lawyers. The bonds between profsors and stunts were what one gay profsor would later ll “homosocial”; as other all-male settgs, such as the ary, the bonds enabled and mataed a domant masculy, yet were lan wh sexual suggtn.

OPENLY GAY PROFSOR BRGS GAY HISTORY TO USF

Ined, while homosexualy may seldom if ever have been spoken about, the Law School was pervad by a tensn between men that for some profsors and stunts was likely an embodiment of, or a thly-veiled substute for, pent-up sexual energy. For some profsors, this sexual energy may have been ls veiled than was for others; the ’50s and ‘60s, for example, stunts both gay and straight thought cur that two profsors were roommat, even though they were both olr men.

Eventually, startg the 1950’s, as gays and lbians began to slowly velop a social and polil inty and to form groups like the Mattache Society, beme possible for the gay stunts of Harvard Law School to abandon, or at least to dwell ls on, their hop of turng straight. The relatnships were often nfed to the bars Boston where they ually met, but sometim extend to the Law School mp, wh groups of gay stunts meetg socially dorm rooms and formg a verable, if loosely anized, gay “unrground.

CATHOLIC THEOLOGIL SOCIETY AWARDS HIGHT HONOR TO ‘MARRIED’ GAY PROF

By the late 1970’s, wh gay activism perlatg around the untry, one stunt, José Gómez, took the iative to tablish the first official gay stunt anizatn at the Law School. Wh months, the Commtee on Gay Legal Issu found self tablg Harkns Commons, lobbyg the admistratn regularly and makg a stir almost weekly the pag of the Harvard Law Rerd.

The stunts, the Class of ‘85, prsed their profsors to thk and talk about the implitns of homosexualy throughout the law, and tried to make straight stunts qutn their own prejudic and stereotyp. Whether rponse to the cisn, or to creased ncerns about job secury — pecially after the stock market crashed October 1987 – gay stunts at HLS grew quieter about their sexual orientatn.

The number of out gay stunts on mp plummeted om several dozen 1985 to jt a handful two years later, and those who were out found themselv hard-prsed to mata any visibily at all on mp.

GAY AT HLS: A BRIEF HISTORY

Numero GLBT stunts of the Class of 1992 joed and helped lead a large aln of stunts mandg creased faculty diversy, and were willg to engage civil disobedience to get — although ncerns about the lack of an openly gay faculty member took a backseat to issu of genr and race. So while some GLBT stunts foced on faculty diversy, others ntued to re-energize the HLS gay muny, lobbyg for a urse on sexual orientatn on the law (if only to be tght by visg faculty), creatg new social and polil programs to support the now-sizable muny on mp, and, upon graduatn, creatg a gay and lbian mtee of the Harvard Law Alumni Associatn. The gay muny at Harvard Law was so large the early ’90s that effectively spltered to two: one openly gay and polilly active, centered on the stunt group – now lled the Commtee on Gay, Bisexual and Lbian Legal Issu, or COGBLLI — and another group of stunts who thought everythg about COGBLLI was silly, startg wh the anizatn’s unwieldy name.

OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS

The stunts saw beg gay as a private, social inty, rather than a public, polil one, and an unfortable rift veloped between the two groups, poisong relatns among some the gay muny.

OBAMA’S GAY MENTOR

For the gay muny at the Law School, the mid-90s were a fairly fortable time, wh the stunt group — now renamed Lambda — anizg speakers, danc, and even a GLBT volleyball team. By 1993, Amerin society general had seen a major change attus toward homosexualy: Bill Clton had n for print on a platform of acceptance 1992, gay characters began to appear popular televisn shows, and mastream pani had begun advertisg the gay prs.

One wispread explanatn was that the wake of the bative activism of the early ’90s, the Dean had stcted the Admissns Office to turn away stunts likely to e trouble — thereby keepg out openly gay activists.

Efforts to get an openly gay member on the permanent faculty, already sporadic, lost force, and by 2001, the school was one of the few of s size to offer no urse on sexual orientatn and the law. Even as the natn ntued to make stris acceptg gays and lbians, got so bleak to be gay at Harvard Law that members of the Class of 2000 felt as if they might be the last of a dyg breed. Although Lambda remaed small and paratively quiet, wh an emphasis on social activi, this was part a reflectn of the fact that a growg number of out, GLBT stunts felt fortable beg openly gay at the Law School whout jog the stunt group.

OPENLY GAY MORMON TGHT RELIGN CLASS THIS SUMMER AT BYU

Whereas, a earlier, some gay stunts had spurned the anizatn as too polil or too public, was now seen creasgly as but one among many groups vyg for stunts’ attentn.

Not until the summer of 2002, when Harvard gave to the Bh Admistratn’s mand that ary recers be allowed back on mp – undog the very first victory won by the Commtee on Gay and Lbian Legal Issu – did a sense of urgency and foc revigorate the HLS gay muny.

While Lambda’s activism has failed th far to change Harvard’s policy on ary recment, the gay muny on mp appears, for the moment, to have turned yet another rner a 25-year history of wang and waxg activism. Other alumni/ae are makg change, too; Harvard Law’s GLBT alumni/ae clu two of the most proment openly gay elected officials the untry; the natn’s first openly gay or lbian feral judge; several of the natn’s top thori on sexual orientatn and the law; and many, if not most, of the leadg urtroom advot for gay and lbian civil rights. Rarely, the many s that self-intified homosexual stunts have been at Harvard Law, have they felt a sense that the school self or anyone reprentg was overtly homophobic.

OBAMA'S FIRST GAY MENTOR CALLS PRINT'S MOVE BRAVE, CYNIL

Whereas other mory groups at the Law School have waged nsistent stggl an effort to effect change at the school, the gay muny has seen bursts of activy every two to five years sce 1978. Meanwhile, the fact that Harvard graduat have taken the lead gay and lbian legal posns and bee path-breakers posns where gays and lbians had never openly been may not be surprisg, given that there are few legal fields which Harvard Law School do not domate. Perhaps, therefore, is only when Harvard’s rarefied atmosphere, wh s elist difference to matters of sexual orientatn, has been left behd-and when s graduat have found themselv more hospable settgs-that the gay men and women of the Law School have been able to e to their own.

As gay men and women ma their prence known at law firms, and rose to those firms’ hight ranks, they beme volved and even rponsible for hirg – and sent the msage that was okay to be openly gay the recg procs.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

As Harvard’s gay alumni/ae began producg scholarship the field of sexual orientatn and the law, they created and built an amilly rpectable niche which many stunts now work. Fally, Harvard’s gay and lbian alumni/ae have affected the School self more tangible ways – by servg as members of s Alumni Associatn, s Visg Commtee, and even of the Universy’s Board of Overseers. And to the extent that Harvard’s gay men and women have experienced discrimatn, hostily or, at a mimum, difference to their plight, one hop that their volvement the school’s future will help make a safer, warmer, better place for all.

And so this ll for the civil regnn and protectn of gay civil unns, 's really an affirmatn of the humany of gay and lbian persons - that he's sayg that bee gay and lbian persons are human begs, that society, that the state, that ernments have an obligatn and a duty to protect their basic human Do extendg the right to a civil unn and acknowledgg that LGBTQ people should be allowed to have a partner their life through a civil unn and a fay - do that mean children? Now, may seem to be a semantic difference, but I thk what the pope is sayg is that he is not opposed to the legal regnn of fay life and the right for gay and lbian persons to raise and have As a gay Catholic yourself, I mean, as a man of fah, as a Catholic, is somehow ls signifint, I would image, a civil unn than beg able to be married the church? I personally - and I know many others, gay and lbian persons and those who are alli and who love - would want the church to be able to one day regnize the lovg mments of LGBTQ persons the sacrament of marriage.

And what the pope is dog wh this kd of claratn - he's clearly puttg the Catholic Church on the si of agast the crimalizatn of behavr and favor of protectg the human digny of gay and lbian But help me unrstand this bee 's my unrstandg that the Catholic Church still nsirs homosexualy to be a s, not somethg that should be enuraged a liftyle. And I thk that this really giv a different lens for that kd of nversatn that go on the Catholic Church that we're basilly sayg that, no, gay and lbian persons n, you know, have a right to a fay. Lawrence’s tone turns stern when he criciz the print’s support of the Feral Fay Protectn Act and reticence on California’s Proposn 8, but livens aga when he thks about the future of gay rights.

JAGUARS’ KEV MAXEN IS FIRST MALE ACH TO E OUT AS GAY US MEN’S PRO SPORTS

" She's the first openly gay host of a primetime news program the 's a new type of host, fog nontatnal attack-style terviews for ep-dive monologu on whatever news em she thks is worth 's her life so Bs Insir's homepage for more stori.

She's also the first openly gay is known for beg extremely telligent — she earned a Rhos Scholarship to Oxford, and 's obv her lengthy, well-rearched monologu that she opens her show wh every day.

She said she wrote the letter so that anyone who was homophobic would have a chance to be open about how they felt, and she uld face any hostily head universy's newspaper, The Stanford Daily, published a story about and scribed her as was one of two openly gay hmen. "As Jill McDonough, a llege iend of Maddow's, told Rollg Stone: "No one at Stanford was sayg they were gay — there were no other out lbians — and she saw that was a lie.