Teacher: I Was Fired for Beg Gay. Now It Can't Happen to Anyone Else (Opn)

Contents:

• GAY SUBSTUTE TEACHER SAYS HE WAS FIRED AFTER HANDG OUT PRI BRACELETS TO STUNTS
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• FLORIDA TEACHER UNR VTIGATN FOR SHOWG DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER SAYS SHE DIDN’T KNOW LGBTQ RTRICTN APPLIED TO HER CLASS
• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• GLENDALE THIRD-GRA TEACHER SHOWED GAY PRI VIOS. A YEAR LATER, FUR BATE EPTS
• ‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• Y, YOUR TEACHER IS GAYNAVIGATG QUEER INTY THE CLASSROOMAMBER STEWART·FOLLOWPUBLISHED THK QUEERLY·6 M READ·JUL 15, 2019--SHAREPHOTO BY KELLI TUNGAY ON UNSPLASHOPENG THE CLOSET DOOR N BE MORE THAN JT A METAPHOR.EVERY MORNG, AS I BEG THE PROCS OF CIDG WHAT TO WEAR FOR THE DAY TO MY JOB AT A MUNY LLEGE, I AM TENSELY AWARE THAT, THE STATE OF TENNSEE, I N STILL BE FIRED FOR BEG QUEER. AND FACT, I’VE ALREADY LOST ONE JOB AT A NON-PROF FOR BEG A “DIFFICULT EMPLOYEE,” OR, OTHER WORDS, ADVOTG ON BEHALF OF LGBTQ STUNTS. AND I DON’T REGRET MY CISNS FOR ONE MUTE. WHEN PH TO SHOVE, I’LL ALWAYS TRY TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE HAS EQUAL ACCS THE CLASSROOM.BUT AS A QUEER TOR, JT SIMPLY GETTG DRSED N BE A POLIL ACT. I INTIFY AS A QUEER FEMME, WHICH MEANS THAT, MOST OF THE TIME, I HAVE THE ABILY TO PASS AS STRAIGHT. I KNOW THAT THIS IS A PRIVILEGE AND SOMETIM GETS ME ROOMS WHERE I MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE BE ALLOWED A SEAT. AND SOMETIM, I AM ASHAMED TO SAY, I HAVE TRIED TO E THIS TO MY ADVANTAGE. WHEN I MOVED BACK TO TENNSEE, I LET MY HAIR GROW BACK OUT AND STARTED ACTIVELY WEARG MORE DRS. IT’S EASIER TO GET PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO YOU WHEN YOU PLAY THE PART OF A NICE, SOUTHERN GIRL. THE ONLY PROBLEM? I FEEL LIKE I’M BEG ASKED TO LEAVE A RE PART OF MY INTY AT THE DOOR.SO WHEN I’M GETTG DRSED THE MORNG, I ASK MYSELF SEVERAL QUTNS:
• TEACHER ATTUS TOWARD LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL STUNTS: EVINCE FOR TERGROUP NTACT THEORY AND SENDARY TRANSFER EFFECTS
• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL
• TEACHER: I WAS FIRED FOR BEG GAY. NOW IT CAN’T HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE

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

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. "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.

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 . 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.

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

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.

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.

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.

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

"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. 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. "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.

A Glendale third-gra teacher who nearly a year ago showed vios celebratg gay pri to her stunts has been voluntarily transferred om her classroom for safety reasons after receivg threats — a lol chapter the natn’s fur bate over what should be tght schools about genr nflict the Glendale Unified School District, a suburban L.

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

” The Glendale nflict is unfoldg as teachg about genr inty public schools has joed other polilly ght, divisive bat, cludg on cril race theory, social emotnal learng and vacce mandat for also echo the natnal ntroversy over a new Florida law, which crics ll the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, sayg margaliz gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr people.

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. For example, a Gallup poll of more than 12, 000 US adults (Jon, 2022), 21% of Generatn Z rponnts (born 1997–2003) self-intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr (LGBT)—a rather high number pared to 11% of Millenials (born 1981–1996) and 4% of Generatn X rponnts (born 1965–1980). The sexual mory stunts benef om the safe spac—where stunts n eely be who they are whout fearg negative nsequenc of any kd—created by their teachers as studi monstrate lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts to be more vulnerable than heterosexual stunts to experience homo- and biphobic discrimatn, stigmatizatn, and victimizatn (Dunn et al., 2017; Gegenfurtner & Gebhardt, 2017; Smh & Reidy, 2021) which, ultimately, rc their amic achievement (Goldfarb & Lieberman, 2021; Kosciw et al., 2020).

GLENDALE THIRD-GRA TEACHER SHOWED GAY PRI VIOS. A YEAR LATER, FUR BATE EPTS

To mimize the negative school experienc for sexual mory children and adolcents, is important to sensize pre-service teachers early their teachg reers and crease their attus toward the vulnerable groups of stunts bee, as rearch fdgs suggt, teachers wh posive attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts are more likely to create safe spac (Goldste-Schultz, 2022), prevent homophobic behavr (Glikman & Elkayam, 2019), rrect peer bullyg (Nappa et al., 2018), act as mentors (Gastic & Johnson, 2009), participate sexual diversy trag (Kwok, 2018), and implement LGBTQ-clive curricula their classrooms (Klocke et al., 2019; Page, 2017) than teachers wh homonegative attus. Followg the attu theory proposed by Eagly and Chaiken (2007), teacher attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual youth n be fed as psychologil tennci that are exprsed by evaluatg lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts school wh some gree of favor or disfavor. Eagly and Chaiken (2007) pos that attus n be short-term or long-term; while past experienc of an dividual wh a particular attu object (for example, wh gay or lbian stunts) n tablish a certa stable tenncy to rpond favorably or unfavorably to other gay or lbian stunts, the rpons are not necsarily temporally permanent—they n change as an dividual mak more experienc (for example, new social ntacts) which leave novel mental ridu that predispose how an dividual (a teacher) rponds to attu objects the future.

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

For this purpose, survey-based rearch employs the feelg thermometer approach (Alw, 2007; Herek & McLemore, 2013), which measur overt affective feelgs toward an attu object (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007): Based on a symbolic thermometer, teachers numerilly exprs their favorable or unfavorable feelgs towards lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts, wh their attus rrpondg to temperatur. Comparg different target groups, Pettigrew and Tropp (2006) reported that the largt effect siz of rced prejudice emerged for sampl volvg ntact between heterosexuals and homosexuals, followed by ntact wh physilly disabled and ethnilly diverse people.

Posive relatns between tergroup ntact and rced sexual prejudice, posive attus, and equent rpons to homophobic bullyg school have also been documented wh teacher sampl om Germany (Klocke et al., 2019), Greece (Grigoropoulos, 2022), and Italy (Bac et al., 2020; Simone et al., 2022; Zotti et al., 2019).

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

To acunt for the different qualy of work ntacts, is specified here as someone one’s larger social work (for example, loose acquatanc at work or a socially distant neighbor), one’s close iendship circle (for example, a very good or a bt iend), or one’s fay (a lbian, gay, or bisexual siblg). In ntrast to tergroup ntact theory, to date, sendary transfer effects have hardly been examed empirilly; the transfer effects of pre-service teachers’ tergroup ntact on their attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts rema unexplored. 3 Correlat of teacher attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual stuntsIn addn to tergroup ntact, Herek and McLemore’s (2013) nceptual amework of sexual prejudice intifi a number of characteristics that fluence the directn and magnu of prejudice toward sexual mori.

Ground this amework, past rearch on pre-service and -service teachers examed a seri of rrelat, cludg age, genr, sexual orientatn, hometown size, religsy, and polil, terms of age, Herek and McLemore (2013) speculated that sexual prejudice tends to bee “dysfunctnal if muny and peer group norms change such that exprsns of antigay attus evoke social rejectn rather than support” (p. Although seems plsible that (cisgenr heterosexual) men value bi- and homosexual dividuals to affirm their own masculy and heterosexualy (Herek & McLemore, 2013), a number of studi have reported nonsignifint genr differenc attus (Grigoropoulos, 2022; Hall & Rodgers, 2019; Stucky et al., 2020; Wyatt et al., 2008).

Y, YOUR TEACHER IS GAYNAVIGATG QUEER INTY THE CLASSROOMAMBER STEWART·FOLLOWPUBLISHED THK QUEERLY·6 M READ·JUL 15, 2019--SHAREPHOTO BY KELLI TUNGAY ON UNSPLASHOPENG THE CLOSET DOOR N BE MORE THAN JT A METAPHOR.EVERY MORNG, AS I BEG THE PROCS OF CIDG WHAT TO WEAR FOR THE DAY TO MY JOB AT A MUNY LLEGE, I AM TENSELY AWARE THAT, THE STATE OF TENNSEE, I N STILL BE FIRED FOR BEG QUEER. AND FACT, I’VE ALREADY LOST ONE JOB AT A NON-PROF FOR BEG A “DIFFICULT EMPLOYEE,” OR, OTHER WORDS, ADVOTG ON BEHALF OF LGBTQ STUNTS. AND I DON’T REGRET MY CISNS FOR ONE MUTE. WHEN PH TO SHOVE, I’LL ALWAYS TRY TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE HAS EQUAL ACCS THE CLASSROOM.BUT AS A QUEER TOR, JT SIMPLY GETTG DRSED N BE A POLIL ACT. I INTIFY AS A QUEER FEMME, WHICH MEANS THAT, MOST OF THE TIME, I HAVE THE ABILY TO PASS AS STRAIGHT. I KNOW THAT THIS IS A PRIVILEGE AND SOMETIM GETS ME ROOMS WHERE I MIGHT NOT OTHERWISE BE ALLOWED A SEAT. AND SOMETIM, I AM ASHAMED TO SAY, I HAVE TRIED TO E THIS TO MY ADVANTAGE. WHEN I MOVED BACK TO TENNSEE, I LET MY HAIR GROW BACK OUT AND STARTED ACTIVELY WEARG MORE DRS. IT’S EASIER TO GET PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO YOU WHEN YOU PLAY THE PART OF A NICE, SOUTHERN GIRL. THE ONLY PROBLEM? I FEEL LIKE I’M BEG ASKED TO LEAVE A RE PART OF MY INTY AT THE DOOR.SO WHEN I’M GETTG DRSED THE MORNG, I ASK MYSELF SEVERAL QUTNS:

The fdgs rrpond wh ample rearch evince beyond teacher populatns documentg greater levels of sexual prejudice and homonegative attus of heterosexual men pared to heterosexual women, particularly directed toward gay men (Herek, 2002; Klocke, prs; Petersen & Hy 2010). Furthermore, heterosexual pared to LGB people show a greater need to reaffirm their masculy and their nformy to tradnal genr rol, which is associated wh more negative attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual people (Herek, 2002; Herek & McLemore, 2013).

TEACHER ATTUS TOWARD LBIAN, GAY, AND BISEXUAL STUNTS: EVINCE FOR TERGROUP NTACT THEORY AND SENDARY TRANSFER EFFECTS

A number of studi wh teachers workg Korea (Jeong, 2020), Brazil (Stucky et al., 2020), Italy (Bac et al., 2020), and the USA (Hall & Rodgers, 2019; Page, 2017) have reported that highly relig teachers have ls posive attus toward lbian and gay people, prumably bee homosexualy dispts and vlat the value systems and tradnal genr rol of certa relig nomatns. Teachers who are polilly liberal and left-wg oriented have more favorable feelgs toward lbians and gays than teachers who are polilly nservative and right-wg oriented (Bac et al., 2020; Foy & Hodge, 2016; Hall & Rodgers, 2019; Heras-Sevilla & Ortega-Sánchez, 2020; Klocke et al., 2019), probably bee polilly nservative people value heteronormative genr rol and sexual relatns.

Acrdgly, the differenc feelg thermometer sr obtaed om a sample of 406 pre-service teachers were analyzed to vtigate whether tergroup ntact is associated wh a sendary rctn of bi- or homonegative attus toward the nonntacted outgroup. Hypothis 1 assumed that pre-service teachers wh lbian, gay, or bisexual dividuals their social work (Hypothis 1a), particularly as close iends (Hypothis 1b) or fay members (Hypothis 1c), would display more posive attus than pre-service teachers whout social ntact.

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

Hypothis 2 assumed that attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts would be more favorable among pre-service teachers who are of younger ag (Hypothis 2a), are female (Hypothis 2b), intify as bisexual or homosexual (Hypothis 2c), were raised an urban area (Hypothis 2d), are ls relig (Hypothis 2e), and are polilly left-wg oriented (Hypothis 2f).

” was asked; the participants rpond based on a seven-pot sle: 1 = exclively heterosexual, 2 = predomantly heterosexual, 3 = rather heterosexual, 4 = bisexual, 5 = rather homosexual, 6 = predomantly homosexual, and 7 = exclively homosexual. Overall, the 989 pre-service teachers’ ratgs dited that the pre-service teachers have posive attus toward homo- and bisexual children and adolcents at school, which were signifintly more posive than the theoretil mean of 50 (p <.

The feelg thermometer sr were terrelated, suggtg that people wh homonegative attus toward lbian and gay stunts also display begative attus toward bisexual stunts; siarly, people wh posive attus toward lbian stunts tend to display posive feelgs toward gay and bisexual stunts as well.

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

Regrsn analysis: Predictors of lbian, gay, and bisexual thermometer sr Study 1Full size tableIn terms of mographic variabl, age was found to be negatively associated wh attus toward lbian, gay, and bisexual stunts, suggtg that the younger participants tend to have more posive feelgs than olr participants; th, Hypothis 2a was nfirmed. 4 Discsn of study 1In le wh attu theory (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007) and tergroup ntact theory (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006), the fdgs of Study 1 nfirm that social ntact and mographic variabl are important predictors of pre-service teacher attus toward homo- and bisexual children and adolcents at school.