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

Contents:

• THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
• GAY TEACHERS
• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL
• BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
• ‘I’M AAID TO RETURN TO THE CLASSROOM': A GAY TEACHER OF THE YEAR SPEAKS OUT

THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER

As a gay teacher who hadn’t e out to his stunts or staff, he felt hamstng. 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.

GAY TEACHERS

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. 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.

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

"In the years before I had tenure, there was no way I was gog to let someone’s else’s homophobia jeopardize my reer, " Bunger said. "Even teachers stat wh legal protectn worry that homophobic school lears n still fd a way to fire them regardls. "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.

"Paranoia surroundg LGBT teachers part trac back to unfound theori lkg homosexualy and pedophilia. 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.

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

"The more [homosexualy] n f to the schema that people already have about fai, the easier is for others to unrstand... Beg gay and sgle and not relatg to people’s notns of fay is harr and somehow not as easy to tst.

"But even people wh generally tolerant views toward homosexualy sometim qutn the necsy of g out, particularly a school settg.

"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. Bunger also me out after earng tenure, spired by a fellow gay teacher who never had any qualms about discsg his sexual orientatn wh his stunts. "If a kid ever ed homophobic slurs, he’d open up the discsn.

AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS

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.

GAY TEACHER 'HAD SEX HIS CLASSROOM DURG SCHOOL HOURS'

"Sce Bunger began g out to his stunts, bullyg and homophobic remarks his classroom have stopped.

The 21st-century has seen some major chang the way gay and lbian people's rights are treated. Ined, Amanda Machado wr The Plight of Beg a Gay Teacher The Atlantic that gay teachers were equently fired when state tn partments purged their rolls of LGBT teachers.

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

As the Supreme Court noted s cisn which ma same-sex marriage legal, "Well to the 20th century, many Stat nmned same-sex timacy as immoral, and homosexualy was treated as an illns. " The Supreme Court cisn of June 26, 2015, legalizg same-sex marriag has had a major impact on how gay and lbian cizens are treated legally.

ARTHUR’S GAY TEACHER AND OTHER STORI SCHOOLS WON’T TELL

That is certaly the se wh the perceptn of gay and lbian this vio, David Wton, CEO of the Teacher Development Tst and former science and maths teacher, talks about g out as an LGBT and lbian teachersWe have always had gay and lbian teachers.

Now, you won't fd gay teachers relig schools where homosexualy is anthetil to that relign's teachgs and beliefs. However, you will fd gay teachers and gay upl on staff at many pennt private schools.

BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS

It is a most revealg acunt of what one gay private school teacher's experience has been.

To be sure, beg gay generat ntroversy and divisn muni. Look at the ser schism the Anglin Church due to an openly gay bishop's ordatn. Nohels, tak urage for a board of tste to employ openly gay staff.

This vio offers an overview of stunts learng om gay teachers. 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.

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

"Many crics labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill.