Some US Christian schools believe relig eedom means they n fire gay teachers | LGBTQ+ rights | The Guardian

Contents:

• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• WHEN REAGAN SAID GAY
• GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
• JTIC AFFIRM RULG UPHOLDG GAY TEACHERS’ RIGHTS
• PARENTS OF KIDS TGHT BY FIRED GAY TEACHER APPLD SUPREME COURT LG
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• A TEXAS TEACHER FAC LOSG HER JOB AFTER FIGHTG FOR GAY PRI SYMBOLS SCHOOL
• GAY TEACHERS
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS
• RSIAN URT REJECTS PLAT OM GAY TEACHER FIRED FOR ‘IMMORAL’ BEHAVUR

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

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. 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 . Those that did, though, varly say they’re troducg them to guard parents’ rights or prevent doctratn by teachers, though they were often unclear about what specific impact they expect the laws to John Kavanagh, Arizona, was one of the few lawmakers who agreed to speak on the rerd about the bill he sponsored, which would require parents to give approval for their children to jo gay-straight allianc at schools or other such clubs.

“Some of this is polil grandstandg and vote-panrg, but there’s also an thentic anxiety around parents and nonparents alike that Ameri’s children are beg Pied-Pipered by the vague and distant threats, they’re vadg the muny through the schools, ” said Adam Laats, a profsor of tn and history at the State Universy of New York, ia that gay teachers are recg stunts who need to be protected is a particularly vic theme that rells the latter half of the 20th century, Laats said, which at that time rulted thefirg of sr of teachers—a procs ually spearhead by state lawmakers, but was also supported by teachers’ unns, ci, and others. What mak the surge of legislative tert particularly plited is that stat have historilly not provid much guidance on how their schools should addrs LGBTQ the 1980s and 1990s, durg the height of the HIV epimic, a number of stat passed laws proscribg mentn of homosexualy; many, but not all, have sce been rolled back.

As Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn law — or what crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law — go to effect Friday, some of the state’s public school districts have begun rollg out new polici to lim LGBTQ issu and inti om beg discsed the Tuday night, the Leon County School Board unanimoly approved s “LGBTQ Inclive School Gui, ” which clus a provisn to alert parents if a stunt who is “open about their genr inty” is their child’s physil tn class or wh them on an overnight school trip. They have also ntend that will not prohib teachers and stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 attack at the Pulse gay nightclub crics and legal experts have said the broad language of the law uld open school districts and teachers to lawsus om parents who believe any nversatn about LGBTQ people or issu is “not age appropriate.

WHEN REAGAN SAID GAY

Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Imag fileFive other stat — all of them the South — have enacted laws that lim stctn or discsns about LGBTQ people or issu school, and at least 32 others have proposed such measur this year, acrdg to acrdg to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ thk tank that has been trackg the strsed that the polici will have nsequenc for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer stunts, potg to the disproportnately high rat of suici attempts among the untry’s LGBTQ youths.

GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE

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.Whout legal protectn, the cisn to be hont about sexual orientatn n change an LGBT teacher’s entire reer trajectory. "There is always the fear that if you were to share this, uld lor how staff and admistratn view your performance, skew their evaluatns of you, or otherwise fluence whether you stay hired or not," said Jasm Torr, who directs learship velopment efforts for Teach for Ameri the Chigo area and overse the office's LGBT iativ.Unsurprisgly, teachers workg more nservative muni feel particularly anx about exposg their sexual orientatn."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.

"I wish that I uld really open up to them and talk about my specific experienc … but if I tell them, they may tell their parents, and their parents may no longer want me to teach their child."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 children.That 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. I want to turn that to a normal nversatn."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 discsns.Torr, 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."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.

JTIC AFFIRM RULG UPHOLDG GAY TEACHERS’ RIGHTS

Through that experience, Bunger realized even more clearly the need for stunts to have LGBT teachers as posive role mols the classroom."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."Lazar believ that hidg sexualy n also hr the amic discsns his classroom: "As a lerature teacher, sexualy is a really powerful symbol. Dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by crics, the legislatn would mandate that “classroom stctn by school personnel or third parti on sexual orientatn or genr inty may not occur krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.

Gay stunts and the children of same-sex upl, for stance, would likely be hibed om talkg about their liv, and teachers uld face the wrath of angry parents simply for discsg historil events volvg gay people, such as the adly 2016 attack on a gay nightclub bill’s proponents sist that the measure has nothg to do wh harmg the digny of gay dividuals but rather is aimed at ensurg age-appropriate sexual tn. Ten years later, the Rsian Duma unanimoly passed legislatn “for the purpose of protectg children om rmatn advotg for a nial of tradnal fay valu” prohibg the dissematn of “propaganda” of nontradnal sexual Asenc-Rhe/Tampa Bay Tim, via Associated PrsWhile brandg gay people as child molters has been a staple of right-wg rhetoric around the world, there has long existed a stra of Amerin libertarian nservatism that ems the legal enshrement of such prejudic as an vasn of privacy and a dangero enhancement of state power. The measure was part of a natnal backlash agast the advancement of gay rights that began the prev year wh a mpaign by the Florida Cs Commissn spokwoman and gospel sger Ana Bryant to repeal an ordance Miami’s Da County that prohibed discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn.

A Field poll published September 1978 found 61 percent of California voters supported banng gay teachers, a figure nsistent wh natnal proponents of Proposn 6 lookg at what seemed like an unobstcted path to victory, those opposn wonred what one of the state’s most popular Republins, s former ernor Ronald Reagan, thought about the measure.

PARENTS OF KIDS TGHT BY FIRED GAY TEACHER APPLD SUPREME COURT LG

” He ma a more substantive se his syndited lumn published a week before the electn, refutg the claim that gays had a greater propensy to be child molters and the nard that they joed the teachg profsn to rec imprsnable Electn Day, voters rejected Proposn 6, 58 percent to 42 percent, a nearly exact reversal of what the polls dited jt two months earlier.

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

But moral panics, by fn, eventually lose their steam, and Republins of nscience should not let the passns of the moment overwhelm their stated mments to dividual rights, personal privacy and limed Kirchick is the thor of the forthg book “Secret Cy: The Hidn History of Gay Washgton. Moreover, the Oklahoma law--which vered statements by teachers outsi the classroom as well as school--was seen as so sweepg and broad that the urt’s actn may dite relatively ltle about how the jtic might al wh other, more sharply foced qutns volvg least one other potentially signifint gay rights se remas on the current urt docket: Texas A&M; Universy’s appeal of a feral appellate lg that the school may not ny official regnn to a gay stunt group.

”The Oklahoma law allowed the dismissal of teachers who make public statements “advotg, enuragg or promotg” homosexual activy a way that creat a “substantial risk” that they will e to the attentn of school children or school statute was enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature 1978--the same year that voters California turned down Proposn 6, an iative sponsored by state Sen. 10th Circu Court of Appeals Denver stck down a 2-1 cisn last appellate panel said that, although was permissible to fire teachers for “public homosexual activy, ” the law prohibg mere advocy was so broad that might be ed to prevent a teacher om gog before the Legislature to urge a change laws erng homosexual nduct. Lonny Guenther was home wh his dghter, Joann, last week when the news me on the TV that the Supreme Court led that LGBTQ people n't be fired based on their sexual, who is 27 and has severe disabili, immediately l up — bee she regnized one of the fac on TV as her former teacher, Brett, the 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year, was fired 2015 om Multnomah Edutn Service District Portland after accg the school district of harassg him bee he is gay.

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

She only wish had happened sooner, so that Bigham would never have lost his job the first ’s story was part of an amic brief the Supreme Court reviewed before ma s a recent Twter thread that has sce gone viral, Bigham outled the events that led to his firg 2015, wrg that his supervisor once told him that if he said he was gay public he would be “shot the head. Throughout much of the 20th century, LGBTQ teachers most plac across the untry would have been fired if they were found out, said Karen Grav, a profsor and the chair of tnal studi at Denison Universy Granville, Florida, the state legislature tablished an vtigatn mtee that tried, om 1957 to 1965, to weed out gay and lbian teachers and profsors om public schools and universi. Pl, Mn., voters rejected ordanc that would have protected gay and lbian workers om discrimatn, wh teachers at the foreont of the Oklahoma, a state law enacted 1978 thorized schools to fire teachers who engaged “public homosexual activy, ” as well as teachers who advoted for LGBTQ rights.

GAY TEACHERS

In 2018, when she was a teachg fellow at Harvard Universy, she intified herself as a lbian for the first time a, one gay stunt told her, “When you’re tryg to terme how out to be yourself or if this is gog to be a hopeful thg for you, you look to the adults you teract wh the most when you’re a kid, and that’s teachers, ” Peepl reunted. WASHINGTON – A feral appeals urt has led that a Catholic high school Indianapolis was ee to fire a gay guidance unselor bee she performed at least some relig duti, the latt legal setback for LGBTQ+ rights when they nflict wh Fzgerald had worked for 14 years as a guidance unselor at Ronlli High School when school officials disvered she was married to another woman. The partment ced s cisn the Supreme Court’s lg jt a year ago that feral civil rights law protects transgenr, gay and lbian workers – a lg the Bin admistratn has been g durg s early months to extend anti-discrimatn protectns to LGBTQ Amerins a number of different areas of life.

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. 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. Republins stat across Ameri are targetg LGBTQ rights through a wave of “tnal gag orrs”, a ee speech group has warned, as nservativ battle to censor discsn of race and sexual inti than 100 bills censorg teachers have been troduced state legislatur this year, acrdg to a report by PEN Ameri – a non-prof which works to protect eedom of exprsn the US – what the anizatn says is a “natnal asslt on our tn system” warng as nservativ have lnched efforts to ban books pertag to race and LGBTQ+ issu om classrooms var stat, while some legislatur are phg to troduce laws which would ban teachers om discsg homosexualy.

Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, which would ban discsn of sexualy and genr inty schools, has already been wily cricized, wh Pete Buttigieg, the US transportatn secretary, among those who have nmned the bill as legislatn was passed by the statenate’s tn mtee on Febary 8, and has been endorsed by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s ernor.

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

A bill troduced the Kansas hoe on Febary 9 would change the state’s obsceny law, PEN Ameri reported, makg a class B mismeanor for a teacher to e any material which picts “homosexualy” a Arizona, Republins have troduced a bill which would require parental nsent for a stunt to jo a school club “volvg sexualy, genr or genr inty”.

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.

SOME US CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS BELIEVE RELIG EEDOM MEANS THEY N FIRE GAY TEACHERS

“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. Instead, he was terrogated wh a seri of vague, leadg qutns that attempted to get him to adm he was had been out for years – and knew his ntract never stated he uldn’t be gay and teach at Valor – but shame-filled memori of his closeted years as a young man rose up that moment, as his job slipped away.

RSIAN URT REJECTS PLAT OM GAY TEACHER FIRED FOR ‘IMMORAL’ BEHAVUR

Outrage on the part of stunts, parents, alumni and alli over Tonga losg his job for beg gay is part of a s-long battle between anti-discrimatn laws and the right of private Christian schools (of which there are approximately 34, 500 the US alone) to relig sce the 1964 Civil Rights Act threatened the tax-exempt stat of Christian schools who refed to racially tegrate, relig schools the US have tangled wh social jtice activists seekg equal protectns for mory stunts and employe. ”Block and the ACLU have found some succs ligatg the month, a feral judge led that the firg of the North Carola teacher Lonnie Billard om a Catholic school for beg gay was a vlatn of the Civil Rights Act, shuttg down the school’s attempt to argue that they had a relig exemptn om the law.

Campaigns to overturn gay rights legislatn like “Save Our Children” Florida (led by evangelil superstar Ana Bryant), or California’s Prop 6, which sought to ban gay men and lbians om teachg public schools, both equated homosexualy wh pedophilia and acced gay teachers of beg sexually motivated their reer the villas were new, the tactic of gng up basels fears had been the rnerstone of whe flight to Christian schools a Jon Universy’s lack of black stunts was rooted s ban on terracial datg. When the universy eventually tegrated 1971, allowed only married black stunts to attend, and 1975 allowed sgle black stunts but nied “admissn to applints engaged an terracial marriage or known to advote terracial marriage or datg” openly opposg racial tegratn eventually beme an effective tool for galvanizg evangelil voters – replaced by racist dog-whistl – gays tegratg themselv to the Amerin fay remaed a potent touchstone for the Christian right. “And so they flood the natn wh anti–gay marriage ballot measur, and that not only helped get Gee W Bh elected to a send term, but the ballot measur sometim performed better than he did … They were agast gay people prciple, but they also thought gay teachers were a bigger threat to kids than anythg.