Whilst protected by equaly laws, lbian gay and bisexual (LGB) teachers have varyg experienc wh Uned Kgdom schools. Schools are predomantly heteronormative, moreover LGB has been posned as nflict wh disurs of childhood nocence. However, recently there is more expectatn of cln of diverse genr and sexuali. Although how this is enacted is nsistent wh and between schools. By drawg on terview data nducted 2020, this rearch analys the experienc of LGB teachers. Moreover, brgs together two bodi of lerature that do not often speak to each other—rearch that explor teacher inty and rearch that centers LGB teacher inty. Fdgs suggt there are monali between the bodi of rearch, for stance around the importance of ‘beg yourself’ and of teachers’ past experienc. However, there is special signifince for LGB teachers whose inti have historilly been nied schools, bee of their sexual inty. In addn, there is the expectatn unr neoliberalism of dividuals actng cln. As such, the LGB teacher may bee a pedagogil rource. None of this is equally available, although marketized notns of diversy place rponsibily onto the dividual. In their actns, the LGB teacher inty is always profsnal, personal and polil.
Contents:
- THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
- BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
- BEG AN OPENLY GAY TEACHER
- GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
- COMG OUT CLASS: WHEN TEACHERS TELL STUNTS "I'M GAY"
THE PLIGHT OF BEG A GAY TEACHER
* being a gay teacher *
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. 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.
"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.
BEG GAY AT SCHOOL REMAS DIFFICULT FOR TEACHERS
What are the reali of beg an openly gay teacher? New guil published by the Natnal Associatn of Head Teachers outle the support LGB+ and transgenr teachers should expect om their schools. * being a gay teacher *
"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. "The more [homosexualy] n f to the schema that people already have about fai, the easier is for others to unrstand...
BEG AN OPENLY GAY TEACHER
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.
GAY TEACHERS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO HI WHO THEY ARE
"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. 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. "Sce Bunger began g out to his stunts, bullyg and homophobic remarks his classroom have stopped.
COMG OUT CLASS: WHEN TEACHERS TELL STUNTS "I'M GAY"
Durg Kristal Torr’s sophomore year of high school, she transferred om an all-girls Catholic school to a ed public high school.
“I grew up an upper middle class, relig area Oh where didn't really feel like gay people existed.
I had iends theater who were gay, but I didn't see any exampl of what life would be like as a gay adult. It wasn't until I was llege and had profsors who were gay that I really had any picture of what was like to be a gay adult a regular relatnship wh a fay.