via slapupsidethehead.com
Welcome to Also.Also.Also, where we catch you up on all the stories we didn’t devote entire posts to. There’s a lot of them!
+ The Buffalo News has a great, in-depth piece about what it’s like to be a gay teacher. Many gay and lesbian teachers say that school isn’t just an unpleasant place for gay kids, but also for gay adults. They cite instances of insensitive or discriminatory comments from colleagues, and one Niagra Falls teacher told the paper: “I can’t think of another job where being gay would be so taboo — just because you’re around children, and people think the worst.” They also spoke to teachers who felt it was important to be out at school in order to provide the kids with someone to look up to. You should read it!
+ Inspired by, I think, his crush on Zachary Quinto, ABC World News Now anchor Dan Kloeffler came out nonchalantly on air.
+ In New Jersey, a high school teacher named Viki Knox posted some crazy-ass-shit about gay people on her facebook page and is now in trouble. She wrote on her page that “homosexuality is a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation” and complained about a school display recognizing GLBT History Month. Today, the Human Rights Campaign will present a petition to the school board signed by thousands of its members, calling on them to take action against Knox.
+ A business professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania is under fire for bullying her students about their sexual orientation. She said being gay is “disgusting, unnatural, and abnormal.”
+ In San Diego, three Marine corporals have been discharged for bad conduct after admitting that they entered into fake marriages in order to obtain housing allowances (we covered this story when it broke, but a conclusion hadn’t been made yet as to the Marines’ fate). Lesbian Cpl. Ashley Vice and her girlfriend, a civilian named Jaime Murphy, pretended to be married to two male marines. They pleaded guilty to stealing from the government through fraud.
+ The University of Iowa may or may not start a gay fraternity.
+ I give you: The Ira Glass sex tape.
+ Most colleges aren’t ready to ask applicants about sexual orientation because it’s controversial.
+ How in the world will they teach children about gay history?!?!
+ In Texas, a student is claiming he was kicked off the cheerleading squad after being caught kissing a boy on school survellience cameras. The school insists his sexuality had nothing to do with it. His parents are really upset.
via dontchangeyourself.com
+ “We Are Become Pals!” ended! Sadness! It was good. You should read it, if you missed it.
+ A school board rejected a grant of nearly $55,000 from the Boy Scouts of America because because “the organization discriminates against gay youth.” BAM.
+ Julia Nunes sang a song about pizza with which you will probably strongly identify. Also, “Run Around Sue.”
+In North Carolina, a lesbian couple was arrested for refusing to leave the County Register of Deeds office after being denied a marriage license twice. The pair had been together for 30 years and were acting as part of the Coalition for Southern Equality’s “We Do” Campaign.
+ Also in North Carolina, vandals fucked up NCSUS’s Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Center’s glass-encased billboard. No arrests have been made.
+ Meanwhile in Chicago, some of our very own people decided to be bad gays and vandalize the Arlington Heights Christian School (they threw two blocks of concrete through their windows) in anticipation of an Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality banquet which would feature a speech from anti-gay activist Scott Lively, author of “The Pink Swastika.” AFTAH head Peter LaBarbera is calling the crime “domestic terrorism” and says if it had been against a pro-gay group, it’d be considered a hate crime and therefore he would like it to be considered a hate crime.
+Amy Poehler says that television isn’t a lesser version of film, at least in terms of its portrayal of women. In an interview with the New Yorker, she said, “I think films are kind of catching up in a way to where television has been for a long time. Television is still, in my opinion, the best place for female characters.”
+ Slutwalk and women with disabilities: “My problem is that the word ‘slut’ has never felt like mine to reclaim. While women all over the world are waiting for people to stop seeing them as sex objects, women with disabilities are still waiting to be seen at all.”
+ Musical theatre gangster rap. That is all.
+ Why do millennials seem to care more about gay rights than reproductive rights?
+ Remember when we talked about Broad!, a literary zine the publishes exclusively female-bodied or female-identified writers and artists? They have a Kickstarter!
+A stellar review of the made-for-girls game, Lady Popular: “While too many games are pretending that ladies enjoy the same things as men, like shooting, building cities or exploring alien worlds, Lady Popular properly recognizes what it is that makes a true, strong, independent lady: shopping, hairstyles, and having a boyfriend.” Also, you can have a boyfriend named “Car Washer.” Mhmm.
Theory! Could the vandalism of the Christian school have been by queer kids attending it? Back when I attended such a place, I know I had some wacky vengeance fantasies but was always too cowardly to do anything except write angry journal entries.
I have thought about becoming a teacher a lot but a big thing that holds me back is the feeling that I won’t be able to be out at work. Being in the closet anywhere is just not an option in my mind, I’d never want my daughter to get the impression that there is anything wrong or shameful about her family.
Re: being a gay teacher
I was working as a teacher recently, and good god, the homophobia from the students was horrible! I was teaching at a private, conservative, religious school, so being out was out of the question… It was miserable!
That article is right on when it says that school can be an unwelcoming place for gay adults. I was lucky enough to go to a pretty progressive high school, so being queer wasn’t a big deal; then all of a sudden I was thrown BACK in to school, only this time filled with hostile, bullying kids and unfunny, homophobic “jokes.” I never figured out how to handle it. It was one of many, many things I hated about that job.
On a more positive note, at my wonderful high school we had an openly gay teacher as sponsor of our GSA. Like I said, it was a pretty progressive place, and as far as I know no one ever gave him a hard time; but I’d like to go back and thank him, anyway, for being out to us–and to talk to him about what it was/is like to be out as a teacher.
I’m a middle school teacher and about all I can do to be ‘out’ at work is make sure kids don’t use gay as a negative adjective, support girls who want to try out for wrestling, and tell other teachers that they shouldn’t ‘worry’ about girls who might be gay.
Whatever, subversively teaching feminist theory through challenging traditional gender roles is super fun anyway so.
Guhhh I was the most privileged queer teenager ever. We had a queer/trans group headed by a queer lady teacher and a queer/trans social justice activism group led by a teacher who was also a Sister of Perpetual Indulgence.
I hate that a safe, non-oppressive learning space is a privilege.
I just completed my student teaching in a very liberal northern city. It was the most gratifying experience I have ever had. Little background on me I grew up in the south and was never out till after graduation. I may for 5 seconds appear straight but after that you figure it out pretty quickly. I was around my students for a year but never really told them they just figured it out. My mentor always knew and even knew when he selected me. The experiences with these kids were amazing. I had students writing me letters because they knew they could vent to me and I would understand and unless it was a serious matter they had my confidence. I had one experience where a few of my students basically confronted me and was like we know your gay and we love you anyway. It was a very surreal experience to be reaffirmed by young teenagers. After all that I say you may be the one person who saves a kid from doing something horrible to themselves just by being who you are.
I’ve been struggling with the question of how/if I should come out to my middle school students. The article about gay teachers might just be a tipping point for me.
Re: the college application question. That’s my college, thanks for featuring this piece that explores both sides of the controversy over “the question”. Elmhurst’s been hearing a lot of opinions about it, and I really appreciated this perspective (plus, having two of my good friends pictured at the top of a link from AutoStraddle is kind of hugely kick-ass.)
I know this article is about the States and all but I just thought id add that here in Ireland, pretty much all the schools are still run by the Catholic church and as a result of that they can legally fire gay teachers in order to “maintain the ethos” of the school….but, despite this ridiculousness, more and more teachers are starting to come out, slowly but surely, and ive heard of a few stories where parents actually put their child in a school with an out gay teacher because they thought their child was possibly gay and needed a role model and what have you. That being said most gay teachers are still afraid to come out for fear they’ll be fired, but it’s nice to know that change, however small, is definitely happening! :)
I had a gay teacher in secondary school who very quickly realised I was being bullied for being gay. On more than one occasion she defended me from the school kids when they were calling me various homo-related names and made a point of mentoring me over the years.
It was nice to have that sort of protection from a teacher – and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to be so clearly gay in the early 90’s in a Catholic convent school. For me, it was good to know that other queers existed!
*In an Irish Convent school
Thankfully theyre handing over a percentage of the Catholic schools and turning them into multi/non-denominational though, I have hope for my future career! :)
I was doing a week of work experience in an Educate Together school recently and the teacher I was following was out and had photos of herself and her partner at her desk, it was so lovely.
Holy shit, I love Julia Nunes so much I cannot adequately express it in words. I’m going to put my Julie Nunes baseball shirt on and listen to my Julia Nunes CD’s and watch Julia Nunes youtube videos all night now. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
My highschool has mostly always been very accepting towards gays as far as I see. We have two openly gay teachers (who are having a baby soon!!!) and our old principal was also gay. It is realy nice to have them as role models :)
I want to become a kindergarten teacher and you can be sure that I will discourage discrimination of any sort and teach my classes to be as accepting as possible. After all, kids learn best when they’re young.
“Meanwhile in Chicago, some of our very own people decided to be bad gays and vandalize the Arlington Heights Christian School in anticipation of an Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality banquet which would feature a speech from anti-gay activist Scott Lively, author of “The Pink Swastika.” AFTAH head Peter LaBarbera is calling the crime “domestic terrorism” and says if it had been against a pro-gay group, it’d be considered a hate crime and therefore he would like it to be considered a hate crime.”
Why are they bad gays? How can anyone have respect for a school that presents of a message of such blatant hatred? Any school that promotes emotional and/or physical violence against gays (and that is exactly what it is) is no different than a place that holds a KKK rally. Considering the number of gay teens we have lost to suicide or hate crimes, how can gays vandalizing a hate school be considered bad?
nobody should respect that school, it’s hateful terrible bigots. but why throw rocks through their window? i feel like the message now gets drowned out by the rocks. We’re better than that, I thought. Now they feel like they have real ammunition against us, something to point to — literally people do take singular examples to court in things like the prop 8 trial. they dont even care that they only have ONE example of gays committing crimes against anti-gays. that’s enough for them to use it in court, and waste everybody’s time. they won’t change their ways out of fear for cement blocks, they will for fear of public shaming or government action, neither of which are enabled by cement blocks through windows.
I dunno, maybe I’m totally weird b/c I was raised by two hippies (one quaker, one jewish)
That This American Life parody was SPOT. ON.