How far should teachers go to protect gay students? That's a question being lobbed around a California's Hart school district. While the discrict's diversity coordinator Greg Lee insists teachers take the obligatory training sessions – which include seminars on "eliminating bias" – local PFLAG president Dave McEachern wants to see even more tutelage:
People will comment, 'oh, that's gay,' and my biggest problem is that no one is training the teachers to not allow students to use the words 'gay' or 'queer' in a derogatory manner. When someone says 'that's so gay,' it's just considered an expression.
…
People get a big laugh when they say something about gays and lesbians, but they don't realize that there are gay and lesbian students who have not come out who are probably listening.
McEachern's now pushing Lee and his peers to expand their queer coverage by inviting an actual homo to discuss matters with students. Radical!
On a related note, The Signal article references 15-year old Lawrence King, who they call transgender. King was, of course, gay, not transgender. Although, he's neither now, because a fellow student shot and killed him in class.
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The important thing is its not enough to teach tolerence, they have to teach acceptence. If I stand around a water cooler making jokes….that isn't enough. I have to refrain from making those comments….
That is what is missing from their training.
Dude, that's so hetero.
I am glad that the fight to eliminate derogatory use of "gay" in schools is on the rise. Coming out is hard enough – having to associate yourself with a word that has come to mean for most high school students (and beyond) "all things bad" only makes things worse.
Schools should encourage more tolerance and less bullying. I particularly enjoyed the "Gay? Fine By Me!" t-shirt rage that was circulating around college campuses not so long ago. Nice to see that acceptance can be a fashion trend.
Seriously… dude… when even you don't know that someone can be trans AND gay? We have some education to do.
If Lawrence King would have been discriminated against in employment or housing, it most likely wouldn't have been for his sexual orientation. He wasn't a transsexual, but he was definitely gender variant.
It's tough a tough job, but schools need to work hard to teaching kids about diversity and to combat bullying in general.