Read the whole essay:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/155219/against-bullying-or-loving-queer-kids...
At least the right is relatively honest in its brutality. Oregon has no ban on gay teachers, but that didn't stop the Beaverton school district, which is located just outside lefty Portland and has an anti-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, from removing Seth Stambaugh from his fourth grade classroom. A 23-year-old teaching intern, Stambaugh responded to a student's question about why he wasn't married by saying that gay marriage is illegal in Oregon. A spokeswoman for the school board claimed that the action wasn't discriminatory, but rather based on concerns about Stambaugh's "professional judgment and age appropriateness."
And there you have a pithy example of the limits of liberal tolerance; even in communities that would denounce the DeMints of the world, a palpable phobia remains when it comes to the children. Gay teachers should teach, until they teach about the plain realities of being gay. (It's this vacuum of education that's inspired Dan Savage's direct-to-teen Youtube campaign ItGetsBetter.Org). Let's just have the kids figure it out themselves and come out when they're all grown up, rather than ask pesky questions we'd rather not try to answer: What does the "closet" mean for a kid who announces she's gay when she's 11, or 5, or wants to marry someone like Mommy and not Daddy? What to make of the fact that your little boy begs to dress exclusively like Taylor Swift? Is he gay or trans or just going through a phase—and oh God, isn't not knowing the worst of it?
Even for liberals who like to think of themselves as pro-gay, this is uncharted territory, little discussed except perhaps in the deepest corners of Parkest Slope. So when faced with something so painful and complicated as gay teen suicide, it's easier to go down the familiar path, to invoke the wrath of law and order, to create scapegoats out of child bullies who ape the denials and anxieties of adults, to blame it on technology or to pare down homophobia into a social menace called "anti-gay bullying" and then confine it to the borders of the schoolyard.
It's tougher, more uncertain work creating a world that loves queer kids, that wants them to live and thrive. But try—try as if someone's life depended on it. Imagine saying I really wish my son turns out to be gay. Imagine hoping that your 2-year-old daughter grows up to be transgendered. Imagine not assuming the gender of your child's future prom date or spouse; imagine keeping that space blank or occupied by boys and girls of all types. Imagine petitioning your local board of education to hire more gay elementary school teachers.
Now imagine a world in which Tyler Clementi climbed up a ledge on the George Washington Bridge—and chose to climb back down instead. It's harder to do than you might think.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
