Gay Education

I can picture images of Harriet Tubman in my mind, furtively glancing around for near certain danger, risking her life to help slaves who fled a system that held as a matter of course that people could be property.  Elementary school teachers taught me about the Underground Railroad, where the slaves passed messages through songs, and looked to the night sky for direction; and about The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated by a madman filled with hatred.  There was no rebuttal.  People did not share their views that it was a good thing King was silenced, and unfortunate that it led to black people being treated as though they were equal to whites when they simply did not believe that was true.

By high school, my textbooks talked about Brown vs. the Board of Education, Southern states that maintained separate but equal drinking fountains, and studies showing that a century after slavery was ended, little black girls still chose the white dollies as superior to the black dollies.  I remember pictures of the Little Rock Nine.  A black girl clutching her book, looking determined (but, oh, she must have been terrified), as angry white faces contorted around her.  The message was clear–those white people were wrong, hateful; the frightened teenaged girl the hapless victim of unthinkable bigotry.  There was no rebuttal.  No one pointed out that the white people were just trying to keep things the way they ought to be and should be viewed sympathetically.

I’ve learned a great deal more about this part of our nation’s history since my days in public education, and have much more to learn; but those are the childhood memories that come to me most readily, memories that I imagine many of us brought up in the U.S. education system remember.

Even with all of the prejudiced views in our country, by the time my schooling was under way in the 70’s and 80’s, allowing that another perspective was valid had been relegated to niche groups such as the KKK or neo-nazi sects that were regarded by mainstream society as dangerous fringe lunatics.  Quietly, amongst friends and family, mainstream society did often express outright disdain for African Americans, characterizing the culture in only negative terms, giggling over racist jokes…but the numbers of people who agreed that the jokes weren’t funny anymore were starting to swell.  Society was becoming less segregated, and personal associations were starting to change beliefs.  It’s gotten to where making a racist comment just isn’t safe anymore, because the white recipient just might have an African American mate, child, friend…  People are entitled to their beliefs, and we do still see evidence of blatant and de facto hatred and discrimination today.  What we don’t see is the rebuttal.  

Teachers still educate children about the ongoing history of African Americans, and then as now, we do not allow for opposing points of view.   If the First Amendment protects people whose opinion is that slavery was bad, shouldn’t it also secure the rights of people to speak their beliefs that African Americans are inferior, are subhuman, and that we should go back to the good old days?  In a predominantly Christian nation armed with a bible that indicates that slavery is as old as humanity and is perfectly acceptable, does the majority populace and its religious doctrines hold no weight whatsoever in the public schools?   That is correct.  It does not, and no amount of raging against the irony of free speech applying only to minority groups can change it back.  

Opponents who rally against this way of thinking, quite rightly racing to point out the double standard, have ignored that which they detest about the public schools:  our doctrine is designed to offer a liberal education.  They bandy the word about as though it’s an epithet, something a few renegade teachers have turned the school system into as opposed to its mission.  

We are assigned the job of changing society to be less discriminatory, more open to understanding differences, and to promoting diversity whether we like it or not.  It is no coincidence that the vast majority of teachers in the public school system lean to the left politically: believing what we’re supposed to convey makes for a more pleasant day.  Those who gripe over it have missed the point.  

The First Amendment does allow people to think and say that they do not believe women should have won the right to vote; just not in the public school system, where our directive is to show minorities achieving equality in positive lights.  To do that, we teach children about very sensitive subjects.  Slavery is an emotional topic.  The Holocaust also elicits strong feelings.  History isn’t always pretty,or distant.  We do this because we need knowledge to make connections, and because we value students having an understanding of their place in the universe  in relation to the other people in it.  The intention is to reduce prejudice and bigotry by indoctrinating children as young as we can get them to believing that all people have inherent worth and dignity.  Therefore, we do not permit a rebuttal. Hitler wasn’t an inspirational leader with a legitimate plan to reform his country:  he was a monster.  You can teach your children that a woman’s role is to be a wife and a mother, but we must teach her that she can have every opportunity she seeks, and help to prepare her for them.

So, where’s the gay history?  Where’s the gay culture in our schools?  Kindergarten children know about King; have they ever heard of Milk?  Could your students identify and describe the factors that led to the Stonewall Rebellion?  Are they aware that every species of animal that has been studied has gay subsets just like people do, as a simple matter of better scientific understanding?   Do they have a clear view of the legal scope of the land?  We don’t read Langston Hughes without remarking on his color or the fact that he was part of the Harlem Renaissance, yet we skip over the fact that his being gay may have also influenced his writings.  We hold Whitman up as an exemplar of early American writers, but become very uncomfortable at the prospect of mentioning that he was a gay man.  That part isn’t in our texts.  It’s not in our curriculum.  

Our edict to keep our children safe and provide them with the best conditions to reach their potential cannot be met if our only action is weak attempts to keep ignorant people from beating them to death instead of doing our job of actually dispelling ignorance.

As long as gay culture is whispered about instead of presented as a matter of curriculum in our schools, we can do nothing to achieve equality: the most human and loftiest objective of our nation’s public school system.  When history looks back on us after equality is inevitably reached, at least de jure equality if not de facto, will we be proud of the roles we have played?  What side of history do you want to be on?  

(Translation for pedantic English teachers:  On which side of history do you want to be?)