ED. Magazine

Long Way to Go

By Judah Leblang
3 Comments

One day her students returned to the classroom from gym class, strangely quiet. They explained that one of their classmates had been taunted by the gym teacher for running too slow. The teacher asked the boy if he was gay and said he was acting “like a sissy.” The next day, the children confronted the gym teacher and told him that he treated their classmate unfairly and hurt his feelings. The teacher apologized, and Grant’s students learned a valuable lesson.

After her work in the New York City public schools, Grant worked with homeless LGBT teens in the city. Many had dropped out of school because of the relentless bullying they had experienced, and most had been kicked out by their parents, often because of their sexual orientation. Grant sums up the atmosphere in New York: “Children are only as progressive as their parents and … and a lot of have inherent homophobia, and that transfers to students.”

Today, in our rapidly changing era of same-sex marriage; the (promised) end of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy; and visible gay politicians, actors, and athletes, more gay and lesbian teachers are opening up about their lives, and teachers, both straight and gay, are bringing LGBT people into the mainstream. But many teachers and administrators remain hesitant to address gay, lesbian, and transgender issues, since they are loath to discuss sexuality in any form, afraid of the backlash from conservative parents and community members.

Thinking back to the boy I was 35 years ago, afraid of my own sexuality, with no one to talk to in my suburban Ohio high school, I’m encouraged by the progress that has been made, and chastened by the work that remains to be done. At this point in 2010, we remain far from the ultimate goal of all teachers of goodwill: to create schools that are truly safe and welcoming for everyone, including LGBT students.

– Judah Leblang writes a column for Bay Windows, Boston’s gay newspaper, and recently published his first book, Finding My Place: One Man’s Journey from Cleveland to Boston and Beyond. This is his first piece in Ed. magazine.

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  • Anthony Quaglieri

    Thank you for this thorough, clear piece of writing on this important topic. I live on the west coast of Florida, which is very much considered to be in “The South.” In my work as a mental health counselor, I have seen an odd mixture of apathy and hostility toward lgbt sutudents and teachers. GLSN chapters exist, but generally not in schools; they are separate and meet outside of schools. We have a long way to go, no matter where you live in this country.

  • Jen Lehe, AIE 2010

    It is great to see this article. It will be even better to see curricular and extracurricular attention paid to this issue in the HGSE community. The large number of educators and educators-in-training that passes through HGSE makes it a prime incubator for leadership against homophobia and transphobia. This article aptly points out that many teachers ignore heterosexism in the classroom, either because they do not know how to address it, or because it is just easier to pretend they didn’t hear. Schools of education must take this issue seriously and prepare our children’s educators to do the same. Young people–LGBTQ and straight–are dying figuratively and literally. The degraded school cultures that result from and contribute to discrimination are unhealthy for individuals and society. HGSE cannot call itself a leader while it continues to ignore this. Professors need to be trained and encouraged to address homophobia and transphobia in courses. The schools must initiate courses and workshops equipping teachers to create “safe spaces.” Leblang mentions the (fully student-organized) panel on homophobia in schools that occurred last spring, but leaves out the detail that there was only one professor in the entire, 200 person audience. That professor, Steve Seidel, took this call to action seriously, and has incorporated the lessons he learned there into his course and scholarship. Thank you, Steve. And thank you, Leblang, for the article, but HGSE has a long way to go, too.

  • Toby Johnson

    Hi Judah, interesting article. I have a sort of personal “karmic resonance”: back in the late 70s, I worked as a freelance editor on a couple of projects with Toby Marotta, a Harvard PhD who’d written his dissertation on the Gay Rights Movement. After coming out to his classmates in the Harvard 10 year “red book,” he went on to write Sons of Harvard: Gay Men from the Class of 1967. This book resulted in the formation of several gay Harvard alumni groups around the country. I’m pleased to have had a small part in Toby Marotta’s waking up the revered old institution. Toby Johnson

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