GAY TEACHERS AS GAY RECRUITERS Gay men are stereotypically feared for potentially “recruiting” others into also becoming gay, especially young students, due to the belief that gayness is “contagious,” like a sickening plague that should be avoided, although “there is no empirical proof that a gay teacher can affect the sexual preference of school-aged children” Kirk and Paul Cameron from the Family Research Institute in Colorado Springs explain (603). Parents and administrators therefore fear that interactions between young students and gay teachers will undesirably turn these children gay, who are believed to be asexual, but also heterosexual, thus imposing on children’s believed natural and “inherently heterosexual” characteristics, explained
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This idea, referred to as “homosexual promotion,” leads to fears that gayness can be caused by simple interactions with gay men, especially adult gay men who may hold certain powers and privileges as teachers within public school institutions and easily affect these children who are often described as “sponges,” absorbing everything they see and hear into different thoughts and ideas (King 126). This belief also reduces, stigmatizes, and equates gayness to cults, and their isolation from general society. Gayness and AIDS continues to be directly associated, as many still refer to this disease that affects millions of people across sexualities, as “the gay disease,” and therefore an instigator in their own illness, causing an unsympathetic and disgusted reaction similar to the response during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. This leads to fears that gay teachers will pass their assumed disease on to children through mere audial interactions, and fantasized, sexual reactions, thus “equating gay with diseased,” and creating another challenge for gay teachers to actively, but …show more content…
The effects of marginalizing this group of educators, who already experience severe marginalization outside of these institutions in every other aspect of their life, are dangerous and only further perpetuate bigoted values among younger generations, causing teachers to exhaustingly “hide to work and work to hide in the classroom” (Endo et al. 1024). An unspoken code, similar to the 1990s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military initiative that employed gay individuals as long as they kept their identities secret, is also implemented and relevant in these spaces, disguising these institutions as conditionally progressive. However, public schools make disclosing sexual identities nearly impossible because although the teachers themselves may perceive this as “something that promotes learning and that provides a resource,” schools can consider sharing this personal information inappropriate, as it relates to sex and sexuality (Lundin 73). Many of these teachers, who have come out in other social spaces are forced back into “the closet,” once they enter the public school systems, causing them to relive many similar traumas they endured during their initial coming
This idea, referred to as “homosexual promotion,” leads to fears that gayness can be caused by simple interactions with gay men, especially adult gay men who may hold certain powers and privileges as teachers within public school institutions and easily affect these children who are often described as “sponges,” absorbing everything they see and hear into different thoughts and ideas (King 126). This belief also reduces, stigmatizes, and equates gayness to cults, and their isolation from general society. Gayness and AIDS continues to be directly associated, as many still refer to this disease that affects millions of people across sexualities, as “the gay disease,” and therefore an instigator in their own illness, causing an unsympathetic and disgusted reaction similar to the response during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. This leads to fears that gay teachers will pass their assumed disease on to children through mere audial interactions, and fantasized, sexual reactions, thus “equating gay with diseased,” and creating another challenge for gay teachers to actively, but …show more content…
The effects of marginalizing this group of educators, who already experience severe marginalization outside of these institutions in every other aspect of their life, are dangerous and only further perpetuate bigoted values among younger generations, causing teachers to exhaustingly “hide to work and work to hide in the classroom” (Endo et al. 1024). An unspoken code, similar to the 1990s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” military initiative that employed gay individuals as long as they kept their identities secret, is also implemented and relevant in these spaces, disguising these institutions as conditionally progressive. However, public schools make disclosing sexual identities nearly impossible because although the teachers themselves may perceive this as “something that promotes learning and that provides a resource,” schools can consider sharing this personal information inappropriate, as it relates to sex and sexuality (Lundin 73). Many of these teachers, who have come out in other social spaces are forced back into “the closet,” once they enter the public school systems, causing them to relive many similar traumas they endured during their initial coming