The Standing Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification had a research problem: "One of the challenges confronting the committee was the continuing lack of empirical or even anecdotal data on the experiences and the rate of harassment among school personnel. The difficulty obtaining such data is more likely a byproduct of the extreme homophobia that makes many schools inhospitable places for personnel to be openly GLBT, rather than the absence of negative experiences among GLBT personnel. In addition, the relatively few personnel who are openly GLBT may report mostly positive experiences because they work in hospitable climates and have strong support from administrators and the community. While these experiences are valid, they probably do not reflect the experiences of the majority of GLBT personnel nationwide."
They admit that there's no data at all, assume harassment, and state outright that the reason there are no data is because of "extreme homophobia". Nope, no bias there! Certainly no left-leaning agenda.
But let's dissect that statement a bit.
The NEA is the largest labor union in the country. It has affiliates in every state, even in right-to-work states. There are few districts indeed in which the NEA is not present in some form. With well over 2 million members, including teachers and support personnel, I dare say that it's a mammoth.
That being the case, who are the homophobes that must be harassing the GLBT teachers into silence? Fellow teachers and school staff--fellow NEA members.
Who else could it be?
3 comments:
I believe any overt expression of sexual preference is out of order at work. A teacher who cannot have a political or sexual life outside the classroom without giving students a running talley needs a different job.
I disagree--unless you want to ban pregnant women from teaching, and require people to remove their wedding rings when they come onto campus. Oh, and better get that family picture off the teacher's desk as well.
But this isn't an issue of what goes on inside the classroom; this post is about what more likely would take place in the staff lounge.
My point was merely this: NEA assumes there's harassment of homosexual teachers--despite the fact that they admit to having no evidence of it--and says that the reason they have no evidence must be because people are too afraid to report it due to rampant homophobia in the schools. Since the schools are full of NEA members, it must be those very NEA members who are homophobes.
NEA doesn't think too highly of the people from whom it gets all its money. Why should they, when so many of us are compelled to pay them whether we want to or not?
I got your point.
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