Letter to the Editor: straight privilege
May. 16th, 2008 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageFirst, here's what I'm replying to.
Recent research makes clear that homosexual acts are not any more inherently dangerous than their heterosexual counterparts. Any information that may have been imparted to the contrary at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's meeting was therefore questionable, and for those who identify as LGBT, quite hateful. To suggest in the face of current research that a student in our schools who identifies this way is somehow more likely to spread disease is a horrible spreading of an untrue stereotype. Furthermore, the depth of misunderstanding behind the comparison of smoking to being gay is a classic example of "straight privilege."
LGBT issues are indeed present in all areas of the curriculum. If I have a student in my class who has two moms, my class is exposed to an LGBT issue. If a boy in my class is being teased by being called a girl for his feminine behaviours, that's an LGBT issue. I've dealt with both of those, without ever mentioning sex. It's about treating people as we wish to be treated - kindly and with respect.
As one friend recently put it to me, "This isn't my lifestyle. It's my life." The mental and emotional well-being of our students, and indeed their lives, are at stake. We cannot allow bad information to fuel stereotypes to fuel bullying.
Recent research makes clear that homosexual acts are not any more inherently dangerous than their heterosexual counterparts. Any information that may have been imparted to the contrary at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's meeting was therefore questionable, and for those who identify as LGBT, quite hateful. To suggest in the face of current research that a student in our schools who identifies this way is somehow more likely to spread disease is a horrible spreading of an untrue stereotype. Furthermore, the depth of misunderstanding behind the comparison of smoking to being gay is a classic example of "straight privilege."
LGBT issues are indeed present in all areas of the curriculum. If I have a student in my class who has two moms, my class is exposed to an LGBT issue. If a boy in my class is being teased by being called a girl for his feminine behaviours, that's an LGBT issue. I've dealt with both of those, without ever mentioning sex. It's about treating people as we wish to be treated - kindly and with respect.
As one friend recently put it to me, "This isn't my lifestyle. It's my life." The mental and emotional well-being of our students, and indeed their lives, are at stake. We cannot allow bad information to fuel stereotypes to fuel bullying.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-16 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-16 11:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-17 12:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-17 12:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-17 02:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-17 06:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-20 04:02 pm (UTC)Anyway, if you read today's (Tuesday's) letters, it is heavily weighted towards pro-Orthodox, homophobic sentiments. I think your letter is needed more than ever. Perhaps you should re-send it if they haven't published it yet.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-05-20 08:02 pm (UTC)