My gay teacher...

[one_voice]

taught me. That according to my son. Tonight we were watching Ed Schultz and he was talking about the crazy gay hate that's really boiling over right now. He mentioned the nut job from New York...Paladino and DeMint, saying gay teachers brainwash and indoctrinate students. When my son spoke up and said "my gay teacher taught me, and taught me well".

I said to him, that I didn't know he had a teacher that was gay-he never told me-he said it wouldn't have mattered to you,and it didn't matter to me. When he told me the teacher's name, I knew exactly who he was talking about. Turned out to be one of his favorite teachers. It's also the teacher that gave him the best letters of recommendation for college as well as scholarships.

I asked how he knew he (the teacher) was gay, did he tell you. My son, said he never actually came out and said he was gay, but he sometimes "slipped" up and talked about his partner. He and his partner used to go to the football games, and kids that drove to school (as my son did) often saw the teacher being dropped off by his partner. My son said all the students knew, but it didn't seem to matter to any of them, he was a favorite teacher with the students.

Just thought a nice story was needed in light of all the horrible ones we've seen recently.

[RKP5637]

1. A wonderful story to hear!!! I was just thinking, just a little while ago we

were supposed to be hating Hispanics, then it went off the Muslims and Islam, now it's back to Gays. One needs a score card to keep up with who's topping the hate list for the week. What a bunch of sick fools we have running for some political offices, merchants of violence, hatred, deception and misinformation.

[blaze]

2. My Mom, 84,

had a lesbian PE teacher.... everyone knew.... nobody cared. It didn't matter.

My Dad served in the army (WWII) with a gay guy. Nobody cared. It didn't matter.

Much like your son.

You and my Grand Parents did something very right. :)

[donco6]

3. Cool! Thanks. I needed that today. n/t

[Jamastiene]

4. I wish they were all like your son and the grandparents mentioned below.

Thank you for the nice story. So much horror has been happening lately, that I have reverted into PTSD from my younger years. It's nice to be brought back from the horrible memories to a nicer time with nicer people.

[Imajika]

5. The whole anti-gay thing is so done...

Nobody cares anymore. Even my most conservative friends couldn't care less. Marriage equality is still a stumbling block for many because they consider marriage a religious thing, but even on that more and more people don't care. The hate against gays is on the way out. On that front, times are really changing for the better.

I have to say, there is even a new breed of conservatives that have very libertarian streaks (South Park Republicans I guess they are called). While I still oppose their economic policy, I must say I am happy to see them give up on attacking gays and be suddenly open to things like ending the drug war.

[tavalon]

13. That's the thing

Conservatives are freaking because they know that as many battles as they win, they can't win against the tide of death and the youngsters don't give a damn about people being gay, being black, being anything "different". They are losing by attrition. I hope Fred Phelps gets plenty of sleepless nights over that. Fucker.

[Imajika]

16. I actually think more and more conservatives don't care anymore...

I have a largely right of center, military family. This issue isn't even discussed anymore. I think conservatives are mostly dropping it as a wedge issue. It's clear they've lost, and I think some of them are beginning to wonder why they cared about it in the first place.

We've won this debate. Marriage equality and an end to DADT are right around the corner.

[proteus_lives]

6. I honestly think this is the mode of most people.

"It's not a big deal, who cares?"

There will always be hateful groups and individuals but I think that most people do or will consider LGBT people just part of the standard mix.

[Angry Dragon]

7. The OP says more about your son and his friends

GOOD JOB

[one_voice]

15. Thanks..

I taught my kids just as I was taught.

My granny who will be 92 this week, and a die hard Republican, never had an issue with gay people. My mom had friends that were gay. One I grew up calling uncle, cuz he was around me since I was in diapers. Matter of fact changed quite a few.

I grew up in an inter-racial home. We had white kids, black kids and a bi-racial kid runnin' around, and on top of that mom had gay friends that were around a lot. I'm glad I got the "brainwashing" I did. I think I grew up to be a better person because of all the diversity in my life. I saw a lot of ugly and a lot of hate, but I really think that helped me to be a more open person. One of my best friends-when I was in grade school-was a Muslim girl, she wore the head scarf and all. We'd hang out at each other's house sit together on the bus etc. I don't remember her being tormented in school, but I wonder how she'd make out if she were in school today. Sad, but I think we've gone back wards in that respect.

[donheld]

8. Hats off to you, your son, and the teacher

I hope one day soon, all gay teachers can be just that open and accepted as your son's teacher.

[Drale]

9. You know

America has a really short attention span, a few weeks ago it was muslims everyone hated, now its gays. We need to influence people so that the next thing is stupid people, although that might cause a rash of self hate suicides.

[starroute]

10. I'm sure everybody had gay teachers if they'd only known

Back when I was in high school, we weren't all that aware of it -- but I'm pretty sure the 10th grade English teacher whose class everybody wanted to be in because he had a way of making literature come alive was gay. Maybe my favorite Social Studies teacher, as well.

In fact, just as a thought experiment, try to remember the two or three best teachers you ever had -- dig out of your memory everything you can about them -- and then say whether you don't believe at least one of them was gay.

[tavalon]

14. I know I did

And I know I didn't care about that. Now when I had bad teachers, I cared about that because it impacted me. Their gayness in no way impacted me.

[tavalon]

11. Aw, that's a nice story!

There have been way too many of the awful stories lately. Yeah, we knew in high school which teachers were gay and so the fuck what (as an aside, let me mention that I grew up in bumfuck Florida but?)? Now, in middle school, gay was a taunt, because, well, middle school has always been and likely always will be hell on earth. There are a few children who are amazing people in middle school but for the most part, middle school is when the devil is manifest in all.

[pinto]

12. Neat slice of life and one not that uncommon, I'd wager. Kudos to you and your son.

:hi:

[xfundy]

17. Let me guess.. the gay teacher didn't molest him

or "indoctrinate" him!

No, that's always left up to the "Christian" teachers, who rely on ignorance and blind trust "because they're Christians! And they'd never do anything wrong! Cuz they're Christians!"

Your kid sounds like a smart kid, with a good teacher.

Too many other kids are at the mercy of their captors because parents can say, "Trust them! They're Christians!"

It's time that fallacy was brought to light, and "religious" molesters were brought to trial.

[BigBearJohn]

18. I' d had 3 gay teachers in high school and they were everybody's favorites!

They knew how to relate to us and made learning fun.

[AlecBGreen]

22. Ive worked with 2 gay teachers

and both were beloved by the students.

[renate]

19. my kids' gay teachers are ALWAYS talking about their sex lives

Not really.

They're kind of like my kids' straight teachers that way.

[Scuba]

20. "all the students knew, but it didn't seem to matter to any of them"

...only hate-mongers and electorate-dividers care.

[Dappleganger]

21. When our oldest son in middle school was being bullied...

his favorite history teacher (who's gay) was the first one to come to his defense and the first one to call me to inform about what was going on. He was also the first teacher who called during our son's first year in middle school. I thought Andrew was in trouble but Mr. N said no, that he called me to just say that he was a great kid and he enjoyed having him in his class. Mr. N was also our older daughter's favorite teacher, and he encouraged her to continue with her own style of artwork (which at that time and still today doesn't fit into a neat little box). Of course there have been other great teachers, but I was so disappointed to learn that Mr. N wasn't going to be in the younger kids' middle school this year but learned he'd been promoted to assistant P at another school.

My favorite psych 101 teacher in college was transgendered...she was nothing short of amazing.

[The Midway Rebel]

23. My best teachers have often been gay.

Thanks Mr. P, and Greg P, and professor P...(just occured to me that their last names all start with a 'P).

Little kids usually know when a teacher is gay and until society teaches them differently, they do not care.

[grace0418]

24. One of my favorite teachers in grade school was gay.

At least I'm pretty sure of that now as an adult. He was also black, I say "was" because he died a few years back. You never met a kinder, funnier man more passionate about teaching and music (yes, they still taught music back then). But I wonder how difficult it was for to be a gay black man in my white bread suburb. I wish he were around today so I could tell him how much I appreciated him.