Actually, I do agree. There’s a huge difference between not having experienced knowing and interacting with gays and lesbians on a regular basis - and therefore not yet completely at ease with the idea - and thinking they are evil. (Not that I think the former is all that acceptable, either; to me, society and the individuals therein should care as much about another person’s sexuality as they would about another person’s eye color.) People of the former type can change their minds. People of the latter type are irredeemable bigots.
I think in this case it’s clear Don is clearly on the irredeemable side of the line and the fewer opportunities he’s given to exercise that bigotry the better.
Is your life so perfect that this is the most pressing issue you have? If you have enough free time to spare that you can worry about this, you should put it to better use and do some volunteer work.
Keep your mouth shut and your nose out of it and MYOB and don’t confide in anyone IRL whose
gossiping could really cause trouble for a person who doesn’t need it.
Keep your mouth shut and your nose out of business that doesn’t concern you. No good will come of it and “outing” the teacher is goign to help nobody at all.
Wait until you find out if Mrs Smith loves her vibrator, Miss Jones likes getting pissed and having one night stands, Mrs Howard and her husband are into wife swapping, Mr Phillips is cheating on his wife with a parent and Mr Hughes and Mrs Nichols have been secretly bonking for the last six months.
Really how is any teacher’s sex life any business of anyone…unless they are doing it at school.
On reflection I may have used “bad” examples but if Mr and Mrs Smith have been married for 30 years and fuck like bunnies it is no more anyone elses business then if a teacher is gay.
Presuming (and boy do I) that Mr. S doesn’t discuss his sex life with the children, what the boy is being “exposed to” is a public school education. I think he’ll live.
I disagree. People can and have changed their minds on this issue. An ex of mine had been a fundie Christian long before I met him, and believed that homosexuality was evil. Eventually he lost his faith, became an atheist, and when I met him, he was a pretty-open minded guy. We went to a gay pride parade once with some gay friends of his. A good time was had by all.
I didn’t say nobody would ever change their mind. And I’m glad to see that someone that homophobic actually did change his mind, but I doubt it was solely because he was introduced to gays or realized someone whom he already knew was gay.
Absolutely not. I have known many gay teachers over the years, and believe me, they are well aware that some parents might be homophobic, and when to “keep it mellow.” You wouldn’t be telling him anything he doesn’t already know.
And wouldn’t it be a little weird to be discussing his sexuality with the neighbor of one of his students?
What if he didn’t like black people, and you knew his kid’s homeroom teacher was black but he didn’t? Would you feel like you had a duty to tell him that?
As soon as I read the OP I had a mental image of Rob Halford writing his name on a blackboard.
Two thoughts, but the “bad” one oput of the way first. I grew up in a small town, the kind where everyone really did know everyone else. If we had “gossip” to share about teachers, it absolutely would have been shared*
Secondly, don’t say a word, until and unless the teacher leaves / is leaving the school. Then it can’t harm him. If Don kicks up a stink it could make life mighty difficult for the teacher - and also for the administration of school.
I suspect that although all the other teachers know that Mr S is gay, there may well be a lot of double think going on - and so long as Mr S doesn’t actually say **“I’M GAY” **, no matter how many other signs there may be, then the school doesn’t have to address it. Once a parent complains though (and believe me, it wouldn’t just be one parent) then they are going to have to address it.
*At least to the extent that we would have shared gossip about anyone else in town.
You do realize that, in most of the USA, it’s perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay? It’s highly doubtful that the teacher would win a lawsuit.
They probably can’t fire him for being gay, but I wouldn’t doubt that if this really came to the fore and you had half the parents of his class, and a good porportion of parents from the rest of the school kicking up enough ruckus he could / would be dismissed for something along the lines of being a security risk, disruptive to school discipline or whatever.
I also don’t doubt that with the way some fundies think they would make his private life so difficult as to making teaching effectively near impossible.
I vote for the opinmion that the teacher’s orientation is none of your business, or your friend’s. Unless he is bringing it up in the classroom, which seems pretty unlikely. Leave it alone.
That’s my suggestion, too. The next time you see the teacher, say to him, “Hey Mr. S, have you ever met Mr. Neighbor, Neighbor Son’s dad? He has some very negative, stereotyped attitudes about gay men, and I was wondering if providing him with a positive counterexample would maybe do some good.”
What the hell is Mr. S supposed to do with that information? “Hey, Mr. Neighbor? I hear you hate gays. I just thought you should know I’m gay. Don’t worry, I promise not to brainwash your son.”