Religious Right Says: Save Our Children From Trans People!

The following radio spot, entitled “Predator,” began circulating this past month in Colorado: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9350160.

This is yet another classic example of the religious right’s invocation of “children’s safety” in order to promote their own political candidates and agenda.

This clip is not coming from groups who aim to eradicate sexual assault and violence against women, though “Predator” may seem to insinuate that. In fact, Focus on the Family Action and Colorado Family Action, the two groups responsible for creating and running the spot, could seem to care less about women’s rights. Focus on the Family Action states on its website that it is geared towards those who care about the “family” and about “traditional moral values.” The Focus on the Family Action page is devoted entirely to a preservation of traditional marriage between a man and a woman (and, I would think by extension, the “traditional” use of marriage as a means for men to possess and own women) and the restriction of abortion and contraceptive access for women.

“Predator” invokes age-old stereotypes about trans women and gender non-conforming individuals in order to fight against public schools’ development of gender-neutral bathrooms. The groups behind the clip are clearly trying to capitalize on mainstream society’s rampant transphobia and anxiety about gender norms in order to endorse their politician of choice.

This endorsement parrots the classic transphobic cliché: We must carefully monitor conditions in our public schools to ensure that gender non-normative and transgender people cannot comfortably or safely enter those spaces. If not, trans people will inevitably destroy “our children.”

Is anyone else getting sick of this bullshit? I can only hope that anyone who hears it realizes how downright ridiculous it is - unfortunately, I fear that may not be the case. As a gender non-normative educator in a public middle school, the fervor and confidence with which these ludicrous right-wingers attack trans people’s humanity in instances like this gives me pause, despite my better sense.

Another LGBT Issue More Important Than Gay Marriage

On May 20th, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) put out a report on anti-LGBT hate violence that indicated a 24% increase in incidents from 2006 to 2007. I wish I could say I am surprised to hear this.

Jovida Ross, the Executive Director of Community United Against Violence in San Francisco, stated that the increase indicates that “more people within the queer community are reporting sexual assaults” and considered it a “hopeful sign that [queer people] are coming out of isolation to heal from trauma” and a demonstration of “the positive impact of education and outreach.”

While Ross’ optimistic, “the glass is half full” approach to the rise in reported anti-LGBT violence is refreshing, I remain skeptical. So does Avy Skolnik, National Programs Coordinator of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, who suggests that the actual number of violent anti-LGBT incidents is probably even higher than reported: “We know that the 2, 430 people who called on our organizations in 2007 are only a small fraction of the actual number of LGBT people who experienced bias-motivated violence.”

Over the past year, LGBT-related bullying and violence has particularly stood out as a daunting challenge to the self-determination and self-expression of students in public schools. Perhaps the biggest tragedy was the February 2008 murder of eighth grader Lawrence King by fourteen-year-old classmate Brandon McInerney in California.

King’s death touched close to home for many educators, including myself. I witness verbal and physical harassment regularly in the hallway of my school, often involving words like “faggot” and “sissy,” and it frequently goes unreported by students and teachers alike. This year a large number of violent attacks have been made by and on our students, both inside and outside of the building of my school. While none of these attacks have been explicitly connected to LGBT issues, gender plays so significant a role in the nature of the aggression that it seems inextricably linked to gender identity and expression. Unfortunately, though, bullying is considered a fact of life for middle schoolers - “well, they’re in middle school, what do you expect?” and “it builds character” are used far too often by teachers and administrators as excuses to look the other way.

Fed up with our school’s general complacency about bullying, which is a more pressing concern than bubble sheets in the lives of our students, several teachers – most of us queer women - created a group called Respect For All to meet once a week. Despite its cheesy name, we anticipated that Respect For All would jump-start our school’s progress towards effectively addressing bullying. Unfortunately, founding and maintaining this kind of group has proven extremely challenging. Initially, several unnamed colleagues in the school expressed discomfort about the group, telling administrators that it would take up valuable time even though the meetings took place after school hours. Administrators failed to attend meetings, provide resources, or lend an open ear. Also, few educators have the energy to create and advocate for institutional change while mired in individual lesson planning and the everyday exhaustions of teaching. Between administrative discouragement and a lack of teacher investment, for which I am partly responsible, Respect For All has disbanded.

Combating bullying requires more than the existence of groups like Respect For All – it requires a collaborative effort and careful allocation of schools’ resources. As in many public schools under No Child Left Behind, my administration will abruptly halt regular school programming to give “pop” standardized tests. But it seems unfathomable that a school-wide day of education about the devastating effects of widespread bullying could feasibly take the place of scheduled classes. The efforts of Respect For All to create a “Respect Week” to kick off the 2008-2009 school year are wasted if administrators at our school aren’t willing to make room at the beginning of next school year for anti-bullying, pro-awareness workshops and activities for students.

So what can we do, in schools and outside of schools, to combat anti-LGBT violence?

First, we must advocate for collaborative efforts among teachers, staff, and administrators to confront bullying and violence in schools. Everyone in schools must recognize that classroom time and the learning students do in the education system are about more than test preparation – regardless of what the state and federal governements would lead us to believe. Tearing down No Child Left Behind is crucial in this endeavor.

Second, there needs to be a shift of some of the focus of LGBT organizations and resources away from gay marriage and onto issues like anti-LGBT violence and homophobia and transphobia in the education system and the justice system. Though I’m not inherently opposed to gay marriage, marriage laws will not fundamentally change the fact that violent homophobia and transphobia seem to be socially sanctioned just about everywhere in the nation. We need some of HRC’s - for one example - money and time to be channeled into ensuring universal LGBT and HIV-positive health care access, eradicating LGBT harassment in schools, fighting police brutality, ending the discrimination against undocumented immigrants that affects many LGBT communities, and addressing the abuses of transgender people in United States prisons.

Third, we must challenge the misconception that throwing more people into jail will effectively address anti-LGBT violence. Though Brandon McInerney committed a horrifying act of hatred, trying McInerney as an adult and pushing for a life sentence without parole will not ultimately help to prevent anti-LGBT violence. Though some might convince themselves that it will in order to cope with the anger such a tragedy incites, the prison industrial complex is more about quarantining society’s “unwanteds” than it is about rehabilitation or protection. Even hate crime legislation may not ultimately serve LGBT aims. Due to their selective enforcement, bias laws may ultimately harm "the most disadvantaged members of society and ironically those whom [they] are intended to help,” as Frederick M. Lawrence states in the abstract for his recent book. The criminal justice system is notorious for its blatant targeting of minorities, transgender people, and queer youth, and reinforcing its power by looking to it to solve our problems with anti-LGBT violence without addressing its many problems will only hurt LGBT people more in the end.

Sigourney Weaver is making the movie "Prayers for Bobby"

Leroy Aarons' 1995 book this is based on is poweful. The film is due to debut next February, with Weaver producing and acting the part of Bobby's mother, Mary Griffith.

"Sigourney Weaver's passion and dedication to this project are incredibly inspiring," says Tanya Lopez, Lifetime's head of original movies. "As both the star and co-producer of this movie, she wholly embodies the strength and perseverance of Mary Griffith."

Based on Leroy Aarons' book, "Prayers for Bobby" centers on Mary Griffith, a devout Presbyterian who raises her children in strict accordance with church teachings. But when her son Bobby confesses he might be gay, she won't accept it and instead urges him to pray more and seek out a "cure." Bobby obeys, but he also spirals into depression and eventually commits suicide.

The film will also chart Mary Griffith's reaching out to the gay community, where she finds unexpected support.

Sigourney Weaver Says 'Prayers' with Lifetime

Some Must-Read Queer YA Literature

The distinction between a book that is LGBT-positive and a book I would call queer is difficult to draw, but I believe it exists. A great number of books geared towards young readers take a definitively gay-friendly stance, by advocating for gay marriage rights or possibly incorporating a gay or lesbian individual into its collection of secondary characters. Those texts, however, rarely delve into the nuances and wide array of experiences associated with queer or trans adolescence.

I know very little about the politics behind the publishing of young adult literature. However, it does not take an expert to see that “pro-gay” books that hope to circulate to a wide young adult audience usually revolve around assimilationist narratives of LGBT people – almost always suburban, white, and middle-class - who are absolutely “normal” and endearing to a mainstream public in every way other than their sexual orientation.

The truly excellent, valuable, and queer reads for middle school students, in my opinion, push the envelope on this point and attempt to present for adolescent contemplation characters whose sexualities and genders are not – and cannot be – isolated from other aspects of their identities and lives.

This is why every middle school and high school English teacher absolutely must read Jacqueline Woodson’s From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun with his or her classes. The book describes the process of Melanin Sun, an almost-fourteen-year-old boy, after his mother comes out as queer (her own language of self-identification) and, possibly even more shockingly for a biracial boy immersed in a predominantly black neighborhood in Brooklyn, as being in love with a white woman. Melanin Sun opened up intellectual doors for my classes last year, and students generated a running list of big issues and concepts we came across as I read it aloud to them. It practically creates lessons for teachers. It demands that readers think about the phenomenon of white people entering a predominantly non-white sphere. Several students of mine who live in the currently gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook brought up examples from their lived experiences to contribute to a conversation about the class and racial conflicts that can erupt in gentrifying areas.

Melanin Sun exposes readers to LGBTQ experiences that extend beyond simplistic portrayals of homophobia. Kristin, the partner of Melanin’s mother, illustrates the concept of “chosen family” because her birth family disowned her when she came out as queer. Melanin Sun is perfect for the middle school classroom because it demands critical inquiry into who “owns” identity-related language. Woodson uses words like “queer,” “fag,” and “dyke” in the book to refer to sexuality – the words “gay” and “homosexual” are rarely seen. My students kept a running list of questions that arose as we read, including: What does “queer” mean, and why do Melanin’s mother and Kristin use it? How can Melanin’s mom be a lesbian if she has a kid? Should his mom have told Melanin earlier than she did? When, if ever, should a word like “queer” be used, and by whom? This last question prompted a particularly fascinating full-class conversation about who has the right to invoke what terminology – is it different for an LGBTQ person to call themselves queer than for a straight person to do so? Why or why not? This text opened innumerable analytical doors leading into important conversations relevant to social justice and to students’ lived experiences. Instead of providing an empty, cut-and-dry rhetoric of “gay is okay!”, Woodson pushes and challenges readers to think critically about the complicated ways identities work – something that far too few young adult novels about issues of identity do.

Another novel to share with middle school students is Totally Joe by James Howe. Though the book takes place in what could be described as a quasi-suburbia in upstate New York dominated by middle-class white kids, it maintains a healthy dose of self-consciousness about that fact and avoids relying upon the tired trope of the “tragic faggot” narrative. Howe has created a deeply compelling and realistic character in the narrator Joe, a gay middle schooler experiencing his first relationship with a boy in his class. The book offers a vivid depiction of a character who is complex and inevitably identifiable to middle school students (regardless of their sexualities) coming out in a relatively rural area of the United States. Joe’s characteristics read as queer, but James Howe avoids resorting to dull or problematic stereotypes, which is a tricky balance to navigate in young adult literature. Overall, Totally Joe provides a great readaloud and engaging character study for middle school students.

There is also value in having a book like Carrie Mac’s Crush in the middle school classroom. Crush revolves around a mostly-white and socioeconomically privileged lesbian community in gentrified Park Slope, Brooklyn. The benefit of this book is that it focuses on a young woman’s coming out and thereby addresses issues of female sexuality without any male presence, which is an infrequent trait in young adult literature. It is also an Orca brand book, which means that it is considered by many educators to be more accessible to “lower level” readers than many other texts while containing content mature enough to be relevant to middle schoolers. Crush isn’t an ideal full-class read, as it does not come close to the depth and power of Melanin Sun, but it is good to have around for a book partnership or individual student looking for “low level, high interest” texts.

Queer young adult literature ideally sparks analytical thought about operations of power in society, how identities are read and interpreted, and how meanings are mapped onto identities in various social contexts. Melanin Sun does this the best of any of these texts, to the point that I wish it were required reading in college courses. If you haven’t read it yet, set aside an hour of time and zip through it on the subway. Then, give it to your students, your younger sibling, or a random teenager you bump into. Everyone can benefit from it.

The Nationwide Attack on Queer and Trans Youth Continues

The systematic assault on queer, trans, and allied youth occurring in the United States may as well be federally sanctioned.

The murder of openly queer eighth grader Lawrence King by a fellow middle school student in February received a mere fraction of the press coverage devoted to similar school shootings. Sadly, I am sure that the circumstances of King’s death were ignored by faculty or teachers at most schools around the nation. I am even more certain that many teachers who knew about King’s death did not inform their students about it, and made similar excuses to some teachers at my school: “Students might get scared by it,” and “they’re so young, they won’t understand, and they will giggle at the word ‘gay’.”

The giggling of middle school students does not typically deter teachers from doing our jobs. But the popular media, the national public education system, and a political climate in which open homophobia is sanctioned don’t exactly encourage teachers to address these instances of hate inside our classrooms.

A public school teacher must swim upstream in order to touch on LGBT issues in any way beyond a simplifying and tokenizing “gay is okay!” – and sometimes that’s even going too far according to parents, or school districts, or administrators in his or her specific school. Educating students about the murder of Lawrence King and the very real, lived repercussions of homophobia and transphobia is an almost impossible sacrifice for individual teachers to make without strong networks of support and mentorship. The lack of discourse in schools about sexuality, gender, and expression that results from such a culture of repression is, quite literally, killing LGBT youth.

Does anybody care about the current status of queer and trans youth in the U.S.? Does nobody see the alarming rate of homelessness among LGBT children, particularly youth of color, in New York City? Does nobody hear about the singling out of queer youth of color by police officers on the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan? Has the plight of LGBT youth in this nation been so successfully erased by the federal government, by law enforcement, and by our schools that nobody in the United States sees what is happening?

Recently, several all-too-familiar faces in the push to invisibilize and dehumanize trans people have popped up, courtesy of the American Psychiatric Association. The APA recently appointed a committee to review and revise the DSM-V, which covers the diagnoses of Gender Identity Disorder. The committee will be headed by none other than Kenneth Zucker, a psychiatrist who is notorious for his efforts to “prevent” transsexuality, which have resulted in a great deal of violence and abusiveness towards trans youth. (See the Torontoist article at http://torontoist.com/2008/05/but_for_today_i_am_a_boy.php and a valuable Bilerico post at http://www.bilerico.com/2008/05/uh_oh.php for more information on Zucker). The fact that Zucker is still considered qualified to speak as a psychiatrist at all is mind-boggling.

The committee will also include Ray Blanchard, who also has a long history of oppressive pathologization of transsexuality, particularly in trans women. The APA has released statements in the past few days, attempting to reassure those of us who are infuriated by such a blatant attack on trans people. They “explain” that there is absolutely no chance that homosexuality will return to the list of mental disorders. They "explain" that the DSM addresses criteria for the diagnosis of mental disorders, and not treatment recommendations or guidelines. So… everyone should just relax.

What a load of dung.

It looks to me like the APA is trying to cover its own ass by claiming that diagnosing is entirely separate from proscribing treatment for GID, which is ludicrous. No statement by the APA can erase Zucker’s and Blanchard’s deeply upsetting histories of violent transphobia and advocacy of "curing" children by forcibly squashing any indicators of their transsexuality. The APA may attempt to discourage and dissuade potential protesters, but it’s not going to appease my anger. On a daily basis, trans youth in the United States are denied the right to express their gender(s) and are aggressively ripped away from their identities. If Zucker and Blanchard have their way, by 2012 the violences done to trans youth in this nation will not only continue to happen but will be authorized by the APA.

Final Thoughts Defending the Day of Silence

A troubling article in this week’s SnoValley Star [http://snovalleystar.com/2008/05/14/hutcherson-vows-another-protest#comment-200] quotes the local pastor who led a demonstration during this year’s Day of Silence, promising more protests during next year’s Day of Silence at this tiny rural Washington State high school.

The Safe Schools Coalition is proud of the brave gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning students at Mt. Si and their wonderful straight classmates who stand up for them every year on the Day of Silence. And at almost every other high school in the region. And we will keep turning out in their defense for as long as Rev. Hutcherson continues to turn out crowds to express disapproval of them.

These courageous students have the same right to safe passage to, from and during school, every day of the year, as does Rev. Hutcherson’s daughter. And their liking someone of their own sex or their not being as masculine or as feminine as someone thinks they should be ought to have absolutely no bearing on their access to an education. They shouldn’t have to pretend and they shouldn’t be made invisible. And they have every right to the civil disobedience of being silent one day out of the year! For Pete’s sake, give everybody writing assignments that day; encourage reading, athletics and arts. Teachers can find a bazillion perfectly appropriate teaching methodologies that don’t require verbal discourse for one day!

As for Mr. Potratz’ analogy … the teacher was obviously just trying to say that children’s free speech doesn’t end at the school house door, no matter how odious their beliefs might be.

That said, comparing forms of oppression is dicey. Gay and transgender young people do get murdered on a regular basis — about one every two months in the U.S. (see http:www.50under30.org) — as did middle schooler Larry King this past February. But their numbers pale relative to the generations of African Americans beaten to death during slavery and lynched since abolition. We appreciate people’s sensitivity about analogies to horrific things like slavery.

The point is, nevertheless, that it’s tragic for schools to ignore racism, homophobia, misogyny, classism or xenophobia. When schools abdicate, students learn anyway. They learn from media and older peers. They learn prejudices and misinformation about people different from themsleves.

The Day of Silence is a protest against teachers’ silence in the face of anti-gay bullying and disrespect. Adults in every school need to do a better job of stopping ALL harassment and of teaching about ALL kinds of diversity.

Hear, hear for teachers like Mr. Potratz and Ms. McCormick who stand up for students, even if the particular words Mr. P used may have been too easily misconstrued. He tried. Besides, some folks may intentionally misconstrue others' words for their own reasons. How many other teachers stand by, afraid to say anything, while students like the boy who killed Larry hurl words and fists and, eventually, bullets.

Let's stand by teachers who care.

Today, in the News (Or Not?)

Word of California’s decision to lift the ban on gay marriage implemented in 2000 has spread like wildfire today. Though it is true that this decision could set a valuable precedent in terms of legal policy, I can’t help but be incredibly frustrated by the nearsightedness and narrow-mindedness of the gays who tend to dominate these political pushes.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the perfect example of an assimilationist, visible gay rights organization. The HRC focuses on the legalization of gay marriage to the exclusion of numerous issues that are pressing to many LGBTQ people throughout the nation. This past year the HRC abandoned transgender people in their push to get an ENDA bill passed that would ban discrimination against LGBT individuals in the United States. Apparently, the HRC felt it would be easier to get the bill passed to protect the rights of gays and lesbians if they dropped the “T” and forgot about trans folks’ rights. So they did. Simple as that.

It is what is not so visible in the mainstream news today that betrays the fact that upper- and middle-class gays, as exemplified by organizations like the HRC, could not care less about more disadvantaged LGBT people.

Yesterday, a man named Willie Campbell was sentenced to 35 years in prison for spitting at a police officer in Dallas, Texas. The reason for such a severe sentence, for what could be passed off as an intoxicated slip-up? Campbell is HIV-positive and was therefore charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The arresting officer, Dan Waller, has been quoted as saying “I know it sounds cliché, but this is why you lock someone up, so our streets are safer… Without him out there, our streets are a safer place.”

Wait a second. I thought HIV couldn’t be contracted through saliva? Campbell’s sentence is obviously grounded in a stigmatization of people who are positive, rather than in any rational – or legal, or scientific!– concern that Waller had contracted HIV from Campbell’s spit. Are we going to begin quarantining people with HIV/AIDS now, because the world would be “safer”? The sentencing of Willie Campbell is a classic instance of fear tactic employment by the government, which uses idiotic law enforcement officers like Dan Waller as its pawns. Regimes, like George W. Bush’s, that operate by fear always designate certain bodies as “monstrous” or “scary.” They promise mainstream members of society that they will all be “safe” if those deviants are put behind bars and isolated from society. Trouble is, the only groups of people not categorically classified as “dangerous” seem to be white and upper- or middle-class.

What does all of this have to do with education and LGBT issues in schools? Everything, particularly because many of my students are young, low-income children of color deemed “unsafe” and closely monitored by law enforcement because of their demographic. The NYPD is already just waiting to pounce on if they make one misstep – and most of my students are acutely aware of this. Students in many under-resourced, urban public schools end up becoming less than human, becoming known and tracked by their scores on standardized tests. As I discussed in my first post, public schools often serve as funnels to channel society’s “unwanteds” into prisons. From the moment they are born, or from their second grade year when they missed thirty days of school, or from their fifth grade year when they failed their math class, many students in these schools are branded as “dangerous” or as soon-to-be criminals.

Where were organizations like Lambda Legal and the HRC while Willie Campbell was being sentenced? While Campbell's sexual orientation and sexual practices are unknown, and HIV cannot be considered an exclusively “gay” disease, HIV/AIDS activism has been a cornerstone of LGBT culture and recent history. After wealthy white gays initiated HIV/AIDS activism when the pandemic broke out in the United States in the 1980’s, all of a sudden they can’t seem to find the time, money, or energy to help communites grappling with HIV access resources. In more ways than one, the refusal of HRC and other LGBT organizations to lift a finger to combat HIV stigmatization and improve access to care in impoverished communities – where many severely underresourced schools are located - hurts students like mine.

Gay marriage is a pressing issue for only an elite subset of LGBT individuals. For mainstream gay groups to fail to address the dehumanization of people with HIV/AIDS by the criminal justice system is an utter tragedy. Many of the individuals - some LGBT-identified, some HIV-positive - whose lives are in the crosshairs of this issue attend public schools in the United States, right now.