On GLBT Month & Discrimination

I was going to continue on with the normal GLBT month postings today and post an interview or excerpt or something of that sort. I'll get back to that tomorrow. I just had my eyes opened a little yesterday on how bad things can be out there for GLBT teens and tweens. (For anyone not in the mood for a long semi-rant, you can skip this post).

First off, let me explain one thing about myself. I am never for censorship (even if I disagree with a book or author), discrimination, intimidation, or hate language. I have no patience for those things. If you want to restrict your own child from reading or watching something, it is your right (though I don't necessarily recommend or understand it, depending on the situation and age of the child), but it is NOT your right to force your beliefs on others.

In my personal life I am happily married. I've had gay friends over the years and never considered anything about them to be "abnormal" or even "different." Maybe that's a product of being a reader -- when you open yourself up to new experiences, new lives, etc., you broaden your own life. And while I've never experienced what it feels like to be a gay person (or, for that matter, a black person or a disabled person or a foreigner living on American soil), I have experienced prejudice in my life (being half-Asian and living in the South, you soon learn that the remnants of the KKK don't like you either and that people will actually drive from all over the county to check out the "weird new Chinese people" that just moved to town).

But enough about me -- here's the situation that prompted this post. Yesterday, I posted to a message board on Teachers.net inviting teachers to come check out GLBT month at YABC and explaining that I had a bunch of books and teacher guides to give away. I wasn't at all prepared for the torrent of hate and name calling that my post started up.

I was particularly surprised because these people are teachers. These are the people that are out there in our schools teaching our students -- many of whom happen to be gay, bi-sexual, lesbian and transgendered. These are the people to which someday I'll be trusting my own child.

You can read the string of posts here. I'm not sure how long it will stay up, but I find that I seem to not be welcome, even though I did not engage in any name-calling of any sort. I tried to post a response to some of these people and explain a few things (that I believe these books most emphatically do belong in schools and that they aren't pornographic smut), but my post seems to have been rejected. Meanwhile, one teacher did post a more moderate view and other (often anonymous) posters continued to heap on abuse. Yes, that's right -- they don't even have the courage to sign their name to their posts. Not all of them, of course, some did.

So, what am I trying to say? Well, to any teens or tweens out there struggling (or not) with your sexuality, I feel for you. I'm sorry and I hope against hope that the people around you are NOT like the teachers who posted on Teachers.net. I hope that you will find your own path and your own way and will find support among your peers. I hope that you will find books like the ones being featured this month and that the authors who write them will keep on writing them until there is no such classification as "GLBT" lit -- when books featuring GLBT characters will be mainstream enough that no one even thinks twice about it.

And to any teachers out there reading this -- no matter what your personal views are on GLBT people, I hope that you will realize that YOU are teaching them out there every day and that you will stop to consider your words and your actions. I know there are many excellent, non-prejudiced, non-hateful teachers out there and to them, I say "Thank You." I hope that YOU will enter the contests. I'd really love to have these books and teacher guides out there getting some use in capable hands.

And another huge THANK YOU to the authors out there who are writing the books and breaking down the walls.

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Update as of 9/17: I was getting copied via email on all of the responses to the thread and woke up this morning to find a number of well-reasoned, non name-calling posts contributed by a new teacher. So I went to the board to post a thank you but found that the admin (presumably) had chosen to delete ALL posts related to the thread. I find it most disheartening that they did this not when people were posting really ugly comments, but when someone posted reasonable ones. They made no attempt to stop some really nasty name calling, but as soon as someone posted messages that were the least bit supportive of discussion, the whole thread was gone. If they were concerned about the hate language, they could have just deleted those posts. I'm not sure exactly what their reasoning is, but it certainly makes it appear as if they condone something that, frankly, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.