I would never use that word to describe someone who is homosexual and find its use offensive. I have many gay friends and yes like everyone they have their issues, but I find that people that are sensitive to these issues, especially bullying, can root it out quicker and help with the healing pretty fast too.

Whether they declare their sexual orientation is of no matter to me, what goes on in their bedroom or their preferences is their business.

One of my friends who use to come and visit me when my children were small was gay, open to friends and family but not where he worked. His business. I respect that. I wear a wedding ring but don't tell anyone I am married to my husband and that I am straight, they assume. A human is a human.

I am more afraid of pedophiles and kiddy porn people. They seem to be in the news a lot lately, and some are even in my city. Now that worries me.

Widowsmite, queer isn't just used to describe sexual orientation and I tend to see it used more often in relationship to gender identity (although not exclusively).

To a large extent, widowsmite, the LGBT community itself has adopted the word "queer" as a self description and a badge of honour.

I wouldn't have an issue with a teacher's sexual or gender identity.  I could potentially see having an issue with certain discussions though (which could also occur with a straight teacher).  As long as a teacher remained professional (which I would expect from any teacher), then no problem.

I think many parents' issues are those discussions.  In high school, there weren't many out gay kids.  Those that were tended to be out were outgoing and outspoken and often crude.  I think as these are the only LGBTQ people that parents may be familiar with, it can contribute to concerns with all LGBTQ people.

The other reason for hiding it is also the Catholic school system and private schools that have similar 'expectations'.  That's a whole different issue though.

Wow none of my friends that are gay told me that!!!!  I will have to phone and ask them about this new description.

Jobam,

It would depend on the subject being taught. I wouldn't like if a queer person was teaching my child something like social studies, health, or phys ed.

Rich blessings.

Why Jae?

chemgal,

I know a whole lot of you are not going to like this answer, but...

...when it comes to social studies and health, I would be concerned that the teacher might be trying to advance the gay agenda on my child -- trying to convince them to think that maybe they too are queer. I would imagine that these two subjects would be the ones in which this kind of thing might take place. I wouldn't be so concerned if the queer teacher were instructing in, say, math or music. 

...when it comes to phys ed, well, I just find the idea rather icky.

Rich blessings.

I find that the thought of teachers being bullied by their peers pretty awful. I think I got off topic at the start. I "phoned a friend" and he said although he personally doesn't use it as it was used against him all his life, that queer is a term that is acceptable in the community. I remember it being used horribly when I was younger and try not to label anyone...

To get back to being a teacher, I come from a family of teachers and principals in the public education spectrum and they have never come up against this, as no teacher they know of openly specified themselves. Teachers teach, and as long as they are doing their job, no one should have another opinion.

If my kids had a teacher that was openly gay and felt uncomfortable, I as a parent if I knew about it would try to help. No one should feel bullied in the workplace. No one.

My children were in a group that was called something I don't remember what but it was specifially for kids being bullied because of their being gay. I wish I could remember what it was called, my daughter helped start it as she had friends that were being bullied in school. I thought my kids were gay for a couple years until they explained that the group had every sexual orientation in it to help others....

Since it was in a catholic school, kids in it were scared to come as they thought at one point they may be targeted with a bias because they belonged to it in years to come.

I can only imagine what a teacher would go through in that situation.

MCJae, 
 

So, as much waffling as you have done on the issue, you seem to always return to the same spot....

The pattern can also appear to be that you change based on who you want to be "in" with.

Today, it appears you once more arrive at this issue from the position that heterosexual is the only natural or normal sexual presentation.

You appear to have also sadly returned to homosexuals being primarily predatory or as having conversion motives....

Are you once more thinking that a person's sexuality can be manipulated and changed. Can yours? Mine cannot.  

You also appear to think all who are__ want everyone else to be ___. 
Do you want everyone to be straight? I want people to be their genuine selves whatever that is.

So, with this line of reasoning, are straight teachers in social studies and health advancing a heterosexual agenda, trying to convince gay children they may be straight? Should parents of LGBTQ youth rally for their dismissal or limit them to only certain classes?

There's a curriculum to follow in social studies.  GLBTQ issues were never a part of it when I was in school.  I think adding it to the curriculum in an age appropriate manner would actually be a good idea.

As for the gay agenda, the only one I see is for everyone to be accepted regardless of gender or orientation.

I don't understand this, can you explain more?

Twenty-some years ago when my kids were in school this was never an issue.  If some of the teachers were gay, they were so far in the closet that no one even suspected.

Now I think it would be good for my grandchildren to have an openly gay or lesbian teacher for any subject, just as they have in Sunday School.  They would have the opportunity to get to know them and see how normal they are. 

I wouldn't expect a gay teacher to discuss his/her sex life with the class any more than I would have discussed my sex hetrosexual sex life with my class when I was teaching.   I expect teachers to be competent, compassionate, intelligent, professional - sexual identity has nothing to do with those qualities.

Please folks, let’s not make this thread about MC jae - he has his opinions, we aren't going to change them.....

Widowsmite - if you wear a wedding ring you are stating something - to a child/youth, there is a presumption there - but that is another threat...

Teachers teach - wow, glad I didn't have you or your family for a teacher....lots of my teachers were personable, and shared their lives when and where appropriate. Just to teach, I would expect in college/university and/or bigger schools were getting to really know and make a difference is much harder.

If teachers don't get involved with their students what value do they really have....but again, another thread...

Queer – due to my age I had a real issue with queer - however, after typing all the initials all the time I appreciate "queer" - all inclusive....maybe you should be coming to the seminar....check out www.welcomefriend.ca - never hurts to advertise.

Let’s say you come from a mid-sized school and it has 40 to 50 teachers the odds are at least one teacher is queer...for staff not to know this person and not supporting means that kids/youth are in the same boat. How can schools and school boards consider anti-bullying policies when they have non for staff.....if teachers haven't figured this out.....who will......

Everyone knows you can catch teh gay from showering in close proximity to a gay person, or learning social studies from a gay person who will inundate you with subliminal pro-gay messages.

To keep myself interested in the ladies (Hey laaadies!) I avoid all contact with gay people, no matter how incidental.  One time, I bought a coffee at Starbucks, and accidentally brushed my hand against the hand of the barista.  He was kinda hunky, with a swimmer's physique.  It was hot in the store, and the beads of sweat were dripping down his....

Aaaauuuuggghhhhh!

Look, in all seriousness, this sort of thing stops with all of us.  If you see someone giving someone else a hard time about their sexuality, say something.  The simple, foolproof joke is to wonder aloud why someone would be so curious about homosexual encounters.  Stops most of them dead from embarrassment.

It's the same with any sort of bullying - if you're in a position to, turn the tables on the bully.  Help make that sort of behaviour unaccaptable, one person at a time.

And yes, if you obsess about who other people are attracted to and are sleeping with behind closed doors, and you think this somehow makes them ineligible for, say, certain jobs, then you are waaaay more fucked up than they are.

McJae...your words are diminishing because of your misunderstanding of the gay "agenda".  What agenda?  The only agenda concerning gays that I've noted is the Christian right's agenda to diminish based on sexual orientation.  That is bigotry no matter how much lipstick you slap on it.

As far as the safety of gay teacher's...I think bullying anyone that can be singled out as different, is a huge problem in our schools and in our everyday lives.  The act of bullying is the issue and needs to be addressed for what it is.  Started by the bully to make someone suffer.  Period. 

With good leadership, it is addressed and stopped...as proven by one of our school principals.  His is the only safe school, really, for our many, many "different" children.  We are a very ethnically diverse community because of a meat packing plant and it can be done, as he's proven.  The leadership throwing their hands in the air saying it cannot be helped...kids will be kids, etc....are being challenged here.  As they should be. 

Jobam has requested that we not make this thread about me. While I certainly respect his request, I would like to note that I in my post was just answering his question.

In order to comply with Jobam's request, I will answer questions some of you have now posed to me in a new thread.

Rich blessings.

As a child I had an obviously 'different' female gym teacher.  That,  of course, was way back in the good ole days when many children (including me) didn't yet have words for such things.  All we knew was that she was very masculine in many obvious ways.  It was never a problem with the kids or parents as far as I know.  She was referred to as Miss  ...... as were the other unmarried teachers.

As I matured I learned the words but wasn't aware of anyone who identified themselves as 'different' from the accepted heterosexual norm.  A similar aged friend claimed that her Guide leader was lesbian and slept with her partner at camp.

Within today's school system I don't have much experience of how it works out for teachers who are 'different'.  I've never known any teachers who came out as GLBT - I know one teacher who was told to resign after a false claim of sexual contact with young males in the school.  They later confessed that nothing had happened betwween the teacher and them - they were just creating some excitement!.  Personally I expect teachers in general to avoid references to their own bedroom preferences.  I don't think that there is any danger in having teachers who are 'different' in their preferences.  A teacher/student relationship isn't a sexual relationship. 

There seems to be a lot of confusion created by words.  What 'I' mean by gay may not be what my grandchildren mean.  What 'I' mean by queer may not be the same as them either.  My parents only knew 'gay'' to mean cheerful and happy.  Queer meant weird or odd.   I doubt they ever heard the word transgendered.

I hope I haven't used any words inappropriately or offensively in this post!!!

Can we please not start a new, predicable thread, and just recognize that your religion makes you believe some pretty ridiculous and farked-up things, and move on?

It's hard to know if you're being sarcastic or not. Please do check with your friends. In the meantime you might want to consider:

http://queercanadablogs.blogspot.ca/

http://www.queercanada.ca/

http://salaamcanada.org/  (Salaam: Queer Muslim Community of Canada)

http://queermcgill.ca/

http://www.queerfilmfestival.ca/ (The Vancouver Queer Film Festival)

http://queerontario.org/

http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/

That's enough to make my point that there is sufficient use of the word "Queer" by the LGBT community that it really wasn't appropriate of you to suggest that Jobam was doing something offensive by using the word.

I have often heard the term - Gay Agenda - and it appears in this thread.  I once received an email that described a typical gay agenda like this -

Mon-Fri

Get up

Shower

Eat breakfast

Go to work

Come from work

Have supper (taking turns to cook)

Watch a movie/go for a walk/play a game/ride bikes alone or together/or whatever

Go to bed

Sat - Sun

Get up

Shower

Eat breakfast

Do general chores - housework/gardening etc

Eat lunch

Nap

Go for a walk or bike ride or visiting

Special supper out with partner

Relax time

Bed

To the extent that there is a "gay agenda" I don't think it has anything to do with trying to make children think they're gay. I think it has more to do with trying to get children and adults to accept people of different sexual orientations as equal and deserving of respect.

I taught for six years in public schools. I can remember parents who were very upset that gay teachers would prety on their children - but I never heard, in the public schools, of a single incident of that happening. (Though it certainly does happen in private schools - especially residential ones - , where it is routinely hushed up.)

I never saw or heard of any teachers bullying a gay teacher.

I would certainly have no problem with a gay teacher teachinig one of my children. And I would prefer the gay to be publlicy gay - not as a punisment of a branding, but just so we would all grow up.

Queer teachers -- wonderful  I hope they are open about their relationship in the same way that my teachers were open about theres in school that were straight.  Pictures of family on desk somteimes, or very general references.   

I hope that they support youth regardless of their sexual identity., and anticipate they would, probably more so than the average teacher who may not be so aware of the depth or breadth of gender & sexual identities.

I hope that if my son or someday a grandchild or a niece or nephew were in their class, that they would see a good role model....who has all the same complexities of relationship as does someone who marries someone of hte same sex.....

Everyone needs to stand up to bullying, as Chansen said.  

If I had kids, I would have absolutely no problems with having a queer person teach them. As long as the person is a good teacher, who cares what their sexual orientation is? Since I have friends who represent every letter in GLBTQ, this would not be the first queer person my children would have encountered in their lives. As a child I recall knowing if my teachers were married and whether or not they had kids - and I hope that a homosexual teacher would feel comfortable sharing this information with the children in their class too.

As for the notion of promoting a gay agenda - that actually had me laughing out loud because of its' ridiculousness. The only agenda my queer friends is one of equal rights for all - and the right to be able to walk down the street holding the hand of their partner without fearing for their lives.

Koovagam Festval, India's Largest Hindu Celebration of Transgendered People

(yet another BS, a very old one, to attach one's sexual identity to!)

I worked with a lesbian teacher once a few years ago and she felt very uncomfortable in an Ontario middle school; when she taught high school in BC she felt much more free to be herself.  I wish she had felt more safe to be out at school because the kids need to see gay teachers, the same way they needed to see interracial relationships and women voting and all sorts of other things that were considered immoral or wrong at some point in time...because it must be normalized for the very simple fact that it's NORMAL.  I'd like to live in a world that normalizes love and marginalizes hate, wouldn't you? 

I WOULD be concerned for the safety of gay teachers in some parts of Canada. We have a straight friend in Scotland who was verbally and physically abused and assaulted out of the profession by hooligan students. He got sick of trying always to exert enough control to do anything that ressembled teaching. He became a private tutor and marker and works only with the kids he wants to.

Given attitudes in that area of Scotland, I know it would have been much worse for him — or any teacher — the kids identified as gay. And his experience in that area was anything but unique. Teachers were beseiged by kids and by their parents.

I know homophobia has been rife in many Canadian schools but a lot seems to have been done to address issues like bullying and homophobia. It still wouldn't surprise me if there were still some entrenched pockets of hostility because, as if clear even here, there's still a lot of hostility in the air. And kids can be mean and dangerous, especially if their parents foster bigotry at home.

It is strange that different areas of a country (or province) can be so different.  I have a friend in the GLBTQ community.  This friend, Shawn's work involves spending a couple of days a week in two different villages about 40 klm apart.  Shawn's partner works in another village in the opposite direction from the city where they share their home and are raising two children.  They are open here, at church and among friends, but Shawn told me that they are not open at work.  One of the villages Shawn works in would have no problem with their sexual orientation - but the other one????

Why the difference between two places that are geographically so close together.  I really don't know.  But I do remember that the UCC minister in the one community was very welcoming.  Openly gay people sang in the choir or took an active part in church life, and he officiated at a gay marriage as soon as it became legal in the province.  Did he have an influence on the community?  We never know what influence our attitudes may have in a community - if they will help others to become more loving and accepting or will they will silently approve of bigotry, cruelty, bullying?

Good point, Seeler, about the role of all people to model welcoming and affirming.  

WOW!!! ..... wonderfully put!!!!!! ..... and its a practical and doable response.

Regards

Rita