Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community

Carlson believes that the topic of homosexuality should be brought up in the classroom to teach students more about homosexuals. Knowing more about homosexuals and the queer community would benefit everyone. Students would have a better understanding about people who are not heterosexual. They would then have the information needed to decide for themselves what they think is right or wrong instead of just listening to what other people tell them. Carlson believes that being able to talk about homosexuality openly is the first step in being able to work past the prejudices against the queer community, just like Johnson believes that talking about race issues openly and using the words would help Americans improve interracial relations.


“Throughout much of this century, the dominant idea of community in America was represented by what I call the normalizing community. Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, ect.) get privileged and represented as “normal” while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexuality, ect.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, criminal, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways “abnormal”.

I thought this was especially important because, to me, it seems that the biggest reason why children grow up with prejudices against gay men and lesbians is because they're told that's not what's 'normal'. It's not what's accepted, but I'm sure that it feels normal to the people who are homosexuals. To grow up being told that the feelings you have inside aren't normal, and are morally wrong even, must be very difficult. Education about homosexuality would not only help people understand gay and lesbians, but it would also make growing up as a gay or questioning child easier, because your peers would be more likely to understand you.

“Sears found it was okay in many schools to condemn homosexuality if you are a teacher without facing any criticism.”

I believe that it's just wrong for a teacher to condemn a way of life in a classroom. It's one thing if they don't believe in homosexuality. They don't have to go out of their way to speak down about it to impressionable children. I know that some people might say that it's not the schools place to condemn sexuality, but it's also not their place to teach about it either.

I think that you can teach children about homosexuality and not put in your own opinion about it. In the same way that a religious teacher could teach the big bang theory and leave out the fact that they don't quite believe in it.


“The high levels of drug use, high dropout rates, and high suicide rates among gay youth, are at least partially understandable both as manifestations of alienation and as socially sanctioned self-destructive ways of 'being gay.'”

I've seen this myself. I had a few friends in high school who were gay and bisexual. At first I didn't know but by high school they had come out. Although I never connected their drug use to their sexual orientation, it did seem like they smoke more pot and experimented more than some of my other friends. When I read this sentence it made me wonder if their behaviors were partially caused by a feeling of alienation.


I agree with Carlson. I think that education about homosexuality has to start at school, because many parents aren't teaching their children that being gay is acceptable. Socially, it's still frowned on. Morally, it's most definitely frowned on. Society sometimes takes it's time with the acceptance of new ideas. Of course homosexuality isn't a new idea, but the new rights that gay Americans are fighting for most certainly are. Schools need to provide students with facts about homosexuality to try and squeeze the prejudices out of students from a young age.