Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Homosexuality vs. Race Relations
Last Wednesday, a bill was approved in the TN State Senate that, if passed, would forbid public schools from mentioning homosexuality at all until students were in 9th grade. More details can be found here. As my anger gradually subsided, I began to draw a parallel between the education surrounding race relations and gay rights. We've mentioned before that perhaps schools should teach children to deny racial differences at an early age. While discussing the bill with a friend, I said that I thought ignoring homosexuality would only breed intolerance. She said, "Well, isn't that the point?" I think this is really interesting - could limits on freedom of speech keep important conversations from happening that lead to a distressed social climate? Is keeping children unaware of homosexuality in schools similar to ignoring racial stigmas? What do you think?
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After reading this post the first thing that came to my mind was the whole idea that race is something we constructed based off of what we see. Homosexuality is something someone can hide, and that is why homosexuality is such a struggle for some living in a community that looks down upon sexuality differences. Race is something people see and base stereotypes off of the color of their skin. In pre schools people feel like they have to talk about this issue because as sad and sick as it sounds, the question will eventually come up about the physical skin color difference. The child will ask her teacher about why the color of her skin is different from her friend, and from that moment on race becomes an issue. The mother has to explain to the child why the color is different, and if that mother has her internal racism, then the process continues. I do think there should be some schooling at an early age for homosexuality that will allow people to be more open to the differences people go through.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to how the white experience is the normal experience in our society, the new bill will only perpetuate the idea that heterosexuality is "normal" and homosexuality is "abnormal." The bill implies that homosexuality is not an appropriate topic of conversation; how will such implications influence people's views on sexual orientation? I agree that forbidding the mention of homosexuality before ninth grade will only breed misunderstanding and intolerance, especially because it directly impacts the years in which children are most impressionable.
ReplyDeleteThis is a interesting extension of our conversation on the importance of education in moving away from racism. I think there is a strong parallel between the ways in which race is taught in schools and the ways in which homosexuality is either taught/not taught. It just seems so difficult, with homosexuality even moreso than race because of the moral, political and religious fervor attached to maintaining its "unnaturalness", that there can be a successful campaign against the sort of measure you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think about this bill, the more unbelievably shortsighted it seems. Besides the obvious discrimination and restrictions of academic freedom that are inherent in this bill, this bill also seems to be a law that requires teachers to lie to their students. Take, for example, a situation in which a student asks her teacher a question relating to homosexuality. According to this law the teacher is legally bound to deny this as a legitimate academic subject, which is clearly not true.
ReplyDeleteWhat these lawmakers seem unable to grasp is the simple fact that if you try to legislate something into being taboo you only discredit the institution that goes along with the legislation and increase people's curiosity about the subject. So maybe this law will actually lead students to discuss homosexuality more rather than less...
They will not be able to keep children from knowing bout homosexuality until the 9th grade nor discussing it outside of schools. This bill merely serves to present even more misconception, at an early age, on a topic that is already gravely misunderstood and difficult to explain to children today by maintaining within a system that is meant to enlighten students that homosexuality is unnatural and wrong.
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