Anti-gay Teachings and Teachers

For anyone who doesn't know to what I am referring, here's a link to an article about this. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/viki-knox-union-township-_n_1009582.html

And now, my thoughts. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You have every right to feel that homosexuality is wrong, even immoral, and you have the right to say this. You do NOT, however, have any right to tell kids that they’re worthless. You don’t have any right to bully them and berate them to the point where they feel the world is better off without them. If you’re worried about their afterlife, that’s fine, but there are other ways to get this across.

I did sign this petition, however I thought long and hard about it before I did. As a statement attributed to Voltaire goes, “I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The statements by this teacher seemed to me to go beyond the pale, but I needed to make certain that this was not a visceral reaction to the hatefulness of the statements. I think they are abhorrent, but she does have the right to say them.

This situation is different, however, and I have been able to put my finger on why. One, her Facebook profile was public at the time she posted these statements. That means that any of her students, past or present, or any student in the school could see. She is a teacher and, as such, in the position of having children in her care, children who look to her for protection. Furthermore, New Jersey has very strict anti-bullying statutes in place. She is required to uphold them, but how can she be trusted to do that when she is taking part in the vicious language that is contributing to our LGBT children killing themselves? If she had made statements like this about any other minority, she would have been fired without a second thought. Why are our LGBT youth less deserving of protection? Why are they less worthy of politeness and consideration? Even if you believe that LGBT choose to live their lives this way, why the vitriol? If you’re so worried about their immortal souls, how is browbeating them, insulting them, cutting them down to nothing going to help anyone?

And I’ve somewhat digressed from the point I was trying to make. The point is this: Yes, you have a right to your beliefs and you have a right to state those beliefs. That does not, however, mean that there will never be consequences. And it does not mean that there should never be consequences. If I ever went to work for a Christian organization, I would keep my opinions about certain things to myself. And if I did open my big mouth, I’d expect to be fired, regardless of what the forum was. If this teacher can’t bring herself to accept her LGBT students, and if she can’t keep that to herself in a public forum, then she shouldn’t be teaching. Period.