October was coming to an end and with it Gay History Month and its annual Keystone Kops-like reaction from school and district administrators. As I always did to make sure there had been no changes, I had consulted the accepted list of which months were dedicated to which groups and/or causes on the internet that in the past would have meant a trip to the library to find which month is dedicated to whom and what to prepare for November.
When I looked up the months, I would look for the ones relevant to my students, skipping the medical months and the months that commemorated some baked good, and went to race, ethnicity, and culture as I could relate these to my students and my courses that involved literature. I know many teachers that do this during each school year.
I had already been doing it in this school district and elsewhere for thirty years of teaching, so, continuing the practice in the opening years of this millennium was routine.
It is how I found that because many schools start in August in some places and in others still on the day after Labor Day, Hispanic Heritage Month does not get all of September but the second half of it, assuming opening days and weeks would make any commemoration difficult as there had been no one around to put any Heritage display up and when everyone is just showing up, and the first half of October, while the Asians get May when no one pays attention as there are graduations, final exams, and Spring Fever with nothing during the summer months when year round schools are in session or it is just summer school kids.
According to the list I had followed over the years, both pre and post internet, as I removed anything related to Gay History, I replaced it with Native American Heritage material. Just as was my intention with the other months, especially October, I avoided the standard display of Indigenous People which are too often based on the White Man’s interpretation of what he sees of Native American Culture in favor of biographies, real history, not the Hallmark version, as in the true account of what happened before, during, and after 1620 in the area of the country in which I once owned a house and whose real history of which I was aware. Among what was included was a recent published biography of Crazy Horse which a student asked to take home to show her great grandfather, and who then asked if I would let him keep it as it contained a picture of someone he knew in his youth and was the only picture of the man he had ever seen.
I had a second copy so it was an easy permission to give. Nothing special. The honor was mine.
So, on November First, Native American Heritage month arrived, and with it a letter from the principal’s office to report for a meeting after school at which, besides the usual attendees, the principal, his assistant, the Union Rep. and myself, there was a new, additional person with each, including my Union Representative, wearing a serious face implying satisfaction on the part of the administrators and resignation on that of the Rep.
Obviously directing his opening remarks to the new person, the principal recounted that I claimed my advocacy was based on the need for all students to feel safe and respected in schools, my main concern being the Gay ones, yet, here I was hypocritically choosing to put up a display about Native Americans during the month that has Thanksgiving in it, clearly taunting the Native American students, and with me being from the area of the country where the charity intended by Massassoit was seen as giving permission to grab the whole continent, showing that my concern was one-sided as I only cared about the Gay students by, obviously, choosing to subtly spit on the Native ones. He wanted me to explain my hypocrisy and my disrespect of the Native American students to the director of Native American Student Affairs who the new person turned out to be so evident by my choosing to call November Native American Heritage Month.
The principal also claimed this was personally insulting to him as he had Tribal Affiliation, and he had found his way to get rid of both the message and the messenger and go back to how, as he told me once, “was how it is.”
Considering that, whereas, New York became the first state to declare an “American Indian Day” in 1916, that, whereas, in 1976, as part of the Bicentennial celebrations, President Gerald Ford proclaimed October 10-16, “Native American Awareness Week,” that, whereas, in 1986 Congress began requesting that the president designate one week during the autumn months as “Native American Indian Heritage Week,” and, whereas, in 1990 Congress passed and President George H. W. Bush signed a law designating the month of November as the first National American Indian Heritage Month (also known as Native American Indian Month), 11 years before this meeting, I informed those present that I did not designate anything. I had simply acknowledged what existed even with my being a Gay, White man with no Tribal affiliation while those who attempted to use theirs as a weapon were not aware of what they should be.
I knew my History Months.
The principal immediately turned to the Director of Native American Student Affairs asking if it were true that November had been designated as I claimed it was, and he admitted he was not aware of that.
Although he had justified his anger about my alleged hypocrisy partly on his tribal affiliation which made it a personal issue for him, the principal had to accept that the Gay man had shown his openness not by following his Gay History Month with a quiet month but had actually put up the first Native American Heritage display in the school that was noticeable enough to be noticed at a school whose principal should have known what month it was and a director of a Student Affairs office who, of course, should have known as well.
This display stayed up and, in honor of my good friend from Tramps, Sue, of the Kiowa Tribe, I made sure there was information, obviously placed, dealing with Two-Spirit People. It was also a test, as the concept of Two-Spirit goes back in the history of the Plains Tribes before Christian Missionaries showed up and tried to change Native American Culture to reflect Europe and it would be interesting to see the principal and the Director of Native American Student Affairs object to its inclusion because it dealt with Homosexuality and, so, would be treated according to European not Native American beliefs which would be proof of the need to educate through the display.
They would have to go against themselves while the Gay man defended their culture.
It was always 3-D chess.
The following November, there was not only a district wide acknowledgement made of November being Native American Heritage Month, but the very large full-wall display case at the top of the stairs in the A-Building had a huge display in it the whole month.
Considering that it all came about because of a Gay man who faced dismissal for being informed where administration was not, I felt no reluctance in formally pointing out that there was a marked lack of any reference to Two-Spirit People in that display and this must be rectified.
It wasn’t.
The annual battle over Gay History Month was to continue and actually intensify over the next two principles, the last being a Lesbian who threw Gay students under the bus to show she was loyal enough to the district leadership to earn the promotion she eventually got.
This is another example where the Gay activists do not exclude, but include while they themselves are left in the cold.
When Gay Student advocacy began, I was constantly asked how long the list of protected classes of students was going to get when we start including Gay students and what about the obese, the left-handed kid, the kid with eyes of two colors, and I pointed out that there should not be a need for a list, those who identify with that list should become an advocate who can speak as one of them, and offered in the meantime adding, “for any other reason real or perceived” after the existing list to over everyone.
That wording was added but, again, it still left the Gay kids out in practice as religion often trumped the Constitution and law.
November became designated as Native American History Month in the school district, because of Gay people, but no one was to turn around and pay anything back during the rest of the time in the district as “I got mine” was the consistent attitude.
And not just among others, but when the state legislature removed the rights of Trans students after their having had them for 12 trouble free years, the rest of the stripes on the Progressive Flag turned out to be all right with that, and are not doing anything to get them their rights back.
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