Apparently greatly out of touch, I thought it was important.
Spread from May 10, 2022, through May 18, with two gatherings each graduation night, the high school seniors of Oklahoma City Public Schools will graduate as the first class to have gone from grade 1 to grade 12 with Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity protected in the district’s student policies dealing with bullying, harassment, and nondiscrimination with no negative effects on the school system or the education of students.
Fact is, it was actually a positive influence not only for those students directly affected by the inclusion, but other students who were kept from committing stupid actions and saying stupid things that could come back on them while they learned about the peers they thought they knew.
Thinking this was an important milestone and knowing what it took to arrive at this point, I sent write ups and copies of my relevant blogs so that this local milestone could be celebrated by the greater GLBT Community.
To that end, I sent notices to a number of Transgender organizations, and to local, state, and national GLBT organizations and publications as well as to the University of Central Oklahoma with which I have a connection, and which would be receiving some of those graduates as freshmen and this could make for some interesting studies about the existence of inclusion vs where there is none.
The University responded within a day acknowledging receipt of my email and suggesting this be included in an upcoming curatorial interview, and, after saying it was a story of interest, the Gayly, the local regional Gay Rag, in time for the news to be read before graduation week, printed one of my relevant blogs in the April print edition.
The rest have remained silent, in spite of my resending the information two additional times and being assured by two national organizations that someone would be getting back to me each time without that actually ever happening.
In the early days of the advocacy, on a Christmas visit home, I had gone to the office in the Massachusetts Statehouse where Governor Weld had established an office to deal with Gay student issues and used what I got from there as part of my research. I also had poster for the youth suicide prevention organization, the Trevor Project, whose poster I had in my classroom and whose continued placement I had to fight for. Considering that while one organization worked to make schools safe and welcoming for Gay students while the other works to prevent the number of teen suicides that plague the Gay Community, I was rather surprised that neither has responded.
The Oklahoma Gazette that had given very positive and supportive coverage of the effort to get the school district policies more inclusive, had not responded to anything sent.
Local, in state organization such as Freedom Oklahoma, a GLBT advocacy organization and SISYU, an organization addressing the needs of Homeless people ages 14-24, then high school and trade school or college have also failed to respond.
A lack of a response from the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD were not a surprise as the former had responded to a request for help in 1999 when the reaction to advocacy was over the top Homophobic, and, yes, that includes the strict meaning of phobia, not with the requested advice and resources by asking for donations with their only involvement having been to keep sending requests for donations, but otherwise ignored me, and the latter turned down any help because Oklahoma City did not have the name draw that would result in a nationally trumpeted win, and said they were looking at a similar situation in a more notable state when, to my way of thinking, a victory in the Buckle of the Bible Belt regarding inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in school policies would have been a much more significant win than one in a location where wins in favor of the Gay Community were becoming common. GLAAD chose instead to go with a court case in another state and lost because the judge ruled that as the teacher had put his display out in the public school hallway where students would have been unable to avoid seeing it, he was forcing his “opinion” on the unwilling in a space over which he had no say. Had he placed his Pride display inside his classroom, as I had done, the ruling would have gone the other way as the teacher controls the classroom and what is in it is not strictly on public, forced display.
They went for a big-name location in a more northern and urban state and lost what they could have won in Oklahoma City.
Also of no surprise was the lack of response from the principal of the school I had been teaching in during the majority of the advocacy and certainly during the most difficult times of it, the Superintendent or the school board.
Since I get their posts on Facebook, I also sent information and write-ups to Joe.My.God, Queerty, and Buzzfeed.
Nothing.
Considering the importance this milestone would have for students in the state of Oklahoma, I notified every Gay Pride Committee in that state assuming that this would be a matter of Pride. The only responses each time were requests to like the page.
Finally, I wrote a letter based on a summation of my blogs to the Daily Oklahoman, the newspaper that during my time in Oklahoma was rated by the Columbia School of Journalism as the most conservative newspaper in the United States and had been supportive of the administration as I was Gay and Union, two demons in that part of the country, but which, after initially opposing inclusion for the usual political and religious excuses, saw, as more things came out regarding questionable administrative actions that amounted to spreading falsehoods about Gay people in general and me in particular, twisting school policies to support their actions and making false, and obviously so, attacks on me as a person, after reviewing my collected documentation at a meeting of the education reporter and editor became an ally .
I considered writing to the Oklahoman a long shot. If the Gay groups weren’t interested, why would they be?
An editor got back to be the very afternoon I had sent my email and attachments asking If I had submitted that particular letter to any other newspaper. My responding email that assured that it wasn’t, was followed by a second email within minutes asking what descriptor should follow my name, and I accepted the one they offered as it was a good one and had a bit of an unseen edge to it, and then received a third email concerning some editorial detail and requesting a head shot that they ultimately did not use which was good as all the other letters had head shots, but mine did not and stood out as it was different.
The letter was printed within a few days in their Sunday edition. Sundays are good days to have letters published as a lot of people read Sunday papers thoroughly.
The least likely entity to show any interest in the Class 0f ’22 Milestone was the one that published the news, prominently on the opinion page.
Starting tonight, May 10, 2022 the first class of students to have gone through twelve years of school with Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression and during that time none of the predicted evils took place.
Inclusion caused no harm.
The lack of response is bad enough as it implies this milestone is either of no importance or it is in the Buckle of the Bible Belt when it would have been better if it was in a place favored by the national groups, but it is made worse by the fact that during the past year, while Oklahoma was promoting bathroom bills and rules about Transgender students because of all the assumed ills that would come about, no one representing the interests of GLBT students pointed out that for the twelve years of inclusive language in the school policies of the capitol city in which the debate about sports, bathrooms, and a high school understanding of genetics was being held in the legislature chamber, there had been no problems and none of the predicted harm took place.
Instead, they engaged in a call and response routine where one side lied and the other simply told them they were lying, but never presented the facts to counter the lies with the 12 years of evidence to the contrary.
Did not banning Trans kids from playing sports ruin sports?
Were there any bathroom issues?
Did reading books with “Homosexual Themes” become required reading in the schools?
Did the Gay kids takeover the schools, making every event a Gay one?
The answer is no.
Yet because those fighting these bills do not present the evidence, it appears to the politicians and public that the assumed evils are inevitable when the evidence shows it is not.
As of May 18, 2022, the seniors from North West Classen High School walking the stage to get their diplomas will end a 25 year chapter from original request to the first class to graduate with inclusive language their whole education career.
Most will not know the milestone they reached and their silent role in history mainly because it is ignored by the very people who should be celebrating them.
Perhaps as a way to rectify the apathy, those fighting these new restrictive bills will honor these students by presenting the evidence they produced when the other side lies, instead of pouting about the lies or coming across like the meme with the yelling lady and the cat.
The small minded might say that these things haven’t happened yet, but will, however, the reality is they had predicted immediate Sodom and Gomorha before and it just did not happen. Their only excuse, like those who keep rescheduling The Rapture is to continue saying that someday in the future there will be one incident that causes an easily addressed problem, just wait no matter how long it takes.
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