It was 1999 in the Buckle of the Bible Belt, in the reddest state in the union as in each election the state went totally red with not enough blue anywhere in it to render it even somewhat purple. All school activities were hetero-normative with dances, King and Queen of whatever, best couple contests for Valentines day, and, obviously, Hetero-only dances.

What I hung in  my classroom was a list of names, no pictures, no descriptions, but names.only.

There was no fanfare as the list was posted quietly after hours and was left to be discovered by the students without any attention being drawn to it.

The following month, November, was, according to the list of what months were the heritage months of various groups, Native American History Month, so I put out a lot of information on my “Learn Stuff” table in the hall outside my classroom door about Native Americans and a book on the facts of the first Thanksgiving. I did this for each month.

My principal who claimed Tribal Affiliation took offense and charged me with hypocrisy as, while I was demanding respect for Gay people, I chose to celebrate native American Heritage during November, the month with the most anti- Native American holiday in it. Salivating at his having a concrete reason to reject anything Gay, the principal contacted the head of Native American Student services and they both came to my classroom to inspect the offending display. I received a few sensitivity lectures and a threat of admonishment for this until on the following day the head of Native American Student Services acknowledged his embarrassment as he had been unaware that November is officially designated as Native American History Month and I was the only person in the school district to be acknowledging that.

The following year there was a display at the top of the stairs in the second floor hallway, but I wrote a formal objection as there were pictures of the usual Native American images, but no knowledgment of Two-Spirit People.

The reprimand is written by a Heterosexual totally blind to the realities faced by Gay students. They are invisible and beaten down whenever they came into the light like it was all a game of Whack-a-Mole at the state fair midway.

Read the reprimand carefully. Notice the blindness expressed. 

One thing positive for Gay students outweighs all the Heterosexism.

Notice what is most strongly objected to is the Gay students getting a crumb of what the Straight ones had.

Also, note that while I was being reprimanded for not following a directive, emails and other correspondence had referred to my not following a “suggestion” until they needed a stronger charge. Ten years later this discrepancy was shown in court and played into the ruling that re-instated me.

This letter came after a meeting where I had explained the importance of this information not just for Gay students but their peers as well.

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