The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
What a difference a day makes. On Jan. 31, two court decisions and one lawsuit in three U.S. states heightened the fight over sexual orientation in public schools. In Massachusetts, an appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by parents who wanted school officials to notify them whenever same-sex families were mentioned in their childrenÕs elementary classrooms. According to the court, exposure to gay marriage (e.g., reading to second graders a story about two princes who fall in love) does not constitute ÒindoctrinationÓ as the parents claimed. On the same day, a lower court in Maryland rejected a challenge by conservative groups to a new sex-education curriculum that includes lessons teaching Òrespect for differences in human sexuality.Ó Meanwhile in the Florida Panhandle, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against a high school that allegedly bans all student expression of support for gay rights. After this dizzying legal whirlwind, school officials may be forgiven for being more anxious than ever about how to handle issues related to sexual orientation. But as public acceptance of differences in sexual identity grows, pressure on schools to address these issues will continue to rise. The Florida schoolÕs strategy of banning any mention of sexual orientation is unrealistic and, many would argue, unfair. Gay, lesbian and bisexual students Ñ not to mention same-sex families Ñ are here to stay. Some state legislators refuse to accept this reality and push for laws that would keep students from being exposed in schools to what they see on TV daily. Other state legislators are moving in the opposite direction by proposing laws to include issues surrounding sexual orientation in the curriculum. When religious conservatives insist on all or nothing Ñ either ban all mention of issues concerning sexual orientation or we will abandon ship Ñ public schools can do little to accommodate their concerns. At the same time, when school officials insist on all or nothing Ñ either accept how we deal with sexual orientation or leave Ð schools lose the support of many religious parents. There is a better way: open the dialog, find common ground and develop fair practices that can be widely supported. ItÕs easier to walk out the door than to reach across the culture-war divide. But if people care about their future together as citizens, itÕs worth a try.
