NJ Teacher Posts Anti-LGBT Rant on Facebook

[Lusankya]

I don't have to hide the fact I'm heterosexual, why should someone need to hide their homosexuality or transsexuality?

Ok so you'd openly talk about being heterosexual to your high school teacher if you're a high school student? That's a really weird relationship to have with a teacher, sorry. I'm not talking about hiding, I'm talking about simply not talking about it, just like I wouldn't talk about being straight, it's no one's business but mine, unless I'm asking them out on a date.

I'm sorry, but you are being stupid here. Revealing your sexuality to people can be done in ways other than talking about it to someone. I reveal that I'm hetrosexual every time I hug my boyfriend and hold hands with him. I reveal that I'm heterosexual every time he goes to meet me at the airport (or, to go with the classroom setting - every time he meets me after class). I don't have to say a single word to anyone in order to "reveal" my sexuality.

[Block]

I don't have to hide the fact I'm heterosexual, why should someone need to hide their homosexuality or transsexuality?

Ok so you'd openly talk about being heterosexual to your high school teacher if you're a high school student? That's a really weird relationship to have with a teacher, sorry. I'm not talking about hiding, I'm talking about simply not talking about it, just like I wouldn't talk about being straight, it's no one's business but mine, unless I'm asking them out on a date.

I'm sorry, but you are being stupid here. Revealing your sexuality to people can be done in ways other than talking about it to someone. I reveal that I'm hetrosexual every time I hug my boyfriend and hold hands with him. I reveal that I'm heterosexual every time he goes to meet me at the airport (or, to go with the classroom setting - every time he meets me after class). I don't have to say a single word to anyone in order to "reveal" my sexuality.

All that stuff was banned in my high school. A public school. Also straight girls hug girls all the time, and even hold hands, does that make them lesbian?

[Broomstick]

Turns out teenagers in general kill themselves quite regularly, being bullied for being homosexual is just the newest one

No, actually it's a really old reason for a kid offing him/herself.

If you say so. It's pretty new as far as being recognized as the reason why, as opposed to general bullying or depression.

Yeah, I say so. I remember the days when if someone was homosexual and beaten the attitude of society and the police were "they deserved it for being a pervert". Lots of homosexuals have killed themselves due to bigotry and persecution, but of course that, like suicide itself, was commonly and normally simply not talked about until recently.

Yeah? You do understand that, as horrible as rape is, it actually isn't a "fate worse than death"? It's not as bad as being subjected to such mental and verbal abuse on a daily basis that death seems preferable than enduring such a life one more day.

Really? Cause I was subjected to abuse like that for being weird and a nerd, pretty much every day from 6th grade on, and it got physical about once a year when they forgot that I could kick the shit out of them and pushed it too far. Never once did I consider suicide.

You aren't the only one to have been bullied. I got beaten unconscious in a school hallway once. No, I never considered suicide either. On the other hand, there have been well publicized cases of school children recently killing themselves due to unrelenting bullying. Just because you and I never considered that option doesn't mean no one ever did.

Two of my exes were raped, one before I met her, one after we'd been broken up for a couple years, both tried to kill themselves afterwards.

I've known a dozen or so women who have been raped, one of them multiple times by her own father, and yet none of those women, to my knowledge, has ever attempted suicide. Wow, different people react differently to trauma, who could imagine?

Do you understand that a single traumatic event is usually more damaging than being bullied?

Do you understand that different people react differently to similar trauma? Do you understand that some rapes are worse than others? Do you understand that some types of bullying are worse than others?

Just because person A withstands condition X successfully does not mean person B will do so.

I don't have to hide the fact I'm heterosexual, why should someone need to hide their homosexuality or transsexuality?

Ok so you'd openly talk about being heterosexual to your high school teacher if you're a high school student? That's a really weird relationship to have with a teacher, sorry. I'm not talking about hiding, I'm talking about simply not talking about it, just like I wouldn't talk about being straight, it's no one's business but mine, unless I'm asking them out on a date.

Are you so socially clueless that you really have no idea of how heterosexuality is expressed without explicitly saying "I am heterosexual"? Let me give you some examples in a hypothetical classroom with OP's Bigot Teacher:

1) A heterosexual woman can speak about her date with a boyfriend on Friday night without fear. A heterosexual man can speak about his date with a girlfriend on Friday night without fear. However, a gay man can not speak of a date with a boyfriend, or a lesbian speak of a date with a girlfriend, without fear of hostility or harassment.

2) A heterosexual can speak about he or she finds a celebrity of the opposite sex "hot" without fear, but a gay or lesbian student would not be able to speak of a celebrity of the same sex in similar terms without fear of hostility or harassment.

3) A heterosexual student could display stereotypical heterosexual behavior in class without fear, but a homosexual student could not do likewise without fear in the OP Bigot Teacher's classroom.

4) A heterosexual student could speak of his/her desire to marry a person of the opposite sex without fear, but a homosexual student could not speak of his/her desire ot marry someone of the same sex with the same lack of concern.

All of the above are normal and typical conversational topic. A heterosexual student can discuss freely whom he or she dates, whom he or she finds desirable, whome he or she wants to spend their life with without fear and it be accepted as a normal conversational topic. A homosexual, though, can not in Bigot Teacher's classroom, not without risking problems. We're not talking about someone standing up and saying "I'm heterosexual" or "I'm homosexual", we're talking about one group being able to freely discuss very common topics and the other group have to remain silent on those same topics or risk harassment.

That's why I said - I don't have to hide being heterosexual, or worry about what someone might to do me to "punish" me for finding the opposite sex desirable, or discussing who I love, or any of that. Why should homosexuals have to scrumptiously avoid such topics if they want to remain safe?

[Broomstick]

All that stuff was banned in my high school. A public school.

What, so now your school is the model for all other schools? Do you have any conceoption that other people live different lives than you do? Do you have any understanding that your personal experience is not universal?

Also straight girls hug girls all the time, and even hold hands, does that make them lesbian?

In some cultures, yes, it would be considered outrageous. As it is, in our culture that's considered OK. But this is not just about girls - what would happen if two boys carried on that way? This is not just about hugs and hand holding - what would have been the assumption if two girls at your school had been French kissing in public?

[Serafina]

Broomstick and Lusankya already covered how students would have to hide their homosexuality in the classroom of that teacher. And they WOULD have to, given that she is public about her views. That alone already threatens any LGBT-students she might have AND tells them that it is not okay to be who they are. And if that teacher was still allowed to teach, it would also tell them that it is okay to be a homophobic bigot.
But no, apparently she has to outright, actively harm a student before we can take any action at all Offering a save environment for students is apparently too much to ask for Block.

And at least homosexual students could attempt to hide their homosexuality from that teacher - that's already bad enough, but transgendered students could NOT even attempt to do the same. Instead of having to life with constant fear of being outed to a teacher who then might treat them like shit, transgendered student would have to live with the constant fear of being treated worse by her. Not to mention the myriad ways she could disrespect their gender identity without there being any way to punish her for this.
What, did you think that her treating LGBT-students worse than others would have to be done in such a manner that you can immediately impeach her for this? Teachers get away with gender discrimination - treating girls worse than the boys - all the time, because they are smart enough to do it subtly. What's to stop her from doing the same to LGBT-students?

Personally, if i would have had such a teacher in school, i would attempt to switch schools or at the very least get another teacher.