This is despicable!<\/p>\n
The Gay Animal Kingdom Should Now Be Required Reading
\nCategory: Biology \u2022 Education \u2022 Gender & Sexuality \u2022 Politics \u2022 Wingnuts
\nPosted on: November 3, 2009 5:30 PM, by Eric Michael Johnson
\nBy now everyone has heard of the high school English honors teacher, Dan DeLong, who was suspended for offering students the Seed magazine article “The Gay Animal Kingdom” by Jonah Lehrer as an optional extra credit assignment.
\nAccording to the Alton, IL based Telegraph newspaper, DeLong has now been reinstated at Southwestern High School after several hundred students and parents attended a six-hour long disciplinary hearing:
\nAt Monday night’s meeting, more than 200 people lined the stairs, sidewalk and office space at the district’s small unit office at 884 Piasa Road in the Macoupin County village of Piasa. Many of DeLong’s supporters had handmade posters and banners stating: “Mr. DeLong Inspires Us,” and chanting, “Broadening minds is not a crime.”
\nUnfortunately, what it looks like is that DeLong entered a plea deal with the Board of Education where he would admit that the article was “inappropriate” in exchange for going back to work. In a statement that DeLong read, on behalf of both himself and the School Board, this agreement was that:<\/strong>
\n[T]he Board of Education and administrator’s concern was never about sexual preference or homophobic condemnation. Rather, the issue of concern was the age appropriateness of the material. . . I agree with the board that the material in my class was not age appropriate for my sophomores and for that I apologize. I understand the board has decided that I shall receive a Notice of Remedial Warning.
\nThis is wrong on several levels. First off, this is absolutely about homophobic condemnation. No one would have had any problems with a science article that described the evolution of heterosexual monogamy in voles or gibbons. Such an article would have naturalized a belief that many people hold as the only legitimate kind of relationship for our society today. However, by showing that same-sex pairs exist in the natural world (and that gender is a much more fluid concept than people may have realized) it challenges people’s assumptions about what “natural” actually is. Because they were threatened by this idea, the Board is confessing that ANY discussion that homosexuality could be natural is therefore inappropriate. It’s homophobia, pure and simple.<\/strong>
\nvia The Gay Animal Kingdom Should Now Be Required Reading : The Primate Diaries<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is despicable! The Gay Animal Kingdom Should Now Be Required Reading Category: Biology \u2022 Education \u2022 Gender & Sexuality \u2022 Politics \u2022 Wingnuts Posted on: November 3, 2009 5:30 PM, by Eric Michael Johnson By now everyone has heard of the high school English honors teacher, Dan DeLong, who was suspended for offering students … <\/p>\n