A few years ago, Sarah Shulman, a writer, playwright, and gay rights activist, came to BC for a lecture. She was an active member of ACT UP and was the cofounder of the activist group, Lesbian Avengers. One of the most important “take-aways” I got from this lecture was how much more children need to be introduced to what being gay is from early on in life. Children learn a lot about the culture of our society and what’s considered “normal” from TV and movies, especially Disney movies. If there was, for example, a Disney movie made about a gay couple rather than the typical prince/princess relationship, this relationship might become more normalized and accepted.
The film we watched really addressed teaching GLBTQ topics in elementary classrooms, which is something I hadn’t ever taken too much time to think about. Although I think that the Friends school was doing a positive thing in promoting respect for gays with Gay Pride Day (I can’t remember if that’s what they called it), I think we need to make sure we aren’t just learning about and talking about this during one day of the year. This is similar to what we’ve talked about regarding culture, for example. Students’ cultures should be incorporated as much as possible in the classroom and not just celebrated on one day. This is an issue of respect and therefore, I believe should be talked about in classrooms frequently if possible.
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