Article: Sissies, Faggots, Lezzies, and Dykes:
Gender, Sexual Orientation, and a New Politics of Education? By
Lugg, Catherine A.
Prior to returning
to the classroom I studied “Development”, largely with an international
focus. However, as a math teacher of Title
1 low-income neighborhood schools of Atlanta, GA and Memphis, TN, I pursued my
master’s degree with the idea that education is a major development problem for
our country. The more I studied, despite
my interest in international issues and working on projects for CARE in
Ethiopia on Emergency Famine Response and The Carter Center on mental health
care initiatives in Liberia, I have always come back to U.S. education. Surely, these issues, and a multitude of
others, are critical arenas that must be addressed so that marginalized human
populations be enabled to lead lives with rights recognition and economic
choice. That said, as I read Lugg’s
article, Sissies, Faggots, Lezzies, and Dykes:
Gender, Sexual Orientation, and a New Politics of Education?, I
could not help but feel that my education has, in some ways come, full
circle. The marginalization of queer
populations in our public schools is a structural issue effecting, often times
negatively, the quality of education received by all stakeholders.
Lugg’s commentary
around roles within U.S. education brings to light that since the beginning of
this system, gender and sex have dictated who does what. Within the U.S. education system woman have
been restricted from marriage, and administrative roles. Men have been put on a fast tract to
administration and ostracized for remaining classroom teachers simply because
of the perceptions involved should they remain in the classroom. Queer individuals have been kept from
teaching/education professions as a result on legal mandates. Here, one can see there clear interaction
between U.S. policy, gender, sexual orientation, and U.S. public education. Our public education is a forum by which U.S.
policy is enforced, and from which political ideas are generated.
(Please note: gender
and sex are separate. Gender defined by
Lugg as “a set of roles and behaviors that individuals are expected to follow
as determined by societies and cultural racial, ethnic, and religious groups of
what it means to be male and female”.
Sex, however, refers to a “chromosomal” distinction.)
Gender, and its
interpretation culturally throughout the history of U.S. political action, has
dictated how various populations are treated within schools. In other words, gender and sexual orientation
are structural issues, as mentioned above, which as Lugg puts it, determine
“who gets what, when and how”. Considering
social justice and human rights recognition, gender and sexual orientation are
not areas to ignore if we are hoping to provide equitable education within our
public school systems.
Despite these
facts, schools are historically, again, rights violating institutions for
faculties and students that are queer.
Over the past years legislation has tended to create a policy paradox
where queer student populations are more protected than queer teachers and
administrators. Lugg urges that should
we wish to address this, more research is needed. Additionally as policy is written we must
remember that, “the problems confronting queer children are not that they are
queer – on the contrary, the American legal foundations for homophobia,
heteronormativity, and gender bias generate their problems”. As we seek to address gender and sexual
orientation issues, an essential question we must ask is “are we considering
these populations as ‘deviant’, and if so, what implications does such a
perception have on policy we create (or do not) create?”
Now, back to development. There are many interpretations for what
“human development” is and means. For
me, this would mean that rural pastoralists of Ethiopia continue to be
pastoralists despite a global economy that now interferes with their centuries
old practice of living off the land, and doing it well. Human development means that all students
regardless of their individuality, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and
what other distinction, are enabled a quality and non-discriminatory
education. Should our cultural views
stand in the way of that and permeate into political life, as they do, we have a
lot of work to do in the area of shifting historically held beliefs and customs
which bar rights and freedoms for millions.
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