Wanted: GLBT Advocates in the Texas S.B.O.E.

When I read Mr. Levinson’s commentary on Texas’ education system, I found it to be a very effective commentary, for the most part. Mr. Levinson discusses the TAKS test and presents a well-rooted opinion as to what the true nature of school everywhere should be: it should be functioning for the purpose of “teach[ing] students how to apply learned knowledge, and experience to develop opinions and appropriate actions, based on educated and experienced hypotheses.” It should not be about preparation for a test. It should not be swayed by partisanship or political agendas. However, in Texas, as Mr. Levinson points out, our education board is politically reared, and driven. He expresses the need to pay our teachers better, and to create and “overhaul” of the Texas education system. Though I agreed with most of what Mr. Levinson expresses, as a lesbian, I am a little insulted by one sentence of his opinion: “A conservative republican, or liberal democrat, should not be elected based on their stance on gay rights.” This is an easy thing to say, unless you are gay and living in this infantile country.
In my own commentary, I discuss the fact that a homosexual child is 50% more likely to be harassed, beaten, and, for lack of a better word, made an outcast. I would love to see more people in all elected positions who have a positive view of homosexuality and lesbianism, than the usual negative, biblical hatred that is currently spewed out from most of the politicians in this state. It is a question of human rights, safety and understanding. If there were more people on our state board of education who were gay advocates, perhaps they could make changes in schools pertaining to how our gay youth is treated.
Just recently, a fifteen year old boy, who was constantly harassed in school for being gay and a cross-dresser, was murdered by a school mate. Is this not something that should also be addressed by people on the board of education? Perhaps, parents and teachers should address these issues as well. I believe it should be addressed by everyone, but I am one of those outcasts. My opinion tends to differ from the many. Unfortunately, schools are stewing and brewing in politics: whether we like it or not. Politics is swaddled in ideology, religious dogma, and personal agenda. So are schools. It is the true hidden nature of politics and, let’s face it, schools too. Though I agree that politics may have no place in school, I do not think it is practical to dismiss all politics from the education system. Even children in small circles discuss politics of varying degrees.
This, for me, is where the “gay” issue comes in. This is why I believe a person cannot easily dismiss someone who is pro-gay. It is needed for all those youths who have no voice. A change is just around the corner, I hope. In the meantime, how can we help the GLBT minority of this country be safe? Ho do we help them to thrive? How can we empower them to be fully human in a country that dismisses their (my) humanness by “turning the other cheek” on such real and personal issues? Perhaps, baby steps like having a person on the TSBOE, is a good start for our incremental system.
Mr. Levinson is, in my opinion, correct: education “is not an expense, but an investment.” What are we teaching our children in schools when we allow such “politics,” (such as: a gay classmate should be disciplined by other classmates because they are gay) in our schools? I myself grew up experiencing major bigotry and hatred from classmates, and even employers, because of my sexual orientation: as if what I did in the bedroom has anything to do with my intellect or work ethics. We do need to rethink our education system. However, let us not toss out those things that are most innate and deserve our attention just because they seem too controversial to solve. One should not devalue and erase things of such levity, which seep into all aspects of life for many, just because it does not affect them personally. It affects [your] fellow human beings. That is more than enough of a reason.

Texas says, "Gay couple cannot get divorced"

Don’t you just love how a law can override just about anything? Even if the law is completely wrong—without justice, morals, freedom and truth? It sure makes me feel wonderful to be an American citizen, especially since I can get married in only a handful of states. Oh, yeah, and I can’t get a divorce if I want to in Texas! Gee, I sure feel a sense of freedom. This freedom, of course, could never be tainted and twisted in such a light to appear as fairness, even though it is nearly equal in levity as the Jim Crow laws that came to a head in the mid 1960’s.
Though gays may not suffer many things that blacks once suffered under American law, one thing is still obvious to the GLBT community and its supporters: we are ridiculed or worse if we show affection to one another in public. We cannot get married. We are not recognized as first-class citizens. We are often accused of unwarranted perverseness. We are preached about by many ministers, pastors, and the like, as evil, a sin, an abomination, and many other appalling words. We have quaint words that are thrown around, and easily accepted by many as normal: faggot, dyke, fudge-packer, and others that are too crude to mention. We are very mistreated by our own countrymen. I would love everyone to read this articled embedded here. It is about a recent murder of a fifteen year old who knew who he was, and was killed for expressing himself. Read down to the bottom and you’ll see the actual percent of how much more likely a GLBT student is harassed than a “straight” student: 50%. WAKE UP AMERICA! THIS IS BIGOTRY AND PREJUDICE!
According to recent events, dually noted by the Associated Press and the Austin American Statesman, a lesbian couple who were married in Massachusetts was able to get a divorce in Texas, though it is against the legal ban on such issues. Just a few months after, a gay couple wanted to do the same thing. However, they had a different judge who wasn’t from Austin like the judge for the lesbian couple’s hearing. This judge claims that “the parties lack standing to file a divorce case because they are not married” (qtd. in the AP). Hmmmm, I’m thinking that they are married and that Texas has a big fat stick up its “you know what” because it has yet to grow beyond the Dark Ages. The U.S. constitution (under full faith and credit clause) overrides Texas’s law, people! If something is valid in one state, it must be recognized in other states! Really, I don’t think I can say enough about this. I am tired of living in a country that resists growing beyond infancy. I am more than exhausted by this country’s inability to take responsibility for its lack of understanding. In other words, there are too many ignorant people who do not see how treating the GLBT community this way is exactly how we have treated blacks, women, and countless other minorities in the past. This is just simple truth.
There is no difference from Americans once saying that blacks were marked by the devil and that the Bible said they are evil and must be punished, to saying that the Bible says that gays are a sin and do not deserve to be equal citizens because they are not equal under the “god of the Bible.” It is all a cudgel as it has been countless times in the past. Beyond the Bible’s function as a cudgel for hatred, racism, and bigotry, it is a deeply false and hurtful claim that the church has made. How can we still promote, and even suckle from these old ideas and ignorant statements? They do not work!
Once upon a time, other religions were evil according to the Catholic and Protestant Churches, and many others. We’ll use them as an example. Because these other “sacrilegious” faiths were so evil, all the “heretics” involved with them had to be destroyed. St. Patrick was not shooing actual snakes out of Ireland. He was destroying the Irish peoples’ holy sites and aggressively spouting his own ideas of divinity. He even forced several people to get baptized into his religion, which they obviously did not believe in. Must I even mention the Inquisition? I’m talking about all the tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives that were destroyed because of some hot-headed Popes and leaders who thought that torturing and murdering entire cultures would get people to convert to Catholicism. Come on, folks! Wake up and see the evil in those acts! Wake up and see the narrow-minded, destructive, separatist thoughts in those overplayed records! Wake up and see that this same cycle of ignorance, hate and violence is being perpetuated today, here, in Texas and all across America! Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered: they are all people too. Stop accepting the bigotry and prejudice and start seeing the truth. There are so many other countries that are way ahead of America with this, and many other issues. Unfortunately, that’s another blog.
If two people get married and are legally married in one state, this should be recognized in EVERY state. Therefore, if they want to get a divorce, they should be able to get a divorce legally in EVERY state. Not a void, but a divorce. They are married and that is how a marriage is ended people! This kind of divide and prejudice is causing more strife and harm than it is good. We will never be the “land of the free” if we continue down such paths of ignorance, hatred and inequality—never.