Article contents
Presidential Address: Political Pawns in an Educational Endgame: Reflections on Bryant, Briggs, and Some Twentieth-Century School Questions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Extract
The whole question of whether or not homosexual teachers should be allowed in the classroom is academic. We are in the classroom, in virtually every school in the country, teaching effectively at every level in both public and private schools.
—Michael Greene, 1977
Newsweek ran an article on “The Homosexual Teacher” in December 1978. At the end of a tumultuous two-year period framed by Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign in South Florida and John Briggs' proposition to bar gay and lesbian educators from working in California public schools, reporters concluded, “Most homosexual teachers are deeply plagued by job anxiety.” That observation likely came as no surprise.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2013 History of Education Society
References
1 Michael Greene quoted in Blount, Jackie M., Fit To Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and Schoolwork in the Twentieth Century (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005), 137.Google Scholar
2 Lubow, Arthur, Howard, Lucy, and Doughertry, Lisa, “The Homosexual Teacher,” Newsweek, 18 December 1978, 91, accessed 23 August 2012, 0-www.lexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/.Google Scholar
3 Mathews, Tom, Fuller, Tony, and Camp, Holly, “Battle Over Gay Rights,” Newsweek, 6 Tune 1977, 16, accessed 23 August 2012, http://0-ww.lexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/. Fred Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America's Debate on Homosexuality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 53–54; Eskridge, William N., Jr., Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 356–61.Google Scholar
4 Mathews, , Fuller, , and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights.”Google Scholar
5 On the early court challenges brought by gay and lesbian teachers see Blount, Fit To Teach, 112–20. Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 51; Blount, Fit To Teach, 134.Google Scholar
6 Eskridge, Gaylaw, 356–61.Google Scholar
7 Shack, Ruth, 18 May 1977, quoted in program for a Tribute to Ruth Shack, 17 June 1999, “Ruth Shack” folder, Cabinet 1 M, Stonewall Library and Archives, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (hereafter referred to as SLA); Mathews, Fuller, and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights.”Google Scholar
8 Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 218.Google Scholar
9 Ibid., 71–75.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., 75–78.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., 76–77, 82. The Commission voted the proposed ordinance into law by a 5–3 margin on 18 January 1977.Google Scholar
12 Kelley, Ken, “Cruising with Anita,” Playboy (May 1978): 232.Google Scholar
13 Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 137.Google Scholar
14 Falwell, Jeny, quoted in Mathews, Fuller, and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights”; Lindsy Van Gelder, “Anita Bryant on the March: The Lessons of Dade County,” Ms. Magazine (September 1977): 76.Google Scholar
15 Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 138–39; Mathews, , Fuller, , and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights”; Van Gelder, “Anita Bryant on the March,” 76.Google Scholar
16 Fejes, Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 67–68.Google Scholar
17 Ibid., 136–37.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., 111–12; Gelder, Van, “Anita Bryant on the March,” 78, 100–1.Google Scholar
19 Steele, Richard and Camp, Holly, “A ‘No’ to the Gays,” Newsweek, 20 June 1977, 27, accessed 28 August 2012, 0-www.lexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/.Google Scholar
20 Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, 35, 38, 68, 126.Google Scholar
21 Blount, Fit To Teach, 134–35.Google Scholar
22 Jean O'Leary, quoted in ibid., 136. See also p. 135.Google Scholar
23 Blount, Fit To Teach, 118–19, 136.Google Scholar
24 Shilts, Randy, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982), 223; Blount, Fit To Teach, 137.Google Scholar
25 Quoted in Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 238.Google Scholar
26 Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 221.Google Scholar
27 Ibid., 221–23.Google Scholar
28 Blount, Fit To Teach, 138.Google Scholar
29 Don Liles, quoted in ibid., 139.Google Scholar
30 Quoted in Blount, Fit To Teach, 146.Google Scholar
31 Blount, Fit To Teach, 151–52, 154.Google Scholar
32 Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 247.Google Scholar
33 Blount, Fit To Teach, 152–53.Google Scholar
34 See Bell, Derrick, “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma,” 93 Rev, Harv. L. 518 (1980) and Bell, Derrick, Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform, vol. 9 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 49–58.Google Scholar
35 California State Senator Richardson, H. L., quoted in Jeanne Taylor, “California Anti-Gay Initiative: Another Dade County?” News Do It Now (September/October 1977), n.p., File 7, Box 11, Series #7439, Papers, James Foster, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection. See also, Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 248.Google Scholar
36 On this point see Lugg, Catherine A., “Thinking about Sodomy: Public Schools, Legal Panopticons, and Queers,” Educational Policy 20, no. 1 (January/February 2006): 35–58; “Sissies, Faggots, Lezzies, and Dykes: Gender, Sexual Orientation, and a New Politics of Education?” Education Administration Quarterly 39, no. 1 (February 2003): 95–135; and “The Religious Right and Public Education: The Paranoid Politics of Homophobia,” in Sexualities in Education: A Reader, eds., Erica, R. Meiners, and Therese Quinn (New York: Peter Lang, 2012), 61–72.Google Scholar
37 Mathews, Fuller, and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights.”Google Scholar
38 Counts, George S., Dare the School Build a New Social Order? (New York: The Company, John Day, 1932); Beale, Howard K., Are American Teachers Free? (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936).Google Scholar
39 Woodson, Carter G., The Mis-Education of the Negro (Nashville: Winston-Derek, 1990), originally published in 1933; Haley, Margaret A., “Why Teachers Should Organize,” National Educational Association Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Forty-Third Annual Meeting (Winona, MN: National Educational Association, 1904), 686–94.Google Scholar
40 See newspaper advertisements in “Anita Bryant Ephemera Dade County Coalition for the Humanistic Rights of Gays” file and “Anita Bryant Ephemera 1977 April Miami Victory Campaign” file, both in “Anita Bryant 1977 Ephemera, 1978+ Clippings, Ephemera” Box, and “Anita Bryant Newspaper Ads 1977 Jun 6” file, in “Anita Bryant 1977 Clippings, Magazines” box, SLA; “VOTE FOR REPEAL,” 1; E.R.C., “Gay Rights Referendum,” 4; and the Newland Street Church of Christ, Garden Grove, CA letter, File 5, Box 5, Series #7311, David Goodstein Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
41 Rafferty, Max, “Joining the Bryant Brigade,” reprinted in Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, 142. Also see Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, 15, 17, 45. On the issue of ideological framing see George Lakoff, Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004). On framing as it applies to school politics see Kumashiro, Kevin K., The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right has Framed the Debate on America's Schools (New York: Teachers College Press, 2008).Google Scholar
42 Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, 61–62.Google Scholar
43 Bryant, Anita, quoted in Susan Drake and Bill Brubaker, “A Cooler Crusader,” Newsweek, 3 October 1977, 11, accessed 15 September 2011, 0-www.Jexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=5774.Google Scholar
44 Basker, Robert S., 4 March 1977 Press Release, 2, File 10, Box 11, Series #7439, James Foster Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
45 Dade County Coalition of the Humanistic Rights of Gays, “Official Policies and Guidelines Fo [sic] the Dade County Coalition,” File 42, Box 11, Series #7439, James Foster Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
46 Harms, Bryan D., “All God's Children,” Alive (June 1977): 22, SLA.Google Scholar
47 Brake, Robert, quoted in The Freedom Socialist (Summer 1977): 6–7, “1977” file, “Social Newspapers [Worker's World 1972–1991, Misc. Socialist Newspapers 1970–1990]” box, SLA.Google Scholar
48 The Miami Herald, 8 June 1977, 1, “Anita Bryant To Be Processed” box, SLA.Google Scholar
49 Ibid., 19-A.Google Scholar
50 Briggs, quoted in Melinda Beck, Kasindorf, Martin, and Reese, Michael, “The New Issue; Gay Teachers,” Newsweek, 2 October 1978, 56, accessed 16 September 2012, 0-www.lexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=5774. On the rhetoric that Bryant and Briggs influenced, see Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story, especially Chapter 14, “Homosexual Teachers: Are They Dangerous Role Models?” 113–20; “Playboy Interview: ANITA BRYANT,” Playboy (May 1978): 78, 79; The Baptist Beacon, April 1977, 2, 5, “Anita Bryant Newsletter Publication The Baptist Beacon April 1977” file, “Anita Bryant 1977 Clippings, Magazines” box, SLA; Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 239; and a fundraising letter from Rev. Louis Sheldon and California Save Our Children, File 5, Box 5, Series #7311, David Goodstein Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
51 Askew quoted in Mathews, Fuller, and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights.”Google Scholar
52 Educators’ Task Force, “Statement of Purpose,” in Citizens for Human Rights, Miami, FL, 4, “Anita Bryant Emphemera 1977 Citizens for Human Rights “Educators’ Task Force” file, “Anita Bryant 1977 Ephemera 1978+ Clippings Ephemera” box, SLA.Google Scholar
53 Peterson, Brian, “No More Second Class Citizenship For Teachers or Gays,” in Citizens for Human Rights, Miami, FL, 9, “Anita Bryant Emphemera 1977 Citizens for Human Rights “Educators’ Task Force” file, “Anita Bryant 1977 Ephemera 1978+ Clippings Ephemera” box, SLA.Google Scholar
54 Buchanan, Pat, quoted in Anita Bryant and Bob Green, At Any Cost (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming, H. Revell Company, 1978), 27.Google Scholar
55 “A Self-Serving Politician Has Dreamed Up a ‘Moral’ Crusade. And He Wants You to Pay for It,” NO on 6 pamphlet, File 112, Box 10, Series #7439, James Foster Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
56 “… Briggs,” The Militant, 7 July 1978, news clipping, “1978” file, “Social Newspapers [Worker's World 1972–1991, Misc. Socialist Newspapers 1970–1990]” box, SLA.Google Scholar
57 Ahern, Kit, letter to the editor, Los Angeles Times, n.p., n.d., news clipping, File 49, Box 11, Series #7439, James Foster Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
58 Bryant, Anita, quoted in William Raspberry, “Anita Bryant and Gay Rights: Bigotry or Prudence?” The Washington Post, 2 May 1977, A23.Google Scholar
59 Raspberry, William, “Anita Bryant and Gay Rights: Bigotry or Prudence?” The Washington Post, 2 May 1977, A23.Google Scholar
60 Raspberry, William, “Anita and Gays Should Cool It,” The Washington Post, 17 June 1977, A25.Google Scholar
61 Ibid., n.p.Google Scholar
62 Will, George F., “How Far Out of the Closet?” Newsweek, 30 May 1977, 92, accessed 22 September 2012, 0-www.lexisnexis.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?csi==5774&sr==headline(How%20far%20out%20of%20the%20closet%3F)±and±date±=±1977.Google Scholar
63 W. E. B. Du Bois, “Does the Negro need Separate Schools?,” The Journal of Negro Education 4, no. 3 (July 1935): 686–94.Google Scholar
64 Stanley, G. Hall quoted in Blount, Fit To Teach, 67. Blount established the concept of schools regulating the gender and sexuality of the nation in this volume.Google Scholar
65 Mathews, Fuller, and Camp, “Battle Over Gay Rights,” 16.Google Scholar
66 Bryant, Anita, At Any Cost, 145.Google Scholar
67 Eric Roffes [spelling in original], “Right Wing Launches Gay Rights Attack,” Guardian, 7 June 1978, 6, “Guardian” file, “Socialist Newspapers” box, SLA.Google Scholar
68 Smith, Jean, 18 February 1977 letter, “Anita Bryant Letters 1977” file, “Anita Bryant 1977 Ephemera, 1978+ Clippings, Ephemera” box, SLA.Google Scholar
69 “Calif. Poll Shows Potential to Halt Antigay Drive,” The Militant, 23 September 1977, 23. No file, “Socialist Newspaper” box, SLA.Google Scholar
70 Feinstein, Dianne, quoted in “A Self-Serving Politician Has Dreamed Up a ‘Moral’ Crusade.”Google Scholar
71 Deaderick, Sam, “The Newest Scapegoats,” Freedom Socialist (Summer 1978), 7, “Freedom Socialist” file, “Socialist Newspapers” box, SLA.Google Scholar
72 Ethan Geto, quoted in Andrew Kopkind, “America's New Right,” New Times, 30 September 1977, 29, “Anita Bryant Newspaper 1977” file, “Anita Bryant 1977 Clippings, Magazines” box, SLA.Google Scholar
73 Davis, Angela, quoted in Gay Community News, 1 October 1978, “Anita Bryant Gerber-Hart Library, Chicago, Illinois” [bound copy], “Anita Bryant Books, Record Albums, Etc.” box, SLA.Google Scholar
74 Goodstein, David, fundraising letter, n.d., File 4, Box 5, Series #7311, David Goodstein Papers, Cornell University Human Sexuality Collection.Google Scholar
75 Blount, Fit To Teach, 12. See Rahm Emanuel's claim, “I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union,” in Monica Davey and Steven Yaccino, “Teachers Union in Chicago to Extend Strike into 2nd Week,” The New York Times, 16 September 2012, accessed 30 September 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/education/chicago-teachers-union-extends-strike.html.Google Scholar
76 Haley, “Why Teachers Should Organize,” 146.Google Scholar
77 Du Bois, “Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?” 331.Google Scholar
78 Haley, “Why Teachers Should Organize,” 146.Google Scholar
79 See Huberman, Michael, “On Teachers’ Careers: Once Over Lightly, With a Broad Brush,” International Journal of Educational Research 13, no. 4 (1989): 686–94; and the theoretical connection that Janna Jackson makes between Huberman's work and teacher identity development in “How Do You Spell Homosexual?’ Naturally Queer Moments in K-12 Classrooms,” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3, no. 1 (2010): 37–38.Google Scholar
80 Haley, “Why Teachers Should Organize,” 150–51.Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by