Schools examine lessons of Massachusetts gay marriages

Boston Herald ^ | May 21, 2004 | Associated Press

[Cracker72]

NEWTON, Mass. - Kate Brodoff is a freshman at Newton South High School but lately she's also been a teacher.

The 15-year-old's lesbian parents were plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit that led to Monday's legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts. Her presence lends an insider's perspective to classmates and teachers at Newton South, which like schools across the state is seeing same-sex marriage incorporated into the daily dialogue.

``Some (students) make assumptions. They think that marriage and civil unions are the same,'' Kate said after French class and before she caught a bus to softball practice. ``I try to tell them the actual facts of the case.''

Massachusetts schools have long broken ground in the area of gay rights.

Cambridge Rindge and Latin School became the first public high school in the Northeast to create a gay-straight student alliance more than 15 years ago. Today, there's one in nearly every district. And the state Department of Education has long provided grants to teach acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students.

``Schools have been way ahead of everyone else,'' said Paul Schlictman, president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. ``We've always had gay parents. The only thing that's changed is their legal status.''

Whether textbooks or lesson plans will change to reflect the events of the past week remains to be seen. Until the state's highest court ruled in November that same-sex marriage should be legal, effective Monday, the issue was abstract.

Now, it's a reality. In a history class at Newton South this week, teacher Michael Kozuch raised gay marriage as part of a discussion of the cultural differences between nations.

``My father isn't against gays, but he says marriage is between a man and a woman,'' said one girl, who said she disagrees and has tried unsuccessfully to change her father's mind. ``I got fed up.''

Part of her dad's reasoning is because same-sex couples can't biologically have kids.

``Marriage isn't about kids,'' a boy added. ``It's about two people who love each other.''

Another girl recalled that in ``Romeo and Julius'' - a Shakespeare parody she and other classmates performed recently - the unmarried couple had no hospital visitation rights, one of the benefits married gay couples now enjoy in Massachusetts.

Outside liberal bastions like Newton and Cambridge, however, the discussion is decidedly different.

Michael Barth, a 30-year-old psychology and history teacher at Melrose High School, 10 miles north of Boston, said it's more common for his students to favor traditional marriage. Gay marriage comes up ``all the time'' in lessons on the history of discrimination, he said.

One senior said he'd shoot a gay couple if he saw them holding hands on the street.

``He didn't literally mean it, but it's important not to use words like that,'' Barth said. ``We spent an entire class period just talking about that (comment).''

Barth, who is married with a child, said he tells his students he supports gay marriage. But he said he makes sure to present both sides of any issue.

``There are some very straight-laced teachers who teach right out of the book,'' he said. ``They're just not going to be talking about it.''

For now, gay marriage discussion in the classroom depends on who's teaching.

[lentulusgracchus]

Thanks for the ping.......Kevin Jennings of GLSEN is building himself a retirement reputation as a monstrous mountebank. He'll be right up there with Madame Blavatsky, Victoria Woodhull, and Jesse Jackson.

[lentulusgracchus]

The kid that resists the teacher's advances is a "homophobe," which is the second-worst thing you can be in Mass. public schools (the worst is a "Christian," always said with the sneer quotes).

Strange fate for a State founded by Puritans as a refuge from High Church sneers and persecution back home.

How the mighty are fallen, eh?

[EdReform]

Ping

[lentulusgracchus]

From your UCC link,

Marriage is one of the most significant institutions in our culture. The sacred and civil, church and state dimensions of marriage are complex and often muddled, which makes marriage one of the most challenging issues to discuss in the church and beyond.

These resources are provided to help facilitate conversations and study throughout the church and society on this complex and challenging matter which has important implications for individuals, families and the wider community. They are intended to get people of faith talking about the purposes of marriage, looking more closely at how marriage has evolved and changed through time biblically and socially, exploring the theology of marriage, and critically discerning the appropriate roles for the church and the state in marriage.

By the time you get through the second graf, you know where they're going to come out on the subject of homosexual "marriage". Key words: "muddled" and "how marriage has evolved and changed....." Sure enough, they're all for it.

"Change is good." What do you think it will take to disabuse Americans of this liberal mantra?

"Change is good", said the Visigoth to the Roman. "Yes, indeed", said the Vandal, "-- and I've got next!"

[lentulusgracchus]

I want to be married to a cow. I'd be the first man ever to marry a cow. My name would be carved on the tablets of fame ; it'd be a world-historical first. Doh!