Gay students need and deserve to have teachers (gay or nongay) who will both show them creative, nonneurotic ways of channeling their talents and energies and join in the battle against the ignorance that makes gay people such ready prey to nongay predators. As may be seen from three papers written in a teachers' workshop class on the topic "When…

Chair placement was used to determine the effect on social distance created by a person being perceived as homosexual in orientation. Eighty undergraduates subjects, 40 male and 40 female, were interviewed for 10 minutes by either a male or a female experimenter who orally administered a specifically designed Attitude Towards Homosexuality Scale.…

A case study was conducted at a small Catholic college attempting to change the cultural environment for people who identify themselves as different from the white, Catholic, middle class, heterosexual norm represented on the campus. Thirty members of the college faculty, students, and administration and staff were selected through stratified…

This presentation takes an historical approach to homosexuality and homophobia in public schools. The methodology of "history from below" is applied. Methodological considerations are discussed, and experiences of gay and lesbian teachers and students are explored. The psychological, moral and political meanings various groups attach to…

A college writing instructor used lesbian and gay fiction in three of his classes--two freshman composition classes and a science fiction class. His university accepted the instructor's right to use these materials and acknowledged students' rights to opt out of the classes after they learned the requirements of the class. The instructor viewed…

As a male professing feminism to his female elementary education students, an education professor faced problems, philosophically and pragmatically, as he and his students contested feminist theory and pedagogies in class. During the summer of 1986, 62 of his students conducted oral histories of retired or veteran teachers of literacy in the…

Using a textualist approach (looking at meaning above and beyond overt message elements), a study examined televised public service announcements (PSAs) about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) produced by the Ad Council and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Both ads identify young people who should be concerned…

This paper addresses five specific questions: (1) What are the attitudes and feelings of preservice teachers toward homosexuality? (2) How do these compare with other samples of professional and student groups? (3) What contact have preservice teachers had with lesbians and gay men? (4) What are preservice teachers' views of their professional…

A study investigated the extent to which members of a state agency reported that they are comfortable talking about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the attendant topics of sex, homosexuality, intravenous drug use, death, and disease and the extent to which they use direct talk and indirect talk when they communicate about these…

Recent court definitions of immoral conduct require that employers establish a nexus between the objectionable conduct and the individual's fitness to teach, while teacher plaintiffs have argued that dismissals for alleged immoral conduct violated various constitutional rights. This paper reviews a cross-section of recent court cases involving…

A diagnosis of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has both a physical and psychosocial impact that require substantial support. Relating to the families of origin concerning an AIDS diagnosis is a difficult task which sometimes results in rejection and sometimes results in support. In this study subjects (N=32) with AIDS described their…

Administrators and teachers should ensure that gay and lesbian students are accorded rights equal to those accorded to heterosexual students. Administrators have the responsibility to find and hire gay and lesbian teachers and to secure for them total equality with heterosexual teachers as well as a supportive, accepting atmosphere; under such…

Using ethnographic research methods, semistructured interviews were conducted with three women involved with a gay/lesbian/bisexual student organization. All three individuals were sophomores at an urban university in a large metropolitan area. The students discussed the fluid nature of the definitions of lesbian, gay, and bisexual, noting that…

It is important to discuss sexuality with elementary students. Elementary teachers can help children learn to share public space with people who are similar and different from themselves. This should include discussions of homosexual people. One reason to discuss sexuality in elementary schools is that it is already present in students' lives (via…

Over a 12-year teaching career--7 years on the college level--an instructor has found that his healthy identity as a gay male informs his performance in the contact zone of the classroom in ways that may be different than that of heterosexual teachers. It appears that gay male composition teachers who are less closeted view their sexual…