365gay.com reports that a Bronx high school teacher was fired for “15 specific incidents of discrimination, harassment and misconduct during the 2001-2002 school year.” Other incidents dated as far back as 1985.
Teacher Terence Brunson, 44, demanded the transfer of lesbian students out of his classroom. He also ordered “all homosexual students in his [class] to raise their hands and publicly identify themselves.” And he told a lesbian student, “I could get a guy to turn you straight.” This was apparently Brunson’s notion of ex-gay counseling.
Teachers like Brunson make life (and education) difficult for sexually struggling students. Ex-gay organizations could make a constructive difference for these children if they worked with pro-tolerance groups to punish bullying and foster respectful disagreement.
But XGW does not know of a single ex-gay organization that works to reduce violence and harassment by antigay teachers and students. If someone knows of specific ex-gay efforts to stop bullying, please contact us.
Well, they probably couldn’t have figured this out ahead of time, but it would have been really, really funny if the whole class had raised their hands when he asked the big one and then winked at him on and off the rest of the year.