Letter to Lafayette Parish district board and administration re: “Louisiana”
Dear Dr. Easton, Mr. Thibodaux, and Ms. Bonvillian,
The behavior described by the ACLU in the press release entitled “Louisiana
School Punishes 7-Year-Old Boy for Talking About His Lesbian Moms”(1) is
utterly despicable, it is a disgrace to the good name of public education!
This action has brought international disrepute and disgrace on our nation
(4). Dr. Easton’s those by Mr. Thibodaux (2) and Ms. Wilson (5) clearly
indicate a lack of understanding of the nature of the situation. This
child’s parents are gay, they are two women, and that child should be free
to talk about them, and their relationship, and use the appropriate words
for it, at any age. Any restrictions on that send a clear message that one
set of relationships is acceptable to talk about, and another isn’t. I wish
to thank Ricky Hardy for being the sole member of your board to “get it”,
and advocate for an apology.
I am bisexual, my wife is bisexual, and we co-parent two children from her
first marriage. As a queer parent, I find it utterly horrifying that any
child of a queer parent would be told that his family is a bad word, and be
forced to write “I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again” over and
over; as a bisexual and queer person, I find it a personal insult to have my
identity described as a dirty word. If my children wish to mention their
parent’s bisexuality at school (or that they are “gay” or “lesbian”), then
they should be free to do so - this is no more inappropriate than mentioning
that a child’s mother is from Sweden (as my wife is), or that a child’s
parents are African-American or Asian. This has nothing to do with “bedroom
antics”. It seems completely unreasonable that, given the nature and
explicitness of the documentation supplied by the parent, if there has been
any issues with truly inappropriate language or descriptions, they would not
have been mentioned. Further, the stories being told by your administration
are inconsistent with the facts: for example, the behavior report of Nov.
11th references the Nov. 17th date for the behavior clinic, which tends to
discredit any contention that later behavior created the need for it.(3)
I strongly urge you to immediately and unconditionally apologize to this
woman’s family, settle with the ACLU, compensate the family for the
emotional distress and trauma your staff inflicted, and properly discipline
the administrators and staff in question - they should not be allowed to
supervise any children until they undergo extensive sensitivity training and
psychological counseling to deal with their homophobia. As well, you need to
immediately institute a diversity curriculuum in your district that makes it
unconditionally clear to all staff and students that all families are valued
equally and that the message of hate and intolerance spread by this action
is unacceptable.
I am cc’ing your school board, local newsmedia, and several national
activist mailing lists. I encourage as many people as possible to write you
with their own thoughts and opinions on this issue.
Regards,
Thomas Leavitt
(1)
http://www.aclu.org/LesbianGayRights/LesbianGayRights.cfm?ID=14481&c=104
(2)
http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/C66A2A8C-AE09-4350-859A-4DF684C24AC2.shtml
(3)
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n4829_BC_LA–GayMother-School&&news&newsflash-louisiana
(4)
http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/3BFCDE2F-CD93-46DA-8A6D-9B0DDF58095F.shtml
(5)
http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/FF6CD238-73D9-4270-83B1-835C364EF28D.shtml
