NYT: Standing Up After Fearing Standing Out( lesbian h.s. coach fired)

[DeepModem Mom]

Standing Up After Fearing Standing Out
By JULIET MACUR

Published: April 15, 2005


BLOOMBURG, Tex., April 14 - In this rural East Texas town, where news spreads among the 375 residents through phone calls and gossip-gathering trips to the Shell Mart, Merry Stephens knew the rumors about her.

Stephens is a lesbian, the townsfolk whispered.

Though it was true, Stephens denied it for five years while she was the coach of a championship high school basketball team in Bloomburg, afraid the truth would cost her a job.

Last December, the board of the Bloomburg Independent School District, in a 4-3 vote, began proceedings to fire Stephens for what she said was homophobia veiled as unfounded allegations of insubordination. She was put on administrative leave.

Stephens contested the charges, calling in lawyers from the Texas State Teachers Association and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and last week she agreed to a settlement with the school district on condition that she refrain from further legal action....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/sports/othersports/15coach.html?8hpib

[sui generis]

1. wow - but you know, that's where they get us most often

is in small Harper Valley PTA towns.

At least she won a settlement out of the deal. It is utterly amazing how absurd and dishonest those people can be while claiming to be "moral".

Next they'll be hanging single women who have had sex before marriage; oh wait, they do that in Iran. But it could happen here.

[JoFerret]

6. ...and the irony is

the estranged daughter is the one comparing the town to Peyton Place.

[zbdent]

2. If I were a teacher today, I'd

buy myself a small video camera (with microphone), a cheap VCR, and a ton of 8-hour tapes.

Strategically place video cam & vcr in a way that the students don't see it, but it covers the entire area.

When a child is disciplined (especially when the child is a spawn of RW parents known for their "anti-teacher" mentality), and the teacher meets with the parents, the teacher would have the evidence to use against the kid. If it would go that far.

I would only use the tapes as a "nuclear option" - when the parents rant against me and try to have me removed.

Keep it quiet until the parents are primed to be humiliated.

[JoFerret]

7. Not wise

...like carrying a gun - an invitation to be misunderstood in your intenrions and and have it turned against you.

[madrchsod]

3. well i am shocked!!!

a lesbian gym teacher! the high school that i and my wife`s school both had lesbian gym teachers and that was 35 years ago.they both retired and were replaced by other lesbian gym teachers. everyone knew it but no one gave a shit.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Kids' school and their rival schools' coaches were lesbian partners --

nobody cared; kids loved the coach. (In fact, it was kind of a hoot that they had to field opposing teams.)

[JoFerret]

5. What courage it takes

...to stand up to the bigotry of circumstances like that. Good for Merry Stephens. How awful she and so many others are forced to face this hatred and ignorance.

[msanthrope]

8. Hypocrisy at its finest---note the different names of the

father and daughter....

"Some parents of Stephens's players wanted her gone. Craig Hale, who owns an oil company, said he does not want a lesbian teaching his children and possibly influencing the way they think. His daughter, Kaitlyn Cornelius, played for Stephens last season and said she felt uncomfortable around the coach, though she said Stephens never did anything inappropriate.

"I had nothing against her as a person," Hale said, but if he stood up for "one lesbian" that would mean he was "for them adopting kids, and my morals and the Bible doesn't allow that.""

Now, my friends, what do you want to bet, dollars to doughnuts, that Mr. Hale has married a woman previously maried to someone else? Now, that's not against God's word, is it?

Beam. Own Eye. Mote. Neighbor's Eye.