“Pride flags, which were created to promote unity, are being called political and divisive in some schools across the country. A recent example: An Oregon school board on Tuesday banned educators from displaying the flags.
“'We don’t pay our teachers to push their political views on our students. That’s not their place,' a school board member in Newberg, Brian Shannon, the policy’s author, said at a recorded board meeting.”
(Matt Lavietes. “Education culture war finds a new target: Pride flags in classrooms.” NBC News. October 03, 2021.)
Should a Pride flag in a classroom be considered “a political view”? “Political” may be defined legally as “pertaining to policy or to the administration of the government.” However, recent Supreme Court rulings support gay rights as “civil rights” – “legal provisions to personal liberty that stem from notions of equality” such as the right to a fair trial or the right to a public education. Political or civil? Both? Or is this issue strictly in the eyes of the beholder?
What laws apply to the public school classroom? The ability to express political ideas and gather with other citizens and engage in political activity are among the freedoms that American citizens protect zealously. However, these rights are not boundless, particularly in a public workplace like a school.
For example, a school board can prohibit a teacher from sharing his or her personal political viewpoints with students during instructional time. The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as public citizens for First Amendment purposes, and their comments are not isolated from regulation by the employer (Garcetti v. Ceballos, (2006) 547 U.S. 410).
Since teachers making statements during instructional time are speaking pursuant to their official duties, the First Amendment does not protect their comments. As a result, boards may adopt policies that prohibit employees from discussing their personal political views with students during instructional time. Teachers must ensure that they are delivering the curriculum without indoctrinating students with their own political beliefs.
Can a classroom teacher promote a cause with a symbol in his or her classroom? The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that a school may refuse to sponsor speech that might reasonably be perceived to “associate the school with any position other than neutrality on matters of political controversy” (Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier (1988), 484 U.S. 260). On this basis, a school board may adopt a viewpoint-neutral dress code policy that prevents its employees from wearing political buttons, pins or T-shirts at work during work hours. Enforcement of the policy would avoid creating an impression that the district endorses a particular party or political view.
(“Regulating
political activities of school employees.” Ohio School Boards
Association.
Columbus, Ohio.)
Yet, the Southern Poverty Law Center advises that laws that prohibit teachers from discussing sexual orientations other than heterosexual may be susceptible to legal challenge. Laws or policies portraying LGBTQ people negatively, such as in a health class, may also be subject to challenge.
Even symbols, slogans, and such are open to challenge. On April 6, the ACLU of Ohio sent a letter to school officials demanding that they stop censoring a group of students who want to wear t-shirts supporting marriage for same-sex couples. A student at Dublin Jerome High School was told to take off a t-shirt that read "I support gay marriage" after administrators claimed that another student had been offended by it. The next day, about 20 students protested the action by coming to school in similar t-shirts. They were all required to change their t-shirts, turn them inside-out, or go home.
Before censoring the gay-supportive students, administrators routinely allowed students to wear shirts expressing other messages, including endorsements of the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns, students' views on abortion, and religious messages. After receiving the ACLU's demand letter, the school backed down and allowed the students to wear their t-shirts
A few states even require public schools to teach LGBT history – Illinois recently became the fourth such state to do so in July, 2020. California became the first state to pass a law requiring schools to teach LGBT history in 2011, followed by Colorado and New Jersey in 2019.
"One of the best ways to overcome intolerance is through education and exposure to different people and viewpoints," said bill sponsor state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), according to the Washington Examiner.
The law, which goes into effect in July 2020, requires textbooks purchased with state grant funds to "include the roles and contributions of all people protected under the Illinois Human Rights Act."
It states that "the teaching of history in the United States shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country."
(Casey Leins. “These States Require Schools to Teach LGBT History.” U.S. News. August 14, 2019.)
On April 16, 2014, The Ohio Board of Education (BOE) voted to exclude sexual orientation from its nondiscrimination policy, sending a clear message to LGBT educators; you are not welcome or valued in Ohio classrooms.
Right now in Ohio, teachers can be fired simply for being perceived as gay, lesbian, or transgender. The Ohio BOE has chosen to give these educators zero protections or legal courses of action.
Some school districts have attempted to remedy this problem by including sexual orientation and gender identity in their local nondiscrimination policies. But the Ohio (BOE) has repeatedly refused to do so.
Ohio does not have a statewide law that protects LGBTQ people from discrimination. This means that a person can still be fired, denied housing, or refused service simply because of whom they love or how they identify.
Nonetheless, as of January 4, 2021, 32 cities and 1 county in Ohio have passed local ordinances banning LGBTQ discrimination, either for sexual orientation or gender identity, in employment, housing, and public accommodations.
And, speaking of free expression, how about the recent law permitting more expression of religion in Ohio schools? Isn't that preferential and political? Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a law that allows students in public schools to express their religious beliefs.
The "Student Religious Liberties Act" removes a provision in current law limiting expressions of religious beliefs by public school students to lunch and non-instructional periods. It would also allow them to gather as students do for secular activities.
The act also says schools can’t prohibit students from religious expression in homework, artwork or other assignments, and teachers cannot penalize or reward work based on its religious content.
State Sen. Matt Huffman (R-Lima) says if the choir can announce there’s practice after school, a religious-based club will be allowed to do the same. However, he says there are limits.
(Associated Press. “New Ohio Law Allows More Religious Expression By Students.” WOSU 89.7 NPR News June 29, 2020.)
Just What Is the Pride Flag?
The rainbow flag is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer pride and LGBT social movements. Also known as the gay pride flag or LGBT pride flag, the colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community and the "spectrum" of human sexuality and gender.
The flag goes back to 1978, when the artist Gilbert Baker, an openly gay man, designed the first rainbow flag. Baker later revealed that he was urged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. Baker decided to make that symbol a flag because he saw flags as the most powerful symbol of pride.
As Baker later said in an interview, “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’”
Baker saw the rainbow as a natural flag from the sky, so he adopted eight colors for the stripes, each color with its own meaning (hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit).
(Thad Morgan. “How Did the Rainbow Flag Become an LGBT Symbol?” History. June 12, 2019.)
“Many LGBTQ young people continue to suffer higher health and suicide risks than their peers. This follows the same trends present in an HRC analysis of the 2015 and 2017 data – LGBTQ students are more likely to experience victimization, violence and suicidality. In many areas of the data, transgender students are facing more disparities in 2019 than they were in 2017.
“The data show that 43% of transgender youth have been bullied on school property. 29% of transgender youth, 21% of gay and lesbian youth and 22% of bisexual youth have attempted suicide.”
– “The National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance results for 2019,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
A Symbol of Love Or Division?
Other school officials and students around the country have targeted LGBTQ symbols. A teacher resigned in Missouri last month after he was told to remove a rainbow flag from his classroom and that he couldn’t discuss “sexual preference” at school. Students at a high school near Jacksonville, Florida, were accused several weeks ago of harassing classmates in a Gay Straight Alliance club and stomping on pride flags. And in August, pride symbols were targeted at a high school near Dallas, where rainbow stickers were ordered to be scraped off classroom doors.
In most cases, administrators have said the LGBTQ emblems are divisive and “political.” LGBTQ students, parents and teachers affected by the bans contend that the new rules harm a vulnerable group of young people.
Yet, many students see the flag as a sign for inclusion that conveys the message that “when you come in here, you will not be hated for who you love or what you identify as” or a simple symbol that says “I do not fit in here, I should not be here.”
Advocates have long been warning educators about the disproportionate rates of bullying, harassment and mental health issues plaguing LGBTQ youths.
A survey this year by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, found that 42 percent of the nearly 35,000 LGBTQ youths who were surveyed seriously considered suicide within the last year. More than half of transgender and nonbinary youths who were surveyed seriously considered suicide, it also found.
A separate survey conducted by The Trevor Project last year found that LGBTQ youths who reported having at least one LGBTQ-affirming space also reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
(Matt Lavietes. “Education culture war finds a new target: Pride flags in classrooms.” NBC News. October 03, 2021.)
The flag ban in Newberg, Oregon may simply be about ensuring a neutral learning environment; however, many community members, parents, and students have been critical of the ban and connected recent events of bigotry to the board’s actions.
In a letter, the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force told the school board that the policy puts students at “heightened risk of experiencing violence and abuse.”
“Identities such as race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation are not political statements – they are simply part of who your students are,” read the letter signed by Michele Roland-Schwartz, the SATF’s executive director, abuse prevention coordinator, and campus coordinator. The letter also includes several pages of resources and research on ways to support students in schools.
(Elizabeth Miller. “All eyes on Newberg school board as vote banning political symbols looms.” Oregon Public Broadcasting. September 27, 2021.)
When
Gilbert stitched his flag
He didn’t think of me
He made it
for the silent
Shunned and shamed
The outcast and alone
He
made it for the child
Expelled from home for
Being different
from the rest
He made it for others
Not me, no, not for me
When
Gilbert stitched his flag
He gave each color meaning
Red:
life
Orange: healing
Yellow: sunlight
Green: nature
Blue:
art
Violet: spirit
Treasures to uphold
When
Gilbert stitched his flag
Allies were a dream, a
hope
Unexpected
Seldom realized
Yet we were there
Cherishing
our friends
Tending their battered souls
Bandaging their
wounds
Loving our “bachelor” uncles
Defending “mannish”
aunts
They called us fag hags, then
And worse, but that was
nothing
In the face of what our friends endured
And It did not
deter us, not at all
When
Gilbert stitched his flag
He didn’t think of me
But the pride
it inspired
Reached far beyond his tribe
Proud of how far we’ve
come
Proud of his community
For its fearless persistence
Its
hard-won wisdom
Its innovation and creativity
They benefit us
all
When
Gilbert stitched his flag
He did a wondrous thing
He
straightened spines and shoulders
Changed minds
Unhardened
hearts
Broke barriers and chains
That bound each human life
In
lifting the others
He lifted us all
So we can fly the rainbow
flag
No matter who we are
As long as love is in our hearts
And
freedom can endure
As long as we seek justice
Equality for
all
The rainbow flag unites us
Enlightens and delights us
Long
may it wave
Long may we all
For love forever reigns
Over the
rainbow
Denise Shelton
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