Sources of Opposition to Sexuality and LGBTQ Rights in the Schools

Abstract

This chapter examines the ideologies behind the resistance to sexuality education and LGBTQ rights and perspectives in K-12 education. As Hypolitio (2008) maintains, “one cannot separate the economic and political aspects of the neoliberal project in education from the cultural component of the conservative restoration” (p. 149). By necessity, this chapter focuses on larger social struggles, beginning with the implications of and lessons learned from the passage of Proposition 8 in California. A discussion of the nature of homophobia includes definitions of homophobia, how it operates primarily through backlash, and the legal and personal impact on teachers, students, and families. Because dialectic materialism is the theoretical frame of this analysis, a history of homophobia is explored, from ancient Greece through modern times. Finally, the following three powerful ideological sources of opposition are presented: the threat to the family and society, the religious freedom argument, and pseudo-science and secular homophobia. These categories are loosely based on Eisenbach’s (2006) historical overview of homophobia:

American homosexuals, however, still faced tremendous resistance from two powerful sectors that have long competed over the American mind: religion and science. Many religious leaders and institutions continue to regard homosexuality as a sinful state that individuals choose, while the American psychiatric community diagnosed homosexuality as a psychological sickness that needed to be cured, (p. 219)