Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community by Dennis Carlson

Premise:

-homosexuality
-heterosexuality
-gayness
-straighness
-lesbianess
-American culture
-tolerance
-gender
-race
-class
-school
-normalness
-democratic
-secret lives
-misunderstanding

Argument:

Carlson argues that school systems do not educate our children enough about sexual orientation and ignore an important issue that is at hand.

Evidence:

-"Public schools in particular have often promoted such "normalizing" conceptualizations of community that are based on defining a cultural center or "norm" and positioning class, gender, race, and sexual Others at the margins." (234) Carlson is asking why teachers are pushed to talk about some things and exclude others that are not concidered "normal". (who decided what was normal in the first place??)
-"It is now estimated that up to one third of all adolescent suicide vitims are gay, approximately one quarter of all homeless youth in the United States are gay, and dropout and drug abuse rates among gay youth are likewise high..." Carlson is trying to show how hard people are on homosexuals and how there is no ned for it.
-“Abuses get tolerated because gay teachers and students operate in an environment where they feel afraid to stand up for themselves, and because any discussion of gay people continues to be absent in the curriculum so that homophobia is not interrogated.”

Comments:

I felt that this article was a little more difficult at times than some of the others, but it brought a very good point to our attention. Homosexuals have a difficult life because people do not understand how they feel. It is ubsetting to know that so many people have to deal with such hard lives just because of who they are and having to hide who you are to try to act "normal" is very sad. I agree with Carlsons feeling about this topic and i feel that a person sexual orientation is there own business and we should understand other peoples views more openly.