My male cousin gave me a letter during school that siad that he had a dream about me in which that I wrote a sort of play concerning homosexuality, and he said that he heard a group thinking on when and how to beat me up (scary!!). he said that he understands now that gays really do have it hard and are persecuted and hurt every day. now i know he fully
No they can't just fire a teacher for being gay. In north America i think most teachers are protected by a union which makes it very difficult to fire a teacher without just cause (and sometimes even with just cause), plus it would probably go against some type of discrimination legislation. There's probably more to the story (inappropriate behaviour) In my high school one of the gym teachers was a lesbian and was later in some trouble over allegedly having inappropriate relations with a female student. Afterwards the teacher claimed she was being discriminated against by other staff for being lesbian. It somehow gave her employment problems. It was a shame, she was probably the best gym teacher I had. My chemistry teacher, who was one of my best teachers ever, was gay and a number of people knew, and it never posed any problems. I had a science teacher in junior high that was a real jerk and notorious for having inappropriate relationships with female students. I even witnessed some of his inappropriate behaviour on a school trip. About 5 years after I had him he was suspended from teaching while the school board conducted an "investigation" over inappropriate behaviour. He resigned and they called off the investigation.
One of the nice things about Canada is that every province has laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Unfortunately, there are many States without anti-discrimination laws and therefore it is perfectly legal to fire someone based on sexual orientation. (Including Florida, where one of the above users is from) The Human Rights Campaign has a spiffy map showing which states have and which do not have anti-discrimination legislation in place. (PDF Format) http://www.hrc.org/documents/Employment_Laws_with_legislation_20070904.pdf I really hope, as I'm sure everyone here does, that ENDA gets written into law. Sorry to drift off-topic That's wonderful that your cousin acknowledges that it can be difficult at times being gay.
There are anti-discrimination laws in Canada, but there are ways around them. Look at the Catholic schoolboard- the right beakon of acceptance that it is :S grin: right...) They can fire a teacher if they acknowledge that they have had pre-marital sex (fine distinction- you can do it, but on't tell the students, because that is "teaching" them contrary to the Bible). God help you if you are a female teacher and get pregnant and aren't married- kind of hard to hide. It is the same with homosexuality. Of COURSE you can be gay and teach. Just don't tell the students. If you start teaching students that gay marriage is the only option, and sodomy is good, they can fire you. Not because you are gay, but because you are going against the teachings that the school was founded to uphold. A teacher has to teach the curriculum, right? -_- Point- there are always ways around laws...
Denominational schools are kind of interesting in that they are exempt from certain anti-discrimination rules. Other provinces have similar clauses in their Human Rights Codes. In effect, a religious school can choose to only hire teachers who follow that particular religion and they can limit their student-body to only students of that religion. And so, if homosexuality and premarital sex are seen as sins then it is acceptable to be fired or expelled from that school. In a public school, however, it is still against the law to fire someone because of their sexual orientation.
In addition to the lack of laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, most public jobs have a moral turpitude clause in their contract that allow for persons to be terminated for conduct outside of their normal job duties/hours. Back to the topic, it is an interesting dream. I'm glad that your cousin is introspective enough to learn from his dream. Who knows, maybe you will right that play and not even have to experience the pain.
