FUFBUF

The student complained to college administrators that the answer was "offensive and unscientific," according to court documents filed this week.

[...]

In its lawsuit the Arizona-based ADF argues that Sheldon was properly providing students with information on the issue of nature versus nurture.

The issue over whether homosexuality is the result of nature or nurture is likely to be key in a wrongful dismissal suit brought by a former San Jose  City College professor who claims she was fired for advocating people chose to be gay.

The conservative Christian Alliance Defense Fund filed the suit this week on behalf of June Sheldon.

The lawsuit alleges that Sheldon was fired in February from her job as a biology professor when a student complained about her answer to a question about the impact of heredity on "homosexual behavior in males and females."

In her answer Sheldon referenced a German study claiming a link between homosexuality and maternal stress.

The student complained to college administrators that the answer was "offensive and unscientific," according to court documents filed this week.

[...]

In its lawsuit the Arizona-based ADF argues that Sheldon was properly providing students with information on the issue of nature versus nurture.

"The textbook itself points out that the causes of homosexual behavior are a subject of debate in the scientific community," ADF attorney David Hacker told the Mercury News. "This teacher did nothing more than explain this fact."

I want to start this blog entry by prefacing that, yes, I realize the Christopher street kids are loud, that they loiter and yes, I feel for those residents plagued by the noise pollution, crowded and dirty sidewalks and youths running amok. I realize all of this and I sympathize with the problems and annoyances the residents of Christopher St. face regarding these children and their noise.

But I'd also like to say that I sympathize with the youth too. It's a fact- these mostly minority, almost all inner-city youths come to Christopher Street because for 40 years this street stands as the known place where one can be as openly gay as they are. Just take a look around. If you want to know where community pride is- look to these kids. Many of them unapologetically effeminate, the young fems hold the hands of their butchie partners and all of them are decked out in some form of rainbow attire. They're here, they're queer and they are on Christopher Street to be just that. There is no Christopher Street in Newark or The Bronx or Brooklyn or Queens- so is it any wonder these kids take hour-plus train rides, escaping their homelands to be here, on this small strip of a street?

"We planted flowers at the Ferndale Historical Society. We started a pub crawl, and within a few years had 400 people joining us. We integrated with the straight community," he explains, adding that, as the town gentrified, the surge in the property values delighted homeowners.

When Covey ran again for City Council in 1999, he won. Four years later, he was re-elected. And on Nov. 6, he was among at least 32 victorious gay candidates nationwide.

The United States has 20 gay mayors, including in Providence, R.I.; Maywood, N.J.; Key Biscayne, Fla.; Palm Springs, Calif.; and my home town of Takoma Park, Md., according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which helps elect gay candidates.

Covey's years in Ferndale are a gay how-to manual on transforming a town into a place where you really feel at home. He laughs with pride that as mayor he makes $8,000 a year and has a huge say in such things as sidewalk crack repairs and garbage pickup.

Last year his city, sometimes called "Fabulous Ferndale" and now about 15 percent gay, passed a gay rights ordinance 65 percent to 35 percent on the third try.

The lessons of Ferndale can be applied anywhere, Covey says: "Instead of separating (into a gay ghetto) or demanding our rights, we are achieving what we wanted, neighbor by neighbor."

Ferndale and its new mayor -- what a fabulous example. Where's my paintbrush?

It is impossible to assimilate into a society that defines you as "other".  It will never happen.

Now, I'm surprised to say, I'm happy never to write another gay character again. It feels as though every aspect of the gay experience has been narrated, performed and picked over in the past 30 years. It has left us with some brilliant work. Alongside all the bad generic gay work, artists such as Derek Jarman, Alan Hollinghurst, Tony Kushner and others have left a body of work that is both gay and great. But that work seems over now.

Right now, I'm eager to explore the strange, twilight world of the heterosexual - to expose its anguishes and mysteries and unconscious comedies. Maybe one day there will be something to pull me back to the gay experience, the sense of something new to be said about the gay world. But, for the moment at least, my lavender quill is at rest.