To celebrate Pride Month, Douglas Stewart would like to highlight 4 amazing LGBTQ+ teachers that changed education. In the field of education, there are many inspiring figures whose advocacy, innovation, and resilience have helped shape inclusive and equitable learning environments.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these remarkable LGBTQ+ icons in education and recognize their invaluable contributions.
Rodney Wilson
30 years ago in 1994, Rodney Wilson became the first openly gay K-12 teacher in Missouri. While this moment of disclosure led to controversy in Missouri and across the nation regarding what type of instruction is appropriate in classrooms, Wilson made history a second time when he finalized a 10-month mission to establish a designated month of commemoration for LGBTQ history. Wilson was inspired to create what was then called Gay History Month by the efforts around Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Between its founding to current day, there are now 20 countries with similarly styled history months.
Read more about Rodney Wilson here: https://www.kcur.org/history/2024-10-09/lgbt-history-month-october-rodney-wilson
Sue Sanders
Sue Sanders is an educator and LGBTQ+ and disability rights activist, advising public and voluntary sectors on a range of issues. For over 40 years she has been a teacher, tutor, and lecturer on women’s studies and on combating homophobia in schools, universities, and other organizations, both in the UK and Australia. In 2000 she became the co-chair of Schools OUT UK, a group working for the equality of LGBTQ+ people in the education system. In 2011 Sanders founded The Classroom, a website with over 80 lesson plans free for teachers to use for teaching LGBTQ+ issues across the curriculum and in all Key Stages tied to the national curriculum.
Read more about Sue Sanders here: https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections/sue-sanders-schools-out-and-lgbt-history-month-archive
Bob Parlin
In 1991, after a students asked if he was gay, Bob Parlin came out to the students of Newton South, and in the process, helped spark a dialogue that continues in high schools across America today. Within six months, Parlin started Newton South’s Gay-Straight Alliance with Kevin Jennings, with a goal to make school communities feel safe and welcoming to all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Within two decades the Gay-Straight alliances currently exist in more than 3,000 schools nationwide, with Parlin still a vocal teacher activist.
Read more about Bob Parlin here: https://www.edutopia.org/teaching-tolerance-gay-straight-alliance
Deborah Batts
In 1984, Deborah Batts began teaching at Fordham Law School, becoming their first Black faculty member and eventually their first Black tenured professor. In 1994, Batts became the first openly gay federal judge in the United States. Before becoming a judge, she was the first Black professor at Fordham School of Law, where she taught property law and the law’s effects on non-traditional families. As a judge, Batts helped wrongly convicted men in racial discrimination cases, held the Environmental Protection Agency accountable to clean toxic dust, and later she helped people leave incarceration to start new lives and stay out of prison.
Read more about Deborah Batts here: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/6/28/deborah-batts-federal-judge/
What other educators do you know of that advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and inclusivity in classrooms?
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