Homophobic substitute teacher

[Ryan1995]

I had a substitute teacher today who was homophobic. She also asked me if I had any eyeliner which made me feel so awkward. Two boys in the back of the classroom were horseplaying and one accused the other of being gay because he kept touching him. The other boy responded by saying he was secure enough in his masculinity and didn't care if people called him gay. Well, this caught my substitute teacher's attention. You could see the anger in her face when she heard this. She basically went into a rant about how God made adam and eve, not adam and steve. She continued to say a man's body cannot do what her body can do. She told us she's 73 by the way. She also said she doesn't care about the president's support for gay marriage. What offended me the most was when she told the boy if he was a real man he would have stood up and put the other boy in his place for calling him gay. She went on to say men are men and sissies are sissies. She screwed up my day. She's a pastor and this is the main reason why I feel uncomfortable around Christians. They claim to be all high and mighty but get them talking about gay people or anything that goes against the bible or their God their true colors start to show. Not all Christians are like this of course but the ones like her just piss me off. Just because someone is gay doesn't give anybody the right to call them a sissy or a ->-bleeped-<-got. I hate those words. To be a 73 year old black woman and to have gone through discrimination for being black she disgusts me with this way of thinking. I don't understand why anybody who had to fight for equal rights would turn right around and insult another minority group. You can disagree with something and not be rude. It's sad. I could care less about another person's sexual orientation. It's not important to me. It's just all labels to me. Love has no gender. She's substituting my class again tomorrow. But I'm going to try and not let her get me down. It's almost Thanksgiving break anyway.

[Mike88]

Anyone can take something from the Bible and turn it to their own aims. It doesn't matter what the agenda is, there is something that can be used to support it or to tear down the opposing viewpoint. Biblical quotes have been used to support homophobia, slavery, assault, murder, and dang near anything else.

Don't let her get you down, dude.

By the way, God hates makeup, eye makeup in particular:

And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.
Jeremiah 4:30

" Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
1 Peter 3:3-4

Also she shouldn't be telling your other male classmates what to do:
"Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor."
1 Timothy 2:11-14

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

If it is not a religious school, report her.  Public schools are not the place for personal religious BS.

[Darth_Taco]

Dude, report her if you already haven't @_@. It doesn't matter how little time you have with her left, if you leave this untouched she's just gonna spread her hate to other kids XP. Her hate truly is like a disease since she goes from school to school.

[Christopher_Marius]

Remind her that it doesn't matter what she thinks, because she's an old fart.

EDIT: (Disclaimer: I take no responsibility whatsoever for any negative consequences of following any advice contained in my posts. I take full responsibility for any awesome consequences of following any advice contained in my posts.)

[~RoadToTrista~]

^^^Is it wrong that I laughed?

[Padma]

"You can safely assume you have created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates the same people you do." - Annie Lamott

[FTMDiaries]

Complain to your school authorities. At the very least, you can make sure that they never hire her again so nobody else will have to feel what you felt.

Christianity is utterly irrelevant to me... but why not encourage her to watch this? It's worth watching the whole thing even though at first it seems annoying, but the good twist happens around the 1:45 mark.



What your teacher said to you about gay people is very similar to what my teachers said to us about black people... in Apartheid South Africa. She is every bit as bigoted as the Afrikaner teachers I was forced to put up with - right down to having strong opinions about what 'god' intends for various groups of people. It's no coincidence that Apartheid is pronounced 'apart-hate'.

[Carbon]

She continued to say a man's body cannot do what her body can do. She told us she's 73 by the way.

Anyway, I'd suggest talking to either your principal or vice principal (if for some reason the principal isn't available). I'd write a letter explaining the situation and ask if you can talk about it. You can say that her behavior was impeding learning and creating a hostel environment, espicially for any students who may have identified as gay or at least non-straight.

Also... sad truth, being Black (or any other group that's been discriminated against) doesn't automatically make you more understanding. It probably will make you more understanding to other Black people's problems, but that's it. And forget gay Black people (who are basically going to be looked down upon by everyone).

It's a sad thing but unfortunately most people are like this... even we are to some extent, I'm sure we're all more aware of trans issues than groups we're not a part of and haven't heard much about from other people, even if we're not outright bigots. Some trans people are outright bigots though. 

[Brooke777]

If it is not a religious school, report her.  Public schools are not the place for personal religious BS.

I agree with Ms. OBrien.

Also, as a Christian, people claiming to be a Christian that act like this woman are not true Christians IMHO.

[unknown]

I agree with Ms. OBrien.

Also, as a Christian, people claiming to be a Christian that act like this woman are not true Christians IMHO.

This so much.

[Epi]

If it's a private school have your parents withdraw you, otherwise you're going to have to grin and bear it.

If it's a public school there's honestly not much you can do either (other than have your parents bring this to the attention of the administration).  It would help though if you had other students to corroborate your side of the story.  If you don't, I wouldn't expect anyone to look any further into the matter.  If enough legitimate complaints are lodged against this woman they may eventually take her off the substitute list and stop calling her in.  Sadly, this is just one of those things you're going to have to deal with throughout your life.  Having thick skin really does help but there is a point when enough is enough.  This woman did cross the line (her behavior is inexcusable) but it's not expected to continue day after day until the school year is over.

I gotta say though, if this bothers you kiddo you're in for quite a surprise later in life.  Her behavior is nothing compared to how other people act out in the real world.  I bet the old hag knows no one cares what she thinks so the only place she can spew her vile opinions is when she's in "control" of a classroom.  You're lucky she's your substitute teacher and not your boss.

Also, as a Christian, people claiming to be a Christian that act like this woman are not true Christians IMHO.

I think the word you're looking for is bigot.

[AdamMLP]

If it was me personally I wouldn't have gone back to the next lesson that I knew she was covering, or gone and at the first sign of homophobic behaviour told her exactly what I thought of what she was saying -- maybe quoting those bits of the bible that Mike88 mentioned -- and walk out.  It's not the way to handle things, but it's what I know I would instinctively do.

Obviously the adult thing to do is to go and report her, and maybe if it doesn't stop her being used as a substitute altogether it might rile her a little.

[dalebert]

Also, as a Christian, people claiming to be a Christian that act like this woman are not true Christians IMHO.

The No True Scotsman logical fallacy comes to mind.

[Biscuit_Stix]

If you don't do something, who will?

We had a teacher like this in my class in HS, except he wasn't anti gay, he was just anti sex. And most of my friends and I weren't virgins at this point. The amount of shame and pain that man made us feel though his extended stay at our school was, in short, memorable. But we were too ashamed to speak out, to say hey, maybe tone your personal beliefs back a bit, and just teach. Don't try to make us feel like whores, just teach your damn class. It bothers me even now that I didn't say something then, because he's still teaching as far as I know. And he's making other students miserable now. If we had said something then... maybe we could have saved some other kids from his guilt-mongering.

Personal drama aside, 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'

[GendrKweer]

Remind her that in today's job market, she should be a little more careful with her bigotry. That, and maybe ask if she prefers to be a greeter at walmart instead, when you report her....

[Carbon]

Anyway, I'd suggest talking to either your principal or vice principal (if for some reason the principal isn't available). I'd write a letter explaining the situation and ask if you can talk about it. You can say that her behavior was impeding learning and creating a hostel environment, espicially for any students who may have identified as gay or at least non-straight.

Seriously if anything will work this is what you need to do. If the teenage student comes accross as more mature and respectful than the teacher then unless they are bigots themselves they will have to hear you out. I would do this even if it's a private school unless I knew that the school was (un)officially anti-gay. If you do some things people here are suggesting it will totally ruin your credibility because as a teenager you never really had any in most people's eyes and there are people who will look for any excuse to dismiss you.   

Now, if it's too much for you to deal with and you don't want to talk to anyone about it I won't blame you. It shouldn't be your responsibility to create an environment where students can learn, that's literally the teacher's job. But if you want to address the situation this is your best chance.

[danjs34]

This reminds me of my school everyday. I have to go to a christian highschool and even worse, I currently have to attend a Bible class for a whole semester. in this class i am told about how disgusting and evil LBGT people are. Sometimes I just sit there and take it because I'm not out to my school, but when I speak up and tell my class that everyone is an image bearer of God (genisis 1) and that God sent jesus to die for everyone (john 3:16) (romans 1:16), they say that God hates gay people, and when I ask for proof, they can't give me any. My class seems to forget that one of the main principles that they believe in is 'sola gratia' and 'sola fide' which means by grace alone and by faith alone. they say salvation doesn't have anything to do with what we do. We just have to believe and be saved, but I guess they decided that  believing has some strings attached.

the worst part is the teachers and parents promote this thinking, so these kids never get a chance to think for themselves. they just accept blindly whatever their told, even if it makes absolutely no sense.

so if anyone was wondering where the major bigots in this world come from, chances are they come from my school.