Should religious schools ban gay teachers?
Can a gay person work as a teacher at a religious school? Over the last couple of years the debate on this, highly controversial, topic showed up in the Dutch news headlines every now and then. Many (fundamentalist) Christian and Islamic schools in The Netherlands oppose homosexuality on religious principles and refuse to hire gay staff or sack teachers who openly admit that they’re practicing homosexuals. But, does one’s sexual interest affect his or hers teaching skills? And do certain decisions not clash with the anti-discrimination law in the Dutch constitution (act 1)?
According to Dutch law the schools are not allowed to discriminate, but European rules do give them the possibility to define their own demands for their staff. In September of last year the Minister of Home Affairs Guusje ter Horst (Labour) made a statement in a letter to the parliament that the anti-discrimination rules should be scrapped, due to the fact that they would be confusing. In December the Socialist Party (opposition) voted that the government should have a consult with school boards who openly declare that gays can’t be part of their staff. A debate in the Dutch parliament about this was set for yesterday (February 8th 2010), but was postponed due to illness of the Minister of Home Affairs. Salient fact is that her statement clashes with that of the Minister of Education, Ronald Plasterk (also Labour), who thinks that schools have no right to dismiss anyone for being gay.
In several European countries the debate about being gay and gay teachers has been highly controversial. As part of a debate about xenophobia in the European Parliament in 2007, numerous Polish members of parliament walked away after a Polish plan to ban teachers who express so called homosexual attitudes was called ‘’violating to European law’’, by the European commissioner for Equal Opportunity. In that same year a Maltese newspaper reported that the Malta Union of Teachers had to intervene in four cases of dismissal of gay teachers over the last five years. More recently (June 2009) the Lithuanian parliament passed a law to ban gay information from all places that can be accessed by youth. People who express themselves as gay or even want to discuss homosexuality (in either a good or a bad way) can now be fined or imprisoned up to three years. The act was firmly criticized by the European Parliament in September.
What do you think? Should the EU make it impossible for countries to pass certain laws? And do religious schools (or actually any school in general) have the right to ban someone because of his sexual interest (or race or any other religious views)? For a country like the Netherlands it would be blame on its liberal identity.
The Class of 2010
Usually I think that any overhanging authority trying to control the specific laws of a smaller authority is dangerous and overbearing, but I think there should be an exception made in this case. The issue here is not the teachers’ sexual preferences but the different school boards’ inabilities to handle anything that doesn’t meet the “status quo”. It seems to me, through this article and the one on banning crosses, we are seeing a frightening trend of older institutions (schools in this case) not being able to deal with the way the world is changing. They are an ancient institution in a rapidly modernizing world and I think they should start catching up. More and more countries are finally accepting that all people, no matter what their race, culture, gender or sexual orientation, are all equal and should be treated as thus. I repeat what I wrote from Pierre Elliot Trudeau “the state has no business in peoples’ bedrooms”. As long as the sexual orientations of the teachers don’t effect the amount of learning experienced by the students, and really how could it, than I don’t see what this debate is even about. It’s another example of stubborn people who don’t like change.
I think that an school director has to hire teachers because of their capacity for work, and not because of their sexual orientation. Actually, being sacked because you are gay is shameful, and it has to be a civil right to work equally being homosexual or heterosexual. If a had children I wouldn´t take them to an school in which people is discriminated because of that. Furthermore, I really think that European Union has to protect homosexual teachers´ rights.
When you are an christian of islamic homosexual living in the Netherlands(or somebody who doesn’t believes) and you decide to teach at an christian or islamic school you know on forehand that most of the schools won’t like it if homosexuals teach, just because of their believe ( the Adam & Eve thing. So the teacher could just teach but not be open about is sexual preference.
He could also just choose one of the many other public schools were his identity isn’t a problem. There wouldn’t be any problem.
Looking at other countries like Spain, were you find many catholic schools this would be different. Probebly the teacher doesn’t have many choices to teach at public schools so yes in those countries should be a law to protect them. But in The Netherlands we have so many public schools that I think this should’nt even be a problem. Just work at a normal school.
European Union should protect all rights of all the citizens and if protecting that rights means that has to be prohibited to fire someone only for being homosexual that would be done as soon as possible. All of us are supposed to be equals in the eyes of the law, so if you deny the job someone only for being homosexual (or black or Muslim…) that should be sanctioned. Being teacher is also a right for all the citizens. Of course, your private life (even if you get it known) has no relation with the work of teaching children basic knowledge. As long as they don´t commit a crime they shouldn´t be rejected anywhere. I have little doubts about this topic. Anyway, even if religious schools can´t ban gay staff we would appreciate those people not to try working in such a religious school. That way be could reduce problems.
I think homosexuals should have the same rights in every case, but I don’t understand why they would feel the urge to out themselves in front over their students.
Actually, I don’t think it’s of any use to have personal information about your teachers. So maybe homosexual teachers should just understand that if they want to teach, they should not talk about their own sexual preferences in class.
This is maybe not an ideal situation, but if you can prevent problems like this, why not?
I don’t understand why people always want to defend their rights, if it wouldn’t change their life for one second…
In my opinion it should not be possible to ban someone from being a teacher because of his sexual orientation. I think it is time for us to be more liberal. Does it make a difference if a teacher is gay? Does that mean that someone is not able to be a good teacher? I don’t think so. But of course in our civilization gay teacher in a religious school would emerge conflicts. Nevertheless it is not human to discriminate people because they are homosexual.
Should religious schools ban gay teachers? NO! Why??
I really can’t stand the debate about homosexuality, race or something else anymore. Every human being is equal and should have the same rights, no matter which culture, gender, race or sexual orientation one has. It’s so discimitating to ban a teacher, who is homosexual. I’m frightened of people, who think that way and in Austria I’m often confronted with such perspectives. For me, banning a gay or lesbian teacher would be discriminating, even if the school is religious or not. If the sexuality (what I won’t think, that this happen), effects the teaching skills in a bad way, then the teacher could be banned, but not about her/his sexuality. Also a hetero sexual teacher could be a bad teacher, therefore this discussion doesnt’ make any sense.
Damn right they should. A homosexual teacher working in a religious school completely contradicts what the institution stands for and therefore he/she/heshe has no valid grounds to seek employment there. When a company is seeking to employ staff it has a list of criteria that it expects its prospective employees to meet. If the prospective employees fail to meet that criteria they are not hired. As simple as George Bush really so why on pretty planet Earth should it be any different for religious schools?
If I was a parent who sent my child to a religious school, chances are I’m going to be a bit of a homophobe, so why would I want to shell out some of my hard earned cash to a school who employs homosexuals? Chances are I’d tell my child that homosexuals are living a life of sin so again, why in God’s name (lovely geeza’) would I want to send my child to a place where he’d be spending around eight hours a day with this hell bound, no doubt unapologetic, reprobate?
As long as religious schools exist they shouldn’t be pressured into hiring homosexuals. One may think it’s a form of discrimination but it isn’t. It’s simply a case of not meeting the school’s required criteria. And this brings me to a point I’d like to further expand on from a comment I made in Jolanta Truchanowicz’s piece ‘No crosses at school’ – should religious schools be permitted? If a political party, let’s say Agnes Kant’s Socialist Party, wanted to open a set of schools around the country enforcing their political agenda to its students would society accept that? Somehow I think not but how exactly would that be any different to the situation we currently find ourselves in with all these religious schools?
Religion and school don’t make for a happy marriage. On the other hand, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore look very happy together.
Well as I read the comments I agree a little with Nora about this. Why would you wanna teach at a religious school when you know they wont accept you? Whatever the law says…
On the other hand, what if this gay teacher happens to be a firm believer in God and just really wants to teach these children more about his religion?
I’m not sure. I don’t think children would even care whether their teacher would love the opposite or the same sex. It’s not something you tell in class. There’s no point in telling. It doesn’t have affect on your competency.
I agree with Lotte in that being gay or straight shouldn’t matter when it comes to teaching, it simply has no bearing on whether they are a good teacher or not.
To be honest, the idea that a homosexual man or woman should be excluded from teaching at a religious institution simply because they are gay is sickening to me. I don’t understand how someone can believe that homosexuality is the be all end all of sins. Every human sins, something that I believe Christianity and Islam teach, so in my mind, there is no contradiction in having gay teachers at any school, if anything it just displays healthy acceptance. Gay people can be religious! Who’s to say what sin is greater than another? I’m sure not all those teachers follow everything in the Bible (like stoning women on their periods, or not eating shellfish for instance) so the entire thing just reeks of hypocrisy for me.
As far as the EU goes, I don’t think that an overall ban is the way to go. That will just create unnecessary animosity towards the organization, but there is a better solution. Each country should pass a law stating that any school (religious or otherwise) receiving public funds will lose said funds if they are found to be taking part in discriminatory hiring practices. That way, if the school wants to remain biggoted and prejudiced they can, but they will have to fund it themselves.
I’ve just been talking to Miriam and she told me that religious schools receive government funding here. That’s a big god damn no-no, in my yet to be written, 367 page, autobiographical, hard-covered book. Religion and state gotta be separate, dudes and dudets.
And since I have to pay for this joke of a school through the taxes I pay from my job (I work at Quignon as a dishwasher. If you’re feeling hungry and want to eat off the cleanest plates in Utrecht than Quignon is the place to go.) I don’t feel it’s right that the schools should have any right to discriminate anyone for anything.
On a side note, I want to choose where my taxes go. Like, have ‘tick-box’ system introduced or something. Can we do something about that?
Is being a homosexual contagious?
How much can you be sure about a person’s sexual identity? 40% or less?
When the sex of the teacher be an issue at class?
It is obvious that every parent/ school/ state can have his/her/its own criteria to decide which teacher will teach at school. Every institution should be free by deciding its own staff. Is there a contradiction between local law and EU law on that issue really?
I can want to send my child to a religious school and I may not like homosexuals or homosexuality. However, I would prefer a homosexual teacher who does not impose homosexuality in class to a teacher who gives nasty examples from his/her own sex life in class. As a religious mother, I would prefer a homosexual teacher who does not impose anything in class to the teacher who is straight but also predisposed to violence.
Nobody has right to say something on someone’s sexual identity. If I am a religious mother, how can I explain to my child the unfairness of dismissing someone just because of a thing that is not possible to change?
In my opinion, sexual identity of the teacher is not important but sexual discourses of the teacher is extremely important and we have right to say something on just the second of them.
I think someone’s sexual preference shouldn’t be important to hire someone as a teacher. It shouldn’t be important to hire someone for whatever kind of job.
If a school wants to hire a teacher, they should hire the person with best teaching skills, no matter what his or her sexual preference is. In my opinion, the school doesn’t even have any interest in knowing these kind of private things of their employees.
So ofcourse I think the EU should react against this discrimination. I thought this kind of things weren’t already forbidden, but apparently they aren’t. Our European politicians should make work of a regulation to prohibit these kind of things.
As all of my tolerant collegues, I think that gays should be allowed at catholic schools.
I even think it’s good if more gay people taught in classes. Because now it’s controversial and strange, because ‘when we were young that would never happen’. But I think that when you’re a kid and you ‘experience’ a gay guy every day, you would be more tolerant and used to gay people. And than maybe in some yearts gays won’t be a topic in church/school/world anymore.
We do have a Bill of Rights in the European Union that explicitly forbids discrimination against homosexuals and protects gays and lesbians as a recognized minority.
Still true, however, the EU should do more to beat up the homophobic nations of Eastern Europe (for instance Poland, Latvia and Lithuania) and tell them to treat their homosexual citizens with the same goddamn respect as everyone else.
Nonetheless, already in October 2005, the European Commission warned Poland that it may face sanctions if it continues its discrimination against homosexuals – for example by systematically denying them the right to demonstrate.