Progressive Parents in Alabama - Who Would Have Thought

Since I lived in Alabama right after graduating from law school, that state seems to have become increasingly reactionary and backwards. With public lunatics like Judge Roy Moore of the Ten Commandments controversy some years back it is easy to be inclined to write off the entire state as a backwards cesspool to be avoided. Apparently that inclination might be premature. It seems that some parents are unhappy with the social backwardness that tends to be indoctrinated in the state's public schools and want the state Board of Education to put in place anti-gay bullying policies. Like many states now, Alabama has anti-bullying measures - they just act as if LGBT students do not exist, probably because at the mere mention of the word "gay" or "homosexual" the holy rollers and Christofascists begin foaming at the mouth. The Anniston Star has a story on some parents that believe that this needs to change, if for no other reason than to prepare children for the real world where they will encounter LGBT members of society. Here are some highlights:
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Oxford resident Jason Childs is a new kind of disgruntled parent. For more than a week, Childs has been calling the Alabama Board of Education, trying to get on its meeting agenda. A professional truck driver, former Baptist minister and parent of two Oxford students, Childs, 39, wants to talk to the board about gay rights in Alabama public schools. The kicker? Childs is pro-gay.
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He wants the board to lay down the law on anti-gay bullying once and for all. “We’re not preparing our kids for the real world,” he said. “When these kids go out into the workplace, they’re going to be working alongside people of all different backgrounds, but they can’t learn to do that if we won’t teach them.”
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Childs’ quest to talk to the board is just the latest round in a fairly hush-hush debate about anti-gay bullying that has been percolating in Montgomery for more than a year.
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It all started when the Legislature – at the behest of anti-bullying groups around the state – passed a law that requires every school system in the state to draft a policy for dealing with bullying. The law even described some specific types of bullying that should be specifically addressed in the law – like bullying based on race, religion or gender. Anti-gay bullying was absent from the list. Conspicuously absent, in the opinion of many anti-bullying groups, who note that anti-gay harassment is one of the biggest slices of the bullying pie.
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Earlier this year, Sen. Ted Little, D-Auburn, told The Star he kept gay references out of the bill because he thought they would generate “opposition” and he wanted a bill that would pass. If you have to ask where the opposition would come from, you don’t live in Alabama.
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So far, only two school systems in the state appear to have outlined specific policies for anti-gay harassment. Elliott says Baldwin County did, and, according to press reports, the Birmingham schools did, too. Why are the discussions about this topic so hush-hush? In a conservative, Bible-Belt state, advocates say, administrators fear backlash from the public if they even mention the word “gay” in a non-negative light. But Alabama administrators may soon have to deal with pressure from pro-gay parents, if recent trends are any indication.
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Jason Childs – the Oxford parent who wants to talk to the state school board – thinks there are lots of parents out there who aren’t going to take it anymore. Childs is a former Baptist minister, who left the evangelical world shortly after his divorce in the 1990s. Since then, his politics have changed quite a bit. He recently founded a group called the Center for Progress in Alabama, which he hopes to turn into a catch-all advocate for progressive causes.
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“There are lots of parents who are really concerned about anti-gay bullying,” she said. “They’ll tell you privately, but they won’t come out in public because they’ll lose face with their friends, their relatives, their church.”
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“I’m afraid it may never happen until something horrible occurs, and leads to a lawsuit,” she said. “What we’re doing, really, is promoting policies that could prevent both a tragedy and a lawsuit. I wish we could make the school system understand that.”