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 Gig Harbor High School Outing We are committed to serving the Transgender community  Gig Harbor ‘outing’ offers lesson to schools
The educators in Gig Harbor got a lesson in discrimination, not racial or religious, but sexual orientation.
We live in a heterosexual world and the staff at the school never thought of sexual orientation as a problem. They assumed that everyone is straight, and that it is abnormal to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of Social Workers all agree that homosexuality is not a disorder or something that needs to be “cured”.
Recently the dean of a Gig Harbor high school recorded on surveillance video two girls kissing. He informed the parents of the girls. As a result one set of parents removed their daughter and moved her to another school.
Many students that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender come out to their friends and family. This is a very personal matter. Some parents learn to accept that their child is gay. It takes time to understand the feelings of their children and accept it. Many parents try to pressure their child into conforming to the norm.
Some parents don’t accept it and as a result the child and their child becomes depressed, suicidal, get into drugs and possibly contract HIV. Thus it is difficult for a child to come out. This is definitely not an area that the staff in a school needs to be.
What happened in Gig Harbor is not an isolated instance. Many of the children are outed to their peers, educators and families. They are then sent to ex-gay therapy to attempt to bring them back into the “norm”.
The sexual orientation is not the issue. The dean of the high school said that he would never use the surveillance video again for anything other than the safety of the students and staff.
There was a protest outside the school to voice their outrage of the situation. I add my voice to theirs. It is wrong for the educators to get involved in the personal lives of the students. It is dangerous and unethical.
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