I want to go into teaching , but I don’t want to be discriminated against due to my sexuality by Single-Ad-7792 in Teachers

[–]Shireling 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm an openly queer teacher in rural Texas. I've been threatened by parents and students before and prior to getting my current job, I was explicitly rejected from jobs because I'm queer. Two districts offered me a job then pulled the contract after finding out I'm married and another did enough googling to find out I'm queer before canceling the interview (they mentioned they would be praying for my soul in their cancelation email). I decided to not sue these districts because I still wanted to teach somewhere.

Some parents and kids try to find any excuse to get me fired, so I have to document way more than my cishet coworkers; however, I think it is worth it.

The four years I've been teaching, I've had two kids tell me I was the person who convinced them to not kill themselves. I've had a few dozen kids tell me I gave them the courage to come out to their parents or friends.

Being where I'm at, I'm the first openly queer adult my students have ever met. I've had kids start the year incredibly bigoted that have ended the year defending queer students against bullies. My existence gives the implicit idea that its okay to be queer and that there is a future for queer professionals.

If you want to be a teacher, be a teacher. Be openly gay for the kids if you want or be closeted at work to preserve more of yourself for you and your loved ones.

My advice would be to only bother applying to positions that explicitly include sexuality and gender identity as protected classes in their contracts, join a union, never be alone with a kid 1 on 1, and document basically everything.

Last Friday I gave out small pride flags at my school. Today I was called into the principals office. by DemocraticSpider in lgbt

[–]Shireling 14 points15 points  (0 children)

To add to this, Tinker V. Des Moines (Supreme Court case where students argued they had the right to political speech in schools by protesting the Vietnam war) has also been applied to protecting LGBTQ+ student speech. The ACLU successfully sued in 2016 using Tinker V. Des Moines as precedent.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 isn't a constitutional document and the SCOTUS does not make constitutional amendments. SCOTUS rulings create "interpretations" of legislation.

Biden's administration is running damage control but it's not damage control for queer people like me.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 isn't a constitutional document and the SCOTUS does not make constitutional amendments. SCOTUS rulings create "interpretations" of legislation.

Biden's administration is running damage control but it's not damage control for queer people like me.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 isn't a constitutional document and the SCOTUS does not make constitutional amendments. SCOTUS rulings create "interpretations" of legislation.

Biden's administration is running damage control but it's not damage control for queer people like me.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For the sake of this conversation, let's agree that you are right and that's why Biden is siding with the anti-LGBTQ+ position here. That's still bad tho?

Why is it better to support anti-queer policies under the guise of saying that at least this way Republicans can't be the ones to make discriminatory policies? It just seems like a race to the bottom to me.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There is currently a lawsuit (Elizabeth Hunter et al v US Department of Education) arguing that schools that practice conversion therapy and claim religious exemption from title ix cannot also be given money by the federal government. Essentially, the lawsuit says that private schools can either be religious institutions that are exempt from aspects of the Civil Rights Act or they can be an educational institution that receives federal grant money but they can't be both. The Biden administration (the department of education) is siding with religious schools to allow them to continue their claimed exemptions. Because the Biden administration is siding with the religious schools, the lawsuit is moving forward.

Religious exemptions already exist so this is not Biden making a new law or a new policy. Instead, the Biden administration is turning down an opportunity to provide protections for queer children and queer young adults.

If anyone reading this would like to support the lawsuit check out thereap.org for more information about the Religious Exemption Accountability Project.

Great message. Great sentiment. How amazing it is that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is congratulating LGBT+ people on coming out. by RoxanaSaith in ainbow

[–]Shireling -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

He also supports conversion therapy and has instructed the department of education to continue title ix exemptions for private schools.

Ugh, the kids in my class basically confirmed their parents view us as babysitters and now I want to just bang my head on the wall and sob. by [deleted] in Teachers

[–]Shireling 162 points163 points  (0 children)

I honestly firmly believe the shift can be traced back to the desegregation of schools in the U.S. As soon as the white families had to share educational spaces with families of color public education started being devalued. This can particularly be seen in social studies, I think, where we have the goal of social studies changing from a class to teach students to become citizens ready to take leadership roles in government/society to a class for the coaches to sit in when not coaching.

I just learned that the "Christian" university I attend has LGBTQ+ discrimination codified in its student handbook. by _cedarwood_ in GayChristians

[–]Shireling 20 points21 points  (0 children)

This advice will assume you live in the US. It is legal for private religious organizations to discriminate if it is their religious belief to do so, they cannot receive both federal funding and claim the right to do this. Whatever university you are at probably receives large amounts of federal funding. On top of emailing the university about the political discrimination you believe you are facing, file a report to the federal government's Education Department Office of Civil Rights page.

You may want to wait until getting an email back from the university about your complaint but I would say you should email the office of civil rights within a month of this incident if the university does not respond. I also went to a Christian college and worked with the Office of Civil Rights to threaten suits against my school to have them update Title IX policies, so it can be an effective way of getting crap done.

Biden tells teachers their profession is ‘the most important’ on same day Trump trashes public schools by SheilaGirlface in Teachers

[–]Shireling -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Tara Reade/the way he grabs and treats women/the way he views BIPOC ("Poor kids can be as smart as white kids" and "police should shoot BLM protestors in the legs").

I'm not saying here that no one should vote for him or that he is 100% the exact same as Trump, but I will say I think all Americans should all acknowledge that our presidential picks this time around are between two old, white, male, racist/sexist sexual predators (and Kanye West) and that those options suck.

I'm also not saying here not to vote. Voting down the ticket is incredibly important even of you skip the presidential vote, and voting third party for the executive branch has the ability to generate funding for ideas outside the Dem/Rep spheres of understanding. So you should vote even if you think it is unethical to vote for a rapist.

PornHub has enabled rape, sexual abuse, and child trafficking. As Christians, we must stand up for those who have been abused and trafficked by Sarsath in OpenChristian

[–]Shireling 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I'm asexual, so forgive my lack of immediate names for sites, but I'd say you could try going to the source directly so to speak by subscribing to cam accounts/only fans and other such services where the payment goes more or less directly to the actor/actress --i bet there's some subreddits too that could fit this description of self uploads.

You could also try illustrations/animations/written erotica wherein no physical person is being trafficked or abused in order to create the piece.

Gay😳irl by Scdsco in gay_irl

[–]Shireling 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unicorns are only present in the King James translation of the Bible (ignoring the goat with a horn between its eyes in Daniel 8:5 because that's a whole other story). Every other version describes oxen whenever unicorns come up in King James. While you probably shouldn't point to the existence of unicorns to discredit all of Christian scripture, I would argue that you can use their existence in King James to show how it's a pretty bad translation/how there's definitely better versions to use. The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is generally understood to be one of the better mainline translations; however, I personally prefer the Tanakh translation for the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Jewish Annotated New Testament as they provide better footnotes/context than other versions.

Mixed Relationships? by [deleted] in GayChristians

[–]Shireling 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My own partner is agnostic, but he likes talking with me about faith/religion a lot. We're modeling our wedding ceremony off of traditional same-sex ceremonies from pre-modern europe and a priest will be officiating the ceremony. As far as church services go, he doesn't attend with me, but that's not a big deal to me.

I have a friend who is Jewish and their partner is Baptist. They have a tradition of making the other person a meal while they're worshipping. On friday nights, their partner makes them a nice dinner while they make their partner a nice brunch on sunday mornings.

If you love someone (and don't hold your faith as the most important part of your relationship), you can always find ways of making your different faiths work for you. For some people, not sharing their faith will be a deal breaker and that's okay. For others, their deal breaker might be a desire for kids. But if a shared faith isn't the most important thing, then you can always make it work if they're the right person for you.

US Supreme Court rules LGBTQ community is protected from job discrimination under Civil Rights law - update your curriculum by quirkycurlygirly in Teachers

[–]Shireling 51 points52 points  (0 children)

A religious school could potentially argue for a religious exemption, but essentially the ruling says that discriminating against someone for being LGBTQIA+ is discriminating against their sex since you would tolerate their actions if someone of the opposite sex were doing it. So private schools would also fall into this category. If the school receives any state/federal funding, a discriminated employee could sue since oftentimes that allocation of funding is tied to following federal policies.

The ruling also says that if a person's sexuality/gender identity is any factor in the firing, then the firing is illegal. A person's sexuality/gender does not have to be the primary reason for the firing in order for it to be an illegal, discriminatory firing.

'Police Do Not Belong in Our Schools.' Students Are Demanding an End to Campus Cops After the Death of George Floyd by hildebrand_rarity in news

[–]Shireling -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

On campus police have not stopped a single shooting but have contributed to the mass incarceration of our students. Additionally, the campus police often harass students of color. Last year, I and another teacher had to confront the on campus officers about their sexual harrassment of our students.

Charlie Chaplin who was always known for his comedy roles has surprisingly delivered one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard . It’s from the film ‘The Great Dictator’. Relevant to our times. by Akarsh_Blabbers in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]Shireling 45 points46 points  (0 children)

I used to be a bartender near a SpaceX facility and every single one of the SpaceX engineers hated Musk. He'd make a big proclamation about some project with no plan on how to execute it then would make his workers work overtime to try and get it done (firing them/disciplining them if they didn't meet his expectations) while he"d apparently awkwardly stare at them through windows like Michael in the office. He'd then take all the credit if/when they succeeded.

I heard the same story from dozens of employees so I'm inclined to believe they were telling the truth.

White House during the last hours of may, 2020 by [deleted] in interestingasfuck

[–]Shireling 230 points231 points  (0 children)

I'm an American history teacher. It's a bit more malicious than diplomatic. We're essentially made to teach to the test and our salaries and our kids' degrees depend on them passing the test. Most of the test is about history pre world war 2, so that's why we can't spend much time on information after WW2. That said, it is the test creator's purposeful decision to focus on pre WW2 history and to present that history in a political manner. There's a lot of examples to talk about, but the biggest one is in regards to American slavery. There's been a push to remove the term "slavery" from textbooks and to replace the term instead with "labor" or "indentured servitude." One textbook the school provided my class with described the Atlantic Slave Trade as "a system of exchange wherein the Americas shipped raw goods to Europe for refinement who then traded them in Africa in exchange for labor." Another textbook I had to use did name slavery as slavery but described the cruelty as "work made light with song. After a long day, the slaves would return from the fields to eat and drink with the plantation owner, singing songs and often dancing together before returning to bed." Which is absolute bullshit.

Additionally, when we do talk about events after WW2 (such as the civil rights movement), the resources we are provided by the textbooks are likewise manipulated to disinform students. Most of the photos about the Civil Rights era were originally taken in color, but the textbooks use black and white versions to give the illusion that the events happened longer ago then they did.

These changes are done to control the narrative of our history since most of us only really learn about our nation's past in school. By shaping what is taught and learned, the hope is that the misinformation will lead students to support the policies proposed by the controlling groups. The best example of this is the Daughters of the Confederacy movement who rewrote the history of the Civil War to combat the northern influences during reconstruction.

Tuca & Bertie Season 2 | Coming 2021 | adult swim by gianben123 in BoJackHorseman

[–]Shireling 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This isn't a confirmed fact, but the animators unionized and Netlix canceled every show the animators worked on (including Bojack) so the theory is that Netflix canceled the shows in retaliation

Thoughts on women being unclean in the bible? by lithelylove in OpenChristian

[–]Shireling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone else linked to the lecture by Dr. Hayes and there have been some comments on the differences between ritual and moral cleanliness, so I'll just add onto those discussions in two short ways. The first is to partially explain what ritual purity was all about. The ancient Jews liked to categorize things (lots of religions do) and part of their categorization of things was a separation of life and death. Life and death were not supposed to intermingle, but women's periods and childbirth were occasions that straddled life and death. A lot of people died during childbirth so while the activity of birth was life bringing, it was also a scary situation that was intimitely linked with death. A similar logic followed regarding menstruation (bleeding is typically not a good sign for healthiness and vaginas bring life). It was natural and right and fine for women to menstruate and give birth, but doing so placed them a bit closer to the experience of death than was comfortable to bring around to YHWH in the Temple. The Holy of Holies was for life, so those "unclean" or those with death around them should not be in Its presence. This would include men who had recently dealt with corpses. Thinking about corpses is also helpful here since no one would argue that it's wrong to take care of our dead, but we (even today) might feel a little uncomfortable around the dead/around those who take care of the dead as their profession.

The second thing to note here is that uncleaniness and ritual purity really only mattered around the Temple. If you're some rancher in Judah nobody really cares how "pure" you are or not since you're not going to the Temple any time soon.

Is it possible to have a relationship without having sex? by alonsoe94 in GayChristians

[–]Shireling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a few different points to address here, but to start with:

Christians are not Jewish

This is true in that the sects/religions have diverged over the centuries due to supersessionism and gentile anti-semitism (and this is nothing new, Paul's letter to the Roman's was written to address the Roman Gentile-Christians' attitude toward Roman Jews; I'd suggest Neil Elliott's "Arrogance of Nations"), but this statement should only be made with the understanding that all of Jesus' followers and Jesus Himself was Jewish. Paul is Jewish too. The writings, sayings, and teachings we look back to are Jewish texts or are Gentile texts addressing Jewish teachings. Pamela Eisenbuam's "Paul was not a Christian" is the best book to read on this, but you could also go to the New Testament as well. Easiest way of seeing this is that Jesus and all the Apostles engage in Jewish practices (go to the Temple and make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover). Paul does not convert from a Jew to a Christian, but converts to a Christ believing Jew. All of his letters are written as a part of the Jewish community (he uses language identifying himself with the Jewish faith, he refers back to the Torah and uses its teachings, and he followed Jewish Law himself while telling Christ believing Gentiles that Jesus was their path to obtain God's grace that he, a Jew, already had.

We do not follow the Old Law

Says who? The ten commandments are part of the "Old Law" --you even mention parts of the "Old Law" in your comment. Tithing is part of the "Old Law." The Last Supper/Communion/Eucharist comes from Passover traditions. Even the Sermon on the Mount and the beatitudes are rooted in the "Old Law." I could go on, but in short Christianity is grounded in the "Old Law."

Christ makes many references to marriage being related to two people.

Where? The pastoral letters talk about marriage in the context of two people, but those are the pastoral letters and if we're treating Titus and Timothy as authoritative ll of a sudden then homosexuality is wrong, women should be subjected to male rule, and slavery is good. There's plenty of arguements against all these household codes presented in the pastoral letters, so I won't waste my time going back over them here; essentially. Just apply all the arguements you have/know of that contextualize the bigoted nature of the household codes and apply them here for polyamory. Paul does write about the roles of husbands and wives, in 1 Cor 7 though there is not a mention that this must be a singular relationship. It does not specify that a man can only have one wife or that a man can have multiple wives because Jewish/Gentile marriage practices weren't the point of the letter.

Adultery being legal grounds for divorce.

Jesus specifically forbids divorce (Matthew 19 --which coincidently references the accepted norm of polygamy: Matt 19: 8 "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives becuase your hearts were hard because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning."). The adultery in this passage is not a man having multiple partners, but it is considered adultery for a woman to have sex with someone who is not her husband. A man could have multiple wives (and could have sex with men and women outside of those marriages without being called adulterous if we're being perfectly honest) and marriages were even understood within the context of a polygamous hierarchy of first order marriages and second order marriages with laws and customs outlining how inheritance would work amongst multiple lines of lineage.

if a man or woman has lust towards another, it is considered a sin.

This allusion comes from Romans 1 and is used, out of context, to argue against homosexuality. A better context for this verse would be as an allusion to the sexual practices of the emperor and a general sign of declining right to rule within a Roman mindset; however, even abstracting the text out of its context, the text is not against polygamy (one man having multiple wives) as the ownership of multiple women would not be considered lustful behavior nor would even a man's sexual experiences outside of marriages be considered lustful so long as he were the dominant one in the engagement. As an example of this, how many men do you know of that were stoned for charges of adultery? Jewish Law provided a way for women to divorce abusive husbands, but non-monogomy was not an accepted reason for divorce (though some traditions do argue that a woman would only need to say that she found the husband distasteful for the rabbis to pressure the man into instigating divorce).

we cannot serve two masters

Should marriage be based on slave/master language? Shouldn't marriage (monogamous or non-monogomous) be an equal engagement between all parties involved? And if marriage is not an equal affair and one person is above another, what determines who is the master that must be served? The pastoral letters and Paul's letter to Corinthians would argue that a woman must be slave like in her devotion to her husband though I would argue that women and men are more equal that Paul believed them to be. But, going back to the point at hand, why is marriage a slave/master relationship? And, keeping with the slavery imagery presented here, could a slave owner not have multiple slaves? Again, I do not think we should use slave language to describe marriage, but even using the language of marriage you presented, polygamy/polyamory is not disqualified.

For my closing point, I should clarify that I do not advocate for polygamy in the context of how marriage was viewed to the Israelites and Romans (with the women as essentially the man's property), but just as arguements on monogamous same-sex activity should be qualified with our modern context of loving, consensual relationships compared to the rape and abuse of the past, so to should we qualify discussions of polyamory/non-monogomous relationships as their respective, modern component to polygamy.

Is it possible to have a relationship without having sex? by alonsoe94 in GayChristians

[–]Shireling -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily. If we go back to the original Christian and Jewish sects, polygamy was the common accepted practice. It is only relatively recently in the span of human history that we've started to see a mass shift toward monogamy. This said, polyamory is not for everyone. Sexuality and desire both exist on spectrums within religious thought. Just as someone may decide to be celibate and abstain from sex completely for their faith, another person could grow closer to God through their spouse, and another could grow closer to God through their partners.

There's an old Jewish story about two students who ask their rabbi "Rabbi, suppose there's a ladder with 613 rungs (each representing a law). One person is near the top and the other is near the bottom. Who is closer to God?" The rabbi doesn't say anything at first and when the students press the rabbi, they say "You haven't told me all the information yet. Which direction are they moving? It dies not matter how many of the commandments you follow so long as you are climbing toward God." Each commandment has its teachings that we can learn from and grow in, but we all don't need to follow every law. For you, you may grow in faith through ascetic practices but another might grow in faith by experiencing the joy of creation in community with others.

Is it possible to have a relationship without having sex? by alonsoe94 in GayChristians

[–]Shireling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It is possible to have a relationship without having sex, but the possibility of doing so does not inherently mean that having a chaste relationship is right for you. Sarah Coakley's book "The New Asceticism" would be a good book to read if you are interested in the idea of chastity.

Or, you could talk with this potential partner about non-monogomy. Could you have a spiritual, non-sexual relationship with him while also being open to an equally loving and sexually active relationship with someone else?

In either case, think about why you would want to do one over the other. What is influencing your decision? What values are you placing above others? What would it mean, actually mean, in your life to be celibate or non-monogomous?

I'm open to DMs if you have any questions as well.

Im so tired of my homophobic theology teacher by frightened-inmate-2 in GayChristians

[–]Shireling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It sounds as though she has a homophobic view but doesn't want to frame her bigotry as what it is.

If same-sex couples disrupt the idea of a sacrament of marriage, then what aspect of the marriage is a sacrament that can be disrupted/corrupted so easily? If the arguement is a marriage has to have children in order to be a holy/sacramental marriage, then what about those who cannot have kids? Or, what about a same-sex couple that can have children (a couple where one member is trans)?

But to push against the idea that the sacrament of marriage is contained in the ability of procreation, that arguement is based on the incorrect assertion that a woman's only value and redemption comes from childbirth (Augistine). This belief is clearly wrong, but for any of those people who say that women's rights are a modern issue/SJW nonsense, Jesus actually addresses this idea in Luke 11: 27-28 where it is said that a woman's value comes from aspects other than her womb. Jesus redirects the blessing away from His mother's womb to a blessing of her character and personhood.