Many years ago–I can’t recall exactly when, but I know it was before my son was born–I was teaching and introductory psychology class as a graduate assistant. We were allowed to bring in guest speakers if we wanted, and a fellow GA recommended an openly gay psychologist from the school counseling department. I remember the person telling me that he was great for challenging students’ assumptions because he didn’t look or sound like the common stereotype of a gay man.
So I took her advice and had the man speak to my class. I thought he did a great job. He certainly witnessed from his own experience, and that’s what I felt was needed. I wanted students to have the opporunity to hear a real person speak his story, to challenge them to move beyond ignorant stereotypes and uninformed bigotry against “those people”.
Well, although I knew people had their prejudices, I was completely unprepared for the extent of the anger that was expressed after he spoke. He left some forms so that student could make comments about the presentation. Again, this was a very long time ago, so I don’t remember the details, but the general sentiment was that it was a rotten thing for me to have a speaker like that without warning them in advance so that they could stay out of class that day.
Sadly, I must admit that I did not have the courage to invite him again as a speaker. I didn’t have all that much confidence in my teaching skills, or my ability to develop a good rapport with my students, to do something that risky a second time.
But I remain convinced that it is vitally important for people to tell their stories in their own words, and for other to listen. In the Voices of Witness video, GLBT Episcopalians tell their stories. By transcribing the video, I hope to make it just a little easier for others to listen, if they so choose.
If you visit my Religious Left Blog, you can see the first couple parts of the transcript.
