It would seem that the largely Dutch CRC/Calvinist crowd in Grand Rapids could take a hint from their counterparts in the Netherlands. Most of you readers know that I attended Grand Rapids Christian High for my high school years. Honestly, I can’t complain too much, I would have never made it out alive in a public school. That said, one of the most difficult things I had to deal with in High School was coming to grips with my own sexuality. It was something I struggled with for the most part alone, not because I had some innate fear of talking to anyone else about it but largely because with the exception of 1 or 2 close friends and some random acquaintances outside of school, I knew very few people who were gay and I just didn’t really know how to approach it. Like any other teen, I wasn’t terribly interested in discussing much of anything with my folks despite their best intentions so that left me with peers and adults in an environment that was not necessarily condemning of homosexuality but was by no means welcoming of it. The “hate the sin, love the sinner” concept that was preached was (and is) hugely flawed and as a gay teen, I saw right through that. This was of course in the early 90′s when gays in the military was a huge issue and the gay community was still recovering from the worst of the AIDS pandemic. Ignorance was the norm, not the exception like it is today.
So, looking back, I can only imagine how my life might have been changed by having a visibly ”out” gay teacher, or some other well adjusted gay adult figure in my life. Even in the early 90′s the images of gays that I was constantly being fed were either the stereotype, lispy, nelly man (think Will and Grace) or the perhaps “out” gay man who was lonely, confused, and spiritually dead. The later was certainly the image my CRC/Calvinist teachers wanted their students to have of gay people, they just laughed at the former. Human sure, but deeply flawed.
So the article below might represent a shift in attitudes yet again as we enter a new decade. I’ve been out of high school now for 16 years and a lot can change and a lot IS vastly different now for kids than it was when I was 16 years old. There are very prominent role models now that are openly gay, from sports figures, to politicians, to successful entrepreneurs. The climate is entirely different now with 5 states that permit gay marriage and even forceful discussion about repealing the military Don’t ask Don’t Tell policy which by the way is now is getting a lot of traction due to the public’s overwhelming support of repealing that law. It’s a world where I can go into a very male oriented workplace and not be at all concerned for my safety or my reputation. In short it’s entirely different. The game has changed completely.
Dutch Christian schools start teaching respect and empathy for gays
I have become convinced that pretending homosexuality doesn’t exist is not an option. …It does exist. Gay teachers work at each of the four Reformed schools and there are students with homosexual feelings. We want these students have a good school experience, they are allowed to exist.
– Huib van Leeuwen, President of the Reformed Schools committee
The world is indeed a different place today than it was just 10 years ago, even more so it is a vastly different place than it was 20-30 years ago. That’s a good thing and it’s a welcome thing. As a gay man today, I am not asking for your approval but I am asking that you acknowledge my existence as a human being, just like you, and that I am allowed to exist and live my life free of your ideological interference.
