The video that i chose, is from the US news show “Fox News” the story being told is a debate between Mitchell Gold, “founder of Faith in America”, and “one of the most vitriolic voices within the anti-gay religious industry” the subject which is being discussed is the teaching of “cultural and societal achievement and contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals” in schools in the state of California. Without even seeing the video the question of American gay and lesbian identity is shown, in the fact that the topic of merely teaching homosexual history is seen as controversial.
The debate starts with Gold explaining why it is important to teach gay history, he states that it is the “Positive reinforcement they deserve” he says that people “are who they are” and therefore as an American nation they should embrace the differences that people have in sexuality. In introducing gay history he wants to show that sexuality doesn’t matter, and that there are plenty of people in America history that have done great things. Gold speaks of his past in saying he wishes he had something like this in the 60’s, this showing that sexual identity in America has changed and become more embracing of diversity.
Peter Sprigg starts is counter attack by drawing on other people who like Sprigg oppose the teaching of gay history like the Los Angeles times. He continues in saying it is “ridiculous to use history curriculum to boost a student’s self esteem” and that history is not the place for this. He goes on to say that in doing so it will be producing “pro homosexual propaganda” as it will be one sided, and not a “balanced history.”
The interviewer asks “What does it matter?” in relation to the sexuality of someone in history. Gold’s response is that America is “heterosexual supremacy society” this showing that sexual identity such as being gay is in the minority, and in teaching gay history a stronger less prejudice identity towards homosexual people can be created thus reducing bullying and discriminative behavior. Sprigg however says that bullying has nothing to do with history and that this movement is an “attack on religious liberty” as in many religions homosexuality is seen as being wrong. Sprigg concludes in saying we should not single out people, in doing so turning the tables on Gold in which he appears to be the unreasonable one, not being fair to the whole and just focusing on gay and lesbian people.
Overall the sexual identity and the teaching of gay and lesbian history in schools causes a lot of controversy amongst American society, as there are still a lot of anti-gay communities in America.
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