Common Reading: "Watch What You Teach": A First-Year Teacher Refuses to Play It Safe

Dealing with sexuality issues in the classroom setting can seem controversial and daunting all in the same breath. Confronting these issues is often put off by teachers in fear of offending someone or dealing with issues in the wrong way. Nicole Sieben and Laraine Wallowitz discuss these issues in their article that we chose to read for our cultural project about LGBTQ. Nicole chose to teach about homosexuality in her first year of teaching, but approached it in a very professional way. After reading this article it has given me some ideas about how to deal with these issues when I get my own class.
Although Nicole was cautioned to play it safe during her first year of teaching she went for it and confronted sexuality issues head on. She gives a lot of credit to the students and I wonder how seriously they all took her class. I feel like a lot of high school students would have trouble grasping serious issues like homosexuality and sexual discrimination. It sounds like that Nicole was successful in her efforts to educate students about respecting all people. The main point when dealing with issues of homosexuality is learning about acceptance and that homosexuals are people who deserve equal rights.
Dealing with sexuality in the high school classroom is intimidating and confusing in many ways. How do we approach these topics in a sensible way without offending anyone and being sensitive to all students? Mostly I have more questions after reading this article, but the authors make some very good points and give good suggestions on how to deal with these issues in the classroom.