Gayness, Multicultural Education, and Community by Dennis Carlson

1. "Within normalizing communities, some individuals and subject positions (i.e., white, middle class, male, heterosexual, etc.) get privileged and represented as 'normal' while other individuals and subject positions (i.e., black, working class, female, homosexual, etc.) are disempowered and represented as deviant, sick, neurotic, lazy, lacking in intelligence, and in other ways 'abnormal'."
When I read this, I was immediately reminded of Johnson's piece. Carlson is referring to the same exact concept that Johnson brought up, although his piece is centered on sexual identity rather than several different aspects.
2. "Nevertheless, normalizing texts systematically exclude and neglect the culture of those outside the norm for the purpose of ratifying or legitimating the dominant culture as the only significant culture worth studying."
This reminded me of both the Johnson and Delpit readings. The dominant culture that Carlson refers to, in my eyes, is similar to the "culture of power" brought up by Lisa Delpit in "The Silenced Dialogue." Carlson discusses how textbook writers generally stay away from "Others" and that gay men and women are often not included as a group of minorities in statistics.
3. "We cannot and should not attempt to impose 'politically correct' beliefs on students; but we have a responsibility as public educators in a democratic society to engage them in a dialogue in which all voices get heard or represented and in which gay students and teachers feel free to 'come out' and find their own voices."
The last sentence of Carlson's essay reminds us that teachers have the responsibility to take the time to talk to their students about homosexuality in order to create an accepting environment. If teachers avoid these topics, then their students will most likely not have the proper experience talking about it and will probably continue to see being gay as something that is wrong or abnormal.

Overall, I found this piece to be very interesting, especially the section on gayness in popular culture. I feel as though times are changing and gays are more accepted now than they were in the 1990's when this essay was written. Carlson describes the generalization that gay men are "flamboyant, emotionally unstable, and feminine," a generalization that is not always true. I believe that today, gay men are no longer represented only in this way. The appearance of movies dealing with homosexuality and popular television shows with gay characters along with many books and other forms of entertainment (i.e. musicals and plays) will make it easier to discuss the topic of homosexuality in schools and will encourage acceptance of Carlson's "Others" in our everyday lives. I feel that this isn't a topic that teachers should fear to discuss with their students. Should they neglect that it is an issue, it will only worsen the problem in the future.