The Religious Right and Public Education: The Paranoid Politics of Homophobia

With the political rise of the U.S. Religious Right, public educators, administrators, and policy makers have faced numerous charges that public schools promote homosexuality. These charges have been made regardless of the actual content of various programs and curricula. Nevertheless, the typically incendiary charges seem an effective political tool in derailing and/or reshaping educational reform and program offerings. Drawing upon the methodologies of social historiography and historical policy analysis, this author examines the use of strategic homophobia by the Religious Right in their quest to "take back America,"concluding with a general discussion of homophobia, paranoid politics, and implications for educational policy makers and public school personnel.