A Road Trip to Love

Dear Arizona Daily Star, My name is Chris Tompkins and I am a teacher in Los Angeles. I was born and raised in Tucson and my mom is a longtime reader of the Star. In addition to being a teacher, I am a writer and an LGBTQ advocate. One of my forms of advocacy is bringing awareness to language and the messages we use that can continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the LGBTQ community. My mom just sent me the Feb. 5 article written by Howard Fischer titled, “New school

Last month, at an educational event, I spoke on a panel with an elementary school teacher who has two decades’ worth of experience. She shared a personal revelation about heteronormativity in the classroom: Even though she is a supportive and affirming mother of an LGBT child, it had never occurred to her that the questions she asked her students and the examples she used in the classroom always put forth a heteronormative perspective. It wasn’t until she recently ran into on