Middle School Teacher Disciplined After Showing Gay Rights Rap Video in Class

A North Carolina teacher was disciplined for showing a music video supporting gay rights to a middle school class last week.

The Taylorsville Times reported Alexander County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jeff Peal said the teacher is back to work this week but showed "an inappropriate video...outside the bounds of the curriculum" that merited "disciplinary action."

The rap video was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Same Love," which was written in collaboration with Seattle-based singer-songwriter Mary Lambert. It appeared on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' debut album "The Heist" in 2012.

"Same Love" single cover. (Image via Wikimedia)

The video was shown to a class at West Alexander Middle School, but Peal declined to tell the Times the grade level or name the teacher. Peal also did not detail what the discipline for the teacher entailed.

Here's a sample of some of the lyrics from the song:

When I was in the third grade I thought that I was gay,

'Cause I could draw, my uncle was, and I kept my room straight.

I told my mom, tears rushing down my face

She's like "Ben you've loved girls since before pre-k, trippin' "

Yeah, I guess she had a point, didn't she?

Bunch of stereotypes all in my head.

I remember doing the math like, "Yeah, I'm good at little league"

A preconceived idea of what it all meant

For those that liked the same sex

Had the characteristics

The right wing conservatives think it's a decision

And you can be cured with some treatment and religion

Man-made rewiring of a predisposition

Playing God, aw nah here we go

America the brave still fears what we don't know

And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten

But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago

I don't know

(chorus)

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

And I can't change

Even if I tried

Even if I wanted to

My love

My love

My love

She keeps me warm

She keeps me warm

She keeps me warm

She keeps me warm

It's not the first time a middle school teacher has been disciplined for the song either. Last year, a Michigan teacher was suspended for allowing a student to play the song during a performing arts class. Macklemore, the ACLU and others came to the teacher's defense and her suspension without pay was later reversed.

Here's the full music video (content warning -- some strong language):

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