Gay and lesbian educators: past history/future prospects.

Although lesbians and gay men in education have been an invisible population, modern computer information retrieval techniques provided a mechanism to investigate the history of case law on gay and lesbian teacher dismissal and credential revocation. This legal framework was then augmented by social history gathered from newspapers and articles, and interviews with the parties involved in the legal or political debates. After presenting a history of the emergence of legal rights and political influence, the author discusses current trends in the employment rights and personal freedoms of gay and lesbian educators.