Joe Acanfora (born July 6, 1950 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American educator and activist. Acanfora, who is openly gay, fought to become an earth science teacher in the public schools in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the early 1970s. His fight between 1971 and 1974 over a series of transfers and dismissals by authorities from his public school teaching assignments based upon his acknowledged homosexuality involved litigation through the federal court system; expert witness court testimony on the effect of an openly gay teacher on his students; extensive media coverage, including an appearance on CBS 60 Minutes; a "morality investigation" by the Penn State University Teacher Certification Council; and active participation of his parents in the public debate.
Read more about Joe Acanfora: Penn State College Days, Employment in Montgomery County, Proceedings in The U.S. District Court in Maryland, District Court’s Opinion, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ Decision, U. S Supreme Court Denies certiorari
Famous quotes containing the word joe:
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)