‘Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son,’ a memoir by Kevin Jennings, executive director and founder of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, hits stores this month.
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KATHERINE VOLIN
Friday, August 18, 2006
Before he went to Harvard, before he became a high school teacher and before he founded the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, Kevin Jennings grew up entrenched in poverty and prejudice as the gay son of a fundamentalist preacher in North Carolina.
Jennings’ memoir, “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son,” details the road he traveled from the trailer park to the offices of GLSEN, a group that deals with sexual orientation and discrimination in schools.
At 43, Jennings might seem too young to write a memoir, but for a man who works so closely with young gay people, the story of his youth is invaluable.
The idea to write a memoir sprang from his speaking engagements. As part of his position as executive director of GLSEN, Jennings often gave autobiographical speeches at schools.
“People were invariably very moved by that story because it’s so hopeful and shows that people can change,” Jennings says. “I was constantly being told by people that I should write a book.”
One of those people ended up being a woman from Beacon Press, which eventually published “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son.”
JENNINGS WRITES THAT HE learned early on what is expected of a man when his father died on Jennings’ eighth birthday. At the funeral, as his mother continuously faints, Jennings starts to cry.
“Don’t cry,” his brother Mike admonishes him. “Be a man. Don’t be a faggot.”
“Faggot” and “queer” are terms Jennings heard throughout his childhood from the mouths of his bigoted family members and the bullies who teased him in school.
Although his mother reminded Jennings throughout his childhood that he was not wanted, their relationship becomes the book’s focus as they both confront bigotry.
His mother, Alice, grew up impoverished in Appalachia and disowns one son when he marries a black woman. When Jennings comes out to her, their close relationship grows strained. “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son” includes the details of her unpleasant childhood and lack of formal education.
“I spoke to her shortly before she died and told her…’[The memoir] will mean many things that you tried to keep secret your entire life are suddenly going to be out there for the entire world to see,’” Jennings says. “She went very quiet and said, ‘Well, it’s all true, isn’t it?’ I sort of felt like she had given me permission to write this book.”
Alice’s desire to mend fences eventually leads her to launch a PFLAG chapter in her town and to volunteer at a hospice center for black gay men with AIDS.
AS A TEACHER, Jennings finds himself back in the closet after enjoying being out in college. At first terrified to come out fully to the students at the prep schools where he teaches, he eventually does.
“I think when I started teaching [in 1985], there was simply no acknowledgment that LGBT prejudice was a problem, that LGBT students even existed or that teachers have any obligation to address this issue,” Jennings says.
To his amazement, his students not only welcomed him, but also suggested starting a Gay-Straight Alliance. Jennings’ work eventually led him to found GLSEN, which is now celebrating its 10th year.
“Every single gay teacher I talked to thought that I was crazy and they were sure I was going to come to a very bad end,” Jennings says. “It wasn’t easy and there was an ongoing fight with my administration the entire time I was there, but we showed that you could do it.”
The book, Jennings says, ultimately shows how individuals can create change.
“What I hope the book does is document a particular moment in our movement’s history and how this organization came from nowhere to be,” Jennings says. “Young people come into our office now, not that we’re huge, but we look like a huge institution. That didn’t just happen. The one thing that I would be afraid of is somebody reading the book and saying, ‘Wow. That work’s all done. Good job, Kevin.’”
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