Just a nice and happy update in the case of Seth Stambaugh, the Beaverton student teacher who was kicked out of the district after telling a student he was gay... and then reinstated after he got a lawyer and threatened to sue the district for discrimination.

This week, the Beaverton School District unanimously approved adding LGBT-inclusive language to their policies that deal with equal rights for all employees and students. Basic Rights Oregon worked over the past couple months with the school district to come up with the new policy wording which adds "gender identity" and "gender expression" to policies expressly prohibiting discrimination.

Great, a policy like that on the books means the district should have the back of the next Seth Stambaugh. But a policy is just nice words unless it's enforced. As a queer former Beaverton teacher put it at a district meeting: "Stambaugh teaches in a district with a beautifully written anti-discrimination policy, yet when he says something about his marital status, it took parents and teachers holding the district's feet to the fire to make it enforce its own policy."