The Case of Joe Acanfora

In 1972, Joe Acanfora was hired as a science teacher at Parkland Junior High School in Rockville. Less than one month after starting, Acanfora was reassigned to a non-teaching position when news that he was gay became public. Acanfora challenged the decision in court and through media appearances, but was ultimately denied his return to the classroom.

At the time of Acanfora's case, homosexuality was highly stigmatized in the United States. The American Psychiatric Association regarded homosexuality as a mental disorder until 1973, and, as Katie Batza notes in LGBTQ America, "changing the medical classification did not erase the larger social stigma and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals that almost a century of medical research helped to build and support" (p. 22-8). For LGBTQ+ people working in roles that involved children, the stigma was especially intense, as many parents feared that the open "advocacy" of homosexuality could influence their children.

Acanfora June 1972 Gay Pride Parade in New York City. (Washington Area Spark)

Background in Pennsylvania

In 1968, Joe Acanfora entered Pennsylvania State University, where he majored in education. During this time, Acanfora began to question his sexuality and learn more about what it meant to be gay. In his junior year, he became involved in the Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS), a newly-formed club on campus. The student government granted HOPS its charter, which allowed it to use campus facilities for meetings and other events, but university administrators soon suspended the group's charter and removed the group's advertisements on campus.

HOPS members and other supporters protested the university's decision, staging a picket line in front of the administration building. Acanfora was among four members of HOPS to seek legal action against the university and compel it to reinstate the club's charter. His involvement in the lawsuit drew attention from the local media, leading him to publicly state that he was gay.

At the time, Acanfora was completing his student teaching requirements at a junior high school near Penn State. When the news of his involvement with HOPS broke, the school and Penn State terminated his contract. Acanfora filed a court injunction agains the removal and won, allowing him to complete his student teaching assignment and graduate in June 1972.

Acanfora applied for his Pennsylvania teaching certificate, but the process was stymied as the Penn State dean of the College of Education questioned whether Acanfora, as a homosexual, had the "good moral character" required of a teacher. The dean convened a University Teaching Certification Council to deliberate the issue, but when the council was unable to reach a consensus the case was forwarded to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education. With the status of his certificate uncertain, Acanfora began to look outside of Pennsylvania for employment.

New Start in Montgomery County

In April 1972, Joe Afancora applied for an earth science teaching position with Montgomery County Public Schools. In his application, he did not disclose his sexuality or his involvement with HOPS. Following his interview, he was hired as an eighth grade earth science teacher at Parkland Junior High in Rockville, where he began teaching on August 29, 1972.

On September 22, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education announced that Acanfora's teaching certificate would be approved. After the secretary held a press conference about the issue, the New York Times and other newspapers covered Acanfora's story with headlines like "Homosexual Gains Authority to Teach."

The news quickly reached Montgomery County, and on September 25 the principal of Parkland Junior High recommended that Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Donald Miedema, remove Acanfora from his position. The next day, Miedema informed Acanfora that, effective immediately, he would be reassigned to "a temporary alternate work assignment" in the district's headquarters building "while we gather information and assess the circumstances relating to this matter."

Acanfora repeatedly requested to return to his teaching role, but he was denied each time. He sought help from the the Montgomery County Education Association and the National Education Association, who both sent letters in favor of his reinstatement. Teachers at Parkland also circulated a petition for Acanfora's reinstatement, of which 61 out of 83 teachers signed. 140 Parkland students also signed a petition of their own.

(The New York Times, 9/24/72)

Acanfora in 1972 (Self-portrait).

“The biggest positive to come out of the whole experience for me? It was the support of my students. There they were, 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds who were speaking at the court hearing, taking petitions around to get me reinstated. It was an inspiration that young people who hadn’t been fed hate had compassion." (Joe Acanfora, quoted in The Washington Post, 4/21/22)

Taking it to Court

On November 7, Acanfora filed suit in federal district court against the Board of Education, the Superintendent, and the Deputy Superintendent of Montgomery County. Acanfora alleged that he had been transferred for constitutionally impermissible reasons and denied procedural due process.

Acanfora's trial began on April 4, 1973 and lasted four days. During the trial, Acanfora testified that his sexuality had no bearing on his teaching ability and would not be discussed with his students in any way. Several colleagues and students of Acanfora's also testified in his favor, praising his teaching and professionalism. On the opposing side, the Montgomery County School Board argued that the publicity of Acanfora's homosexuality would exert an inappropriate influence for vulnerable students, and that Acanfora had misled them by failing to disclose his sexuality in his application.

(The Gay Blade, March 1973)

On May 1, after the trial had concluded but before the decision was issued, Montgomery County Public Schools informed Acanfora that they would not renew his employment for the following school year.

The court announced its decision on May 31. While it agreed that Acanfora had been reassigned without due process and that his homosexuality did not necessarily disqualify him from teaching, the court ruled that Acanfora was not entitled to return to his teaching position because his appearances in the media after his transfer went beyond "the bounds of propriety which of necessity must govern the behavior of any teacher, regardless of sexual tendencies."

"Many of my friends have asked me why I’m doing this, why I just don’t go someplace and be a teacher and not let the gayness enter into it at all. But the fact is that I’m gay - just like the fact is that other teachers are straight or heterosexual. And I’m sure a heterosexual teacher isn’t going to live his life a complete lie and hide what he is and I have no intentions of doing that either. I have every right to be what I am. I have every right to be a teacher. And I plan on doing both." (Joe Acanfora in 60 Minutes, 2/25/73)

Front page of The Gay Blade, mid-November 1972

Taking it to the Press

The case received considerable attention in the media. Acanfora himself went on several television and radio programs to state his case. On October 26, 1972, for instance, he appeared on Maurey Povich's "Panorama" in Washington, D.C. On November 9 of that year, he and his parents, who had supported Acanfora since he came out to them in 1971, discussed parent and gay child issues on New York Public Television's "How Do Your Children Grow." On February 25, 1973, "The Case of Joe Acanfora" was featured on CBS' 60 Minutes. These programs generally portrayed Acanfora in a positive light and attempted to dispel fears and misinformation about homosexuality.

The Acanfora case was also covered by newspapers, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and local Montgomery County papers. In one example indicative of local public opinion, the Montgomery Sentinel polled school board candidates on their opinion of the matter and reported that most opposed Acanfora's reinstatement and would not support hiring homosexual teachers. On the other side of the spectrum, Acanfora's struggle was championed in the Gay Blade (later the Washington Blade, D.C.'s LGBTQ+ newspaper).

"Joe Acanfora is a school teacher, and according to former fellow teachers and students, an excellent one. But he no longer has a classroom and no longer teaches; now he's pushing a pencil at school headquarters in Rockville. Why? Because Joe is gay and admits it openly. Never an arrest or an accusation of immoral conduct, no flagrant disregard for the System or school policy. In fact, the Montgomery County school administration would not have pulled Joe from his Earth Sciences classroom at Parkland Jr. High had it not been for a story in the New York Times." (The Washington Blade, 11/72).

After the district court's ruling, Acanfora continued to challenge the decision. In June 1973, he appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Following a hearing in November, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals released its decision in February 1974. The appeals court upheld the district court's ruling, though its reasoning differed. It disagreed that Acanfora's media appearances had disqualified him from teaching, but concluded that Acanfora had intentionally misled the school by not including HOPS in his application.

Acanfora appealed this decision to the Supreme Court in the summer of 1974, but the court denied certiorari in the fall, functionally upholding the lower court's decision. With this ruling, Acanfora's legal case had reached its end. Following this experience, Acanfora never taught again. He briefly worked in Washington, D.C. before relocating to the West Coast.

(The Gay Blade, April 1974)

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