Gerry Crane had only been a music teacher at Byron Center High School outside of Grand Rapids, Mich., for three years, but his impact on that western Michigan community was long-lasting.
Crane led the school’s band to a regional award, and in his last year-end performance evaluation, William Skilling, the school’s principal, said that Crane was a good role model and “one of our best teachers on staff.” That was June 1995.
A year later, Crane resigned. That’s because when news of his commitment ceremony with partner Randy Block began to circulate in the religious conservative community, hundreds of people showed up to school board meetings demanding “one of our best teachers on staff” be fired.