Comma Splices + Homophobia = Grouchy Butch

Since March, I've been moonlighting as an adjunct community college English professor.  (You'll hear more about this in the next installment of Butch 360.) Today I was grading "argument" papers in which students take a side on the topic of their choosing and write persuasively (one hopes) about it.  One of my students chose, "Should Gay Couples Be Allowed to Adopt Children?"

Aside from being hideously written and citing literally no sources, the essay was full of inflammatory statements.  Highlights include: "If a kid had gay parents, normal people would try to stay away from him," and, "A kid raised by gay parents would grow up with a twisted view of sexual minorities."

As a married, straight-presenting woman teaching college English 6-7 years ago, I sometimes received anti-gay essays.  But I'm puzzled that a kid would hand this essay in to an obviously gay teacher (especially since he had a choice of literally 125 topics).  A few possible explanations spring to mind:

• In a vibrant bout of internalized homophobia, this kid has simply not come to grips with his own homosexuality. (Unlikely.)
  
• He's somehow trying to goad me.  (Very unlikely.  Trust me: he isn't sophisticated enough to goad.)
• He's correctly discerned that I'm gay, or could be, but my incredible evenhandedness as a teacher emboldens him to speak his mind.  (Unlikely; see aforementioned lack of sophistication.)
• Despite my obviously masculine attire (e.g., ties), this kid has the gaydar of a rock.  (Moderately likely.)

In any case, this essay had me seeing red--especially because I suspect that he assumes (but how?!) that he's talking to a straight woman.  More than once, I had to put it down, grit my teeth, and sip some coffee for strength.  Giving the paper a grade was tough.  I wanted to be sure I wasn't docking this kid because of his views.  In the end, I think I was fair, but I gave him 10 extra points as a buffer against my own anti-anti-gay bias.  He still got a D.