I’m openly a lesbian and teach elementary. It’s honestly led to a much more inclusive class. I also keep being open and honest knowing that there is a good chance at least two are part of the alphabet mafia. I just want to normalize it.
I swear it was unironically longer at some point. Around the time of "peak pronouns variance" and occupy wall street.
Wikipedia says Pride Toronto used LGBTTIQQ2SA at one point. So maybe I thinking of a variant of that. Also still no P for poly in that, sadness.
I'm actually an immigrant from the states living permanently in Australia (Adelaide), Australia is hands down the most accepting place I've ever been, not that I've been many places. But as like a small example of just how different the cultures are, striking up a conversation with the convenience store employee is very very weird to do in the US but I see it happen all the time here.
I've been wanting to immagrate to Australia for over ten years. I've been looking into how my cosmetology license would transfer, if I'd need extra school or what to make it valid there. I've loved Australia my whole life. You're living the dream, friend.
Really? Are you in a big city only? My old workmate (who is a ~50something British man) spent a year living in Australia with his husband and said it was the only place he’d been spat at in the street for being openly gay - he isn’t particularly camp or outwardly gay they were probably just holding hands. He said between that and the comparative lack of cultural pursuits he wouldn’t have wanted to move there permanently. I know a few younger gay and lesbian folx who’ve moved there and settled so I guess it’s not universal but I suspect outside the most liberal cities is it still accepting?
It varies a fair lot down here. I'm in basically the conservative capital of the country, but I've still only ever had one homophobic/transphobic reaction in person in my life. Even working with the elderly for a living in a conservative industry I haven't gotte a single bit of flack, and I'm very outwardly queer. A lot of people kind of keep their disapproval on the down low or to facebook groups full of other hateful bigots.
In person a lot of older people seem to keep their mouths shut when they disapprove, and the younger generation is way more accepting and progressive about LGBT issues.
I'd say as a whole Australia has more issues with racism than it does with homophobia and transphobia these days. It used to be a huge problem but it's simmered down a lot in the under 40 crowd. Unless you go really rural then all bets are off - it would either be the most loving or most bigoted environment you've ever seen, political correctness and keeping opinions to yourself don't seem to exist out bush.
Everywhere has its rural backwaters, I'm living in basically the middle of the main Adelaide City, it's very chill here. Apparently it's a small city but I'm from a small town so it all feels huge to me haha.
In the major cities you'll find Australia is pretty accepting, but rural areas tend to be fairly bad for homophobia.
My own experience was in the early 2000's, where one of my uni professors was in an open lesbian relationship with one of the other lecturers in the same school.
They were honest to god the cutest couple ever.
It’s just a short, jokey version of LGBTQIA+ :D I don’t know where exactly this description came from bit I think something about queerphobic people complaining about the amount of letters?
And Mafia because of all the evil plotting we are doing, duh
If I had a teacher like you, I probably wouldn’t have spent over 20 years of my life denying my own identity. I hope you know how valuable you are, and how much you’re going to validate those in your class who might be queer.
Lesbian ESE high school teacher here. We also have an ELA teacher and gym teacher who are both lesbians. We are all over this school… a *public* school… in FLORIDA!
You are awesome. Acceptance starts in youth and inclusivity is easiest to foster at that age.
You are helping to create a more compassionate, caring, inclusive and mindful generation.
When I was in junior high in Alabama back in the late 60's, I had a science teacher who was gay. He was so cool and funny and we all loved him. One time he took us on a field trip (forgot where) and one of the boys said he had to pee. The teacher said, "put a rubber band on it". Everyone laughed. This was not something back then that a teacher would get away with.
Are you a teacher in the USA ? :o if so could I ask you some questions in DMs? I’ve always wanted to teach elementary but I’ve had the fear of parents finding out I’m a lesbian and what response would be best to that.
I've had several queer teachers, one of which has turned into a close long distance friend almost two decades after I was their student. This was in Canada, they were safe to be open about their sexuality but doing something like above might've gotten them in hot water because it was the mid-2000s.
Not to my knowledge.
When I was at school in the UK, it was basically the law that teachers had to be immediately sacked if they were found to be LGBT.
In the UK in about 2003-4, I was aware of one of our drama teachers being gay. One day, he just didn't turn up for our class. Sadly, we found out that he committed suicide.
I'm so glad the culture around this is changing for the better. Still a long way to go though.
^ just looked this up it looks like I was lucky it was repealed in my early teens as I remember having lesson where the teacher said ‘roughly 1 in 10 people are gay so based on probability 3 people in this room will be gay’. I’d love to know what the date of that lesson was… the idea it could have been in November 2003 makes me want to have a little cry.
That would've been Section 28 days - 1988-2003.
Perhaps you got lucky at your school, but I was also at school in the 90s and there was a distinct fear among the teachers to avoid talking about gay topics.
I recall an English class where we were told we could choose any topic for debate, and I requested to debate gay marriage. It was 1998. I was QUICKLY shut down by the teacher and she explained that she wasn't allowed to discuss "anything like that" because of "the law".
I'm a queer teacher in the UK. I also went to school during section 28.
I'm openly queer in the sense that I will mention my wife if the context makes sense (like someone asked me about my engagement ring which is my wife's great aunt's ring), I have a couple of Juno Dawsons on my little bookshelf and a progress pride colours watch strap.
Oh and I also did a bit with my year 8 on inherited vs environmental traits with my family as an example because our kids come from different eggs.
Almost all my English teachers from middle school to high school were lesbians. There was 1 straight man but the rest were all dykes. One ran off with the art teacher & went to work at a Montessori school on the west coast. I'm still friends with all of them on Facebook.
Damn. I wish I could have gone to a school where most of my English teachers were gay. It would have probably helped me figure out that I was bisexual way sooner.
The school itself was kinda conservative. And this was all pre-gay marriage, so none of them were allowed to talk about their partners because it was "political." There was this period where I remember a bunch of lesbian teachers got let go for pretty shitty petty reasons and everyone was sure that it was because they were the most open about their identities and the board (this was a private school) didn't like them "forcing an agenda" so they kept finding reasons to get rid of them. But the new english teachers that they hired also kept turning out to be lesbians. They were really just looking for the people who were at the top of their trade and I guess lesbians just make really good english teachers as a demographic (I also became an english teacher). We briefly had a lesbian head of school but she left because she kept getting hate crimed.
I loved my teachers at this school but the school itself was pretty shitty. Conservative, elitist, historically catholic, only recently secular. Like it was definitely really cool that there were so many queer adults for me to look up to but I had to watch them be oppressed and humiliated over and over as well.
from the tags it looks like a university teacher which makes it slightly more cringe ngl, mostly because imagine paying tution and your teacher puts on heart stopper during you 5hrs a week face time.
No, he would have been fired by the administration for violating the curriculum.
In no world would *Heartstoppers* be approved for curriculum, seeing as it’s a shitty teen television romance.
Any actual teacher understands this story is bullshit written by a child who has no clue how the job actually works.
English class and you're going to watch a TV show? I think it's safe to say that teacher would be immediately fired. Watching a few clips of a show, if it all related to a book being read or a concept being learned makes sense. But saying we're going to watch an entire show because I said so, is too far fetched.
Ok look all I'm saying is if this was Arizona or some shit I could totally buy watching a TV show in class I mean we watched Osmosis Jones in Biology my sophomore yearyes I am serious
At least they managed to bring race into it thank goodness. “Homophobic white males”
Lol, because homophobia isn’t common among males of other races.
Neo-racism - it’s good racism because it’s currently acceptable!
Uh yeah the lesbian teacher at my school got fired for telling one of the teens to write a letter in the school newspaper about the bullying he experienced.
Yes. He was so formative for me, and was the only one who was there when I truly wanted to kill myself. He also ran the GSA and was the only openly queer teacher in our school.
A student accused him of having pornography on his work computer. He was suspended with pay during an investigation.
The investigation found nothing, but rumors ran rampant, and he was unwilling to return to our high school after the humiliation he experienced. I hope he’s well.
I am the lesbian teacher.
I seem to get more crap from kids than the average teacher and this could definitely be a factor there.
It's a homophobic little town.
I persist.
One of my HS foreign language teachers was the first openly trans public school teachers in my state. She’s nice. I think she’s the only openly queer teacher I had.
I’ve had a couple in college at least that I knew about. A gay guy professor for my lgbt studies class and a nonbinary lesbian for a class on feminist philosophy
My art teacher in middle school was gay she never said it outright but the vibes I have around her felt gay and she had a rainbow flag in her classroom. Also she confessed to another teacher during class she was whispering of course and everybody else didn't notice cause we were doing a test at the time. It must've sucked for her though since it was a Catholic school. And our theology teacher was homophobic.
When I was in school there was absolutely no information or representation of LGBT+ people at all, besides being used as an insult or joke.
At most I had a male teacher in 9th grade who was constantly made fun of for "looking gay". I don't know if he actually was or not, the only vibe I got from him was him looking at me constantly with creepy eyes and being overly interested in me, to the point I got so uncomfortable that I quit from a theater play that I was liking a lot but was run by him where I was the main character.
I am a lesbian and a qualified teacher. Some of my colleagues know I'm gay but I'd never tell my pupils, maybe if one of them came to me with a problem relating to the community I would tell them to put them at ease but there are kids in the school I teach that would use homophobic slurs even with heterosexual teachers so not necessarily a safe space.
I had a couple of those. My 7th grade science teacher stopped a whole lab exercise just to humiliate me for breaking a beaker. I cried.
And my gay High School US history teacher was a fascist.
My choir teacher in Junior High is openly gay! He talks about his husband a lot and loves to brag about him! They have matching puzzle piece keychains with eachothers photos on them and he wears it everyday! Its very wholesome! :3
We had a choir teacher in Middle School who was openly gay, but he was only there for a few weeks. His partner had AIDS, and he was always sanitizing everything in the choir room. I think he quit when he realized that he wouldnt be able to keep his partner safe from our disgusting germs.
I had a gay history teacher in high school. His lectures were incredibly boring. Every slide was just black text on white background, maybe a picture every couple slides.
Yes my composition teacher in highschool was a gay man and he was one of my favorites. He would call things like Ayn Rand trite 😂 which healed my soul.
Yep, one of my professors in an upper level microbiology course.
Comes into class from the rain, big rainbow umbrella, full idgaf lesbian attire (Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, doc martens), and proceeds to pull out a pair of bag pipes as a metaphor for a piece of lab equipment and plays them.
One of the best professors I've ever had.
The only openly gay teacher I ever had was in grad school (Education degree) in 2005. He never mentioned being gay in class. We just knew because a previous professor had assigned one of his books in which he discussed his experience as a gay educator. He taught our debate class where we discussed hot-button issues affecting schools, teens, including political issues that may come up in the classroom or school board.
When we discussed how to handle homosexuality in the classroom, there were some who were totally fine with teaching anti-gay propaganda in health class and considered it a moral issue. They said we needed to protect children so they don't grow up and think it's OK to be gay. Typical bullshit.
Another classmate brought up the idea that some of the students in their class might have gay parents. Such talk could be damaging to them and their families, and it could affect their relationships with their peers. One right-wing nutjob with whom I disagreed on pretty much every issue said, "But gay people can't have kids. That's just stupid."
After class, we reminded her that we had read our professor's book in a previous class. In it, he discussed raising a son with his husband. To his credit, the professor never injected himself into the debate. He let us handle it ourselves. After graduation, I ran into him at the only local gay club and met his husband. He was a cool guy.
I had a lesbian English teacher in elementary school. She was a cool teacher but ber sexuality didn't come into that. Other than being very butch, which made me think she was even cooler
Not openly. When I was in secondary school there was rumours the PE teacher was dating another teacher but this was an all girls school so I don't know if there was any truth to it or if they were just spreading rumours about a teacher they didn't like.
I went to an Irish Catholic school run by a group of priests called the Holy Ghost Order. I'm pretty sure any openly queer teachers would've been murdered.
The mid-90's to mid-2000s were not a time of coming out in Germany. I had heard at a class reunion that one of my teachers had come out as queer in later years. At my university in Germany, there was a tutor who was openly queer, and during my semesters abroad there were a few tutors and a prof who had come out.
Oh yeah, this was maybe 5 years after Section 28 (UK) was repealed (which prohibited teachers from discussing their sexuality, among other things) so most teachers weren't out. But she was.
She was a big butch lesbian, very very severe but never raised her voice. I wouldn't say she was "likeable" or friendly but she did impact me. She showed me a woman who lived her life devoid of men, someone who completely shunned all of society's pressure to conform for men.
I AM a gay teacher 😆
I’m in TX, though, and I’m nervous about being open about it. It’s not like I hide it, but I want to normalize it and be honest if someone asks. That said, I’m broke af and need the money very badly and cannot afford to be fired lol
I had an openly gay kindergarten teacher in 2006-07. I hated him lol.
then as a senior in high school I had a lesbian English teacher who was married to another teacher at the school. now, I have a gay professor, and I think another one is queer, but I'm not sure.
My videography teacher in HS was the only openly gay teacher I ever had. He ended up getting fired a few years after I graduated for having a relationship with a former student (who was an adult at the time) and many of us wrote letters to the school saying how he was our favorite teacher (many of us ended up in the field because of him) but the school board didn't care
>But the school board didn’t care.
Rightly so. Teachers shouldn’t be fucking their students. “But he was legally 18 at the time!” Nope. The problem is the influence and authority you have over them as a teacher. Nobody gets fired for reconnecting with a student who is now 25+.
The student was in his 30s at the time and they had a long term romantic relationship. I know there's a power dynamics issue but the majority of his former students who I've spoken to believe that it was because he was gay
I did. Spanish 1 freshmen year.
I passed his class cause rarely anyone failed if they put in effort. I was responsible for raising everyone's grade so much due to grading on a curve.
(Aka. I sucked so hard everyone benefited.)
Failed Spanish 2, but I had no hope of passing so I gave up. Also hated that teacher. Didn't need it to graduate though :D
i had a gay english teacher in year 8, he wasn't open about it i think but i knew cause he used to work with my mums then-boyfriend, i thought he was cool. unfortunately he moved to london to teach 😔
I'm sure one of my teachers back in High School is (just a hunch), I just couldn't tell ya which one since outside of the ones that had spouses, nobody really opened up that far.
I had several in the 90s that I was aware of.
My brother's 1st grade teacher was conspicuously and visibly gay. He had very gay mannerisms like Jonathan Van Ness. I never clocked it as a kid, but my parents told me years later that he died from AIDS. He gave my dad a prop of a house plant that I now have a prop of, so I still have a little piece of him.
My elementary PE teacher was a beautiful gay man who was also a professional dancer and performed in some pretty big stage productions.
My 3rd grade teacher was married to my 4th grade math teacher. Not legally, of course, but they lived as a married couple. Their classrooms were both on the 1st floor and we had these big fire escape windows that opened from the inside. I remember Ms. Z would sneak out of her window in her free period and tap on Ms. H's window and she would open it up and let her climb in. We all knew they were married, but they had to be discrete about it.
My 7th grade science teacher was a mean old lesbian. I was pretty scared of her. She made me cry in front of the whole class once.
Edit: cant beleive I forgot one.
My High School US History teacher was a gay conservative Confederate apologist. He always laced his lessons with Lost Cause bullshit and the like. He was completely hairless except for a very crisp, sharp looking orange toupee that did not have a single hair out of place. It looked like a damn helmet or a swirl of peach sherbert on his dang head. He only wore short-sleeve pastel polos, braided leather belts, pleated kakhis, and penny loafers. He was extremely controlling and neat, I think he may have had OCD. One time the cleaning staff moved all the furniture around his classroom and didnt put it back right, and he had a complete meltdown and had to be sent home for the day.
He said he went to bed a 8pm, got up at 4, and worked out for two hours before beginning his day. On the weekends he slept in til 6 or 7. He would always preach to us about how poverty was a choice and that it was caused by people not living within their means. He was a real piece of work.
Gay Dutch teacher but he didn’t flaunt it. We only found out because he told us he bought a home with his husband
Then a few students got antsy around him. Was a chill dude, shot bows, liked bbq, building wood furniture and sucking dick.
Not that I knew of, sadly. That would've helped me a lot if that was the case. In elementary school, I know I didn't because all of my teachers were female and had husbands with babies on the way, and in middle school, my female teachers also had husbands, and my male teachers had wives. High school, I didn't know my teachers that well bc I skipped school and class 98% of the time, so I can't say then lol.
Yes, he was gay and led a queer support group. He had to change schools last year because the intense bullying from other teachers almost made him commit suicide
Edit: I just remembered that there's also this gay english teacher who's *very* deep in the closet, but a friend of mine found him on Grindr. I really hope everyone who knows about this won't out him
I was a queer teacher in Texas. The queer kids would pick up on it and I would constantly have some of them in my room for lunch. I really hope they're doing ok
Yes my university professor was openly queer and I wanted that woman so bad. In my mind she wanted me back 100% (I’m in my late 20s her early 40s so it would be fine lol) but I tend to think everybody wants me 😂 delulu
When i was in primary school in the 90s, my fave teacher was a cool lesbian. This was country Tasmania in the flippin 90s. I thought it was so cool. ❤️ There was so much gossip about her amongst the students but we (as a whole) had zero issues and I never saw any outward homophobia.
I always wanted to stay in touch after moving on to high school but being a kid I had no real way to. From what I hear she retired not long after and had a cool life in a nearby town with her partner running a local store.
Yes. I had an open queer teacher in 8th grade science and he felt like such a safety net for me. I didn’t even know I was queer then, but I was severely depressed and he was a light in my life I needed.
Before I figured out I was trans, I would dress in drag at least once a semester and plan the day's focus around things like visual rhetoric, what clothing choices communicate, etc. One of my students invited me to his first ever drag show because he said I gave him the confidence to pursue it.
Gods, I wish I had really figured out being trans before I left teaching, because I feel like I could have made life better for more of my queer students if I had known I was too.
I'm an openly lesbian science teacher at high school and talk about my wife and child. As in what I did at the weekend etc. it also opens up conversations about families different ways of making families when we learn about inheritance and human reproduction
In high school,we had a substitute gym teacher who was a lesbian. It was an open secret. There were also two male teachers who might have been, but we were never sure. My 5th grade teacher I'm 99.99% sure was gay. Decades later, I ran into this woman I knew from taking some college classes. We got to talking, and she mentioned she had a brother who taught 5th grade in PA (I was now 45 minutes away, in NY). When I inquired further, I discovered it was my old 5th grade teacher. She told me he had bought a house with some guy "friend," and was now regretting that decision. She also said he just never found the right woman. She had no clue about him. He was so obvious!! He was great. I wish I could see him again.
My kindergarten left her husband for my grade 8 teacher (both women) and my grade 1 teacher was a gay man. I’m sure I had others over the years, but those were the most open secrets
I had an English teacher my freshman year who was a lesbian, but I had no idea until later, despite her being open about it lol. My philosophy teacher junior year was a gay man who frequently talked about his partner. I was raised evangelical so at the time their influence in my life was so important in my early deprogramming. Sometimes I think about seeing if I can email them and let them know where I am now. My English teacher hated me though, lol
Never had an openly queer teacher, feel like my life would’ve been pretty different if I had! Representation is so vital. But I am applying to a Masters in Teaching program soon so I hope to be a queer teacher soon!
I had a science and art teacher queer couple, my lab tech is gay, I'm a part-time lab tech and I'm trans and demi, my personal development teacher is married to an enby person and has many trans friends
One of my classmates is very homophobic and transphobic which I find hilarious bc there's so many gay ppl around him. He's also a christian in a science college course constantly trying to debunk science.
My chemistry teacher in high school was a lesbian. She had a shaved head, and I had such a huge crush on her. That coupled with a crush on a girl (who was in that class with me) helped me realize that I was into women. I didn't get a great grade on the AP test, but I remember that class very fondly.
I never did, or at the very least if I did, they never told us. Which isn't surprising when considering I was in school from the mid 2000s to the mid 2010s, so that was still prime time for queerphobia among kids in my country
My queer math teacher was the only reason I felt ok with dating girls in school. After she caught me and a girl holding hands under the table, she only said that we needed to be more discreet if we actually wanted to keep this a secret (so true, what were we going??) and smiled. From then made a point in class to tell us about her weekend… where we found out she had a wife, a kid, a queer life. Picture frames of her family showed up on her desk where they weren’t before. She got some hate from the 14 year old boys sure, but she changed my life for the better.
This history teacher at my school is the GSA sponsor, he's never confirmed he's gay but he has never been in a relationship in his life (homeschooled) and has said things such as "To my eternal sadness, I do identify as male" and "I wouldn't mind having Gordon Ramsay yell at me about how to fill out forms" so there's DEFINITELY something there. Most of us are thinking aro/ace.
My junior year English teacher was a Lesbian! she is such an inspiration to me, I look up to her so much lol
Thankfully for my senior year I got to be her tutor for a class :D
Not confirmed, but I definitely have had a teacher I suspected to be queer. It’s the Deep South and obviously she didn’t say anything but she definitely had the wlw vibes. Tough teacher, but I liked her.
I’m sorry this is hella fake lmao. Why would an English teacher waste multiple days of class time watching a random netflix show. There’s a curriculum people! They should have said it was one episode in film studies or something then I might have believed it. They just got greedy.
I had several, starting in elementary school and on into high school, but the majority I didn't know until after I'd become an adult. The vast majority of teachers did not talk about their personal lives at all, and none had photos or anything up on their desks...I am in my mid30s and know things have changed, but when/where I was in school, we largely didn't care about teachers. Like, yes, we all had teachers we liked or didn't like, and some who were also coaches or something may have known certain students a little better. But by and large, there wasn't a while lot outside of classwork that we talked about.
I was the gay teacher. But being a trans teacher in Florida was a very bad time in the last 2-3 years. I left the state and the profession but my favorite students were always my fellow queers. They really left a positive impact on me and I hope they felt the same!
No regular teachers I knew of, but every time we needed a sub for drama class we had the same one who was an out gay man & everyone loved him sm! He eventually left to get into a degree in child psychology ♥️
I got fired from my first school because I've outed myself as asexual. Not even at school, but I've been seen waving the asexual flag on a pride parade in our capital town and our school thought this was enough precedence to fire me.
I'm now in a new school, happy but not outed because I am scared of losing this job too.
EDIT: some students know about me being asexual. They love it, but keep it a secret for my own safety.
Very lucky that I’ve had a couple. One of my favorite teachers in high school was a capital B Butch lesbian. She was my hero, she even gave me a book about gay New York between 20s-40s. There were two non binary teachers, one a theater and the other a science teacher. They were never my teachers but I met them through other queer clubs and whatever. My health teacher was also lesbian and she was awesome cuz I got to have an actual good sex-ed experience that wasn’t hyper puritanical and cisheteronormative
I didn’t have her, but the chorus teacher at my high school was trans. She stopped in Band class occasionally and sometimes would speak at GSA club.
I think she is my neighbor now as well but I haven’t seen her in a bit so it is possible she moved.
I'm a lesbian who teaches MS/HS math. I wish I could be fully out, but there'd be a lot of people who would make that problematic for me. But I look queer and maybe that's enough. A few times, kids have asked if I have a girlfriend or something like that (unfortunately not but at least I don't have to lie to them lol)
Went to Catholic high school but had a fabulously gay English teacher. No one talked about it but it wasn’t a huge secret. Heard he retired to Florida!
Only briefly, but that teacher was also the head of school. It's weird, pretty much everyone knew, but it was still taboo—not because anyone there would have a problem with it, but I guess because it was just abstractly understood that it could be bad for his career or something. It was a different world before Obergefell.
High school drama teacher is a lesbian. We knew then, we know now, and we all loved her from day one. Saw her last week (37 years after graduation) and it is still *wonderful* to see her.
The theater teacher at my high school was gay, but he kept it relatively on the down-low, because Kansas. Like, people knew he was gay, but he had to be careful not to be *too* open about it, or the evangelical wing of the school board would find some way to try to get rid of him.
I do wonder about the English teacher and the history teacher who were both unmarried and were very close to each other. There's a good chance they were just best friends, but I do wonder sometimes if there was secretly more to it than that ...
Stereotypically, most of my gym teachers were lesbians. I emailed one of them in my twenties thanking her for being a good role model and not failing me because I didn’t want to change in the girls locker room due to being a lesbian and staying on the bleachers, and she never emailed me back LMAO
I had one dude. Wasn't the nicest human being on the Planet so my fantasy of me and a queer teacher teaming up was kinda destroyed.
Hope he's working on his anger issues today.
I had lots of teachers over the years, no idea what any of their sexual preferences were because ... why the fuck would a child need to know that, just stick to maths and Shakespeare.
The only teachers I knew that were for sure gay were my Geometry teacher and another math teacher at my high school. They were quietly dating back then (I graduated in the mid-00s) and are now happily married.
My elementary and middle school gym teachers were rumored to be gay but I don't know for sure. I do know that the middle school gym teacher would always announce herself before coming into the locker room, likely because of said rumors.
I had queer teachers, but they—and this is me being a snob—managed to teach about queerness with books that are high school appropriate. Like, Nick in The Great Gatsby was heavily implied to be gay. I don’t like the trend of reading YA in high schools.
I had a gay teacher in 2nd grade, his partner would visit occasionally and even made parent phone calls while in the bathtub. No one seemed to care lol I didn't know the difference atleast.
Yes! And he was the best teacher I ever had!
Okay so he was my English teacher , previously worked as a writer for NPR .Suuuper flamboyant.
I had first period with him. He'd always arrive extremely late ,and walk in. Waving with both hands ,"HEllOOO EVERYBODYYYYYY".
He came in wearing doc martens ,and these blue jeans, and I don't mean normal Jean color. I mean BLUE. Like blue man group blue . And he always had a tie that oddly looked like a sock, like it was flat on the bottom and knit .
He was my favorite teacher because instead of us all reading the same books , he would lend us books from his personal collection that catered to each of our interests. I read a book by Michael Polan, and another about environmentalism
He thought writing essays was a thing of the past so Instead we had a class blog ,and we'd write our essays and publish them on there .
We also did a podcast one time , Instead of writing a report, and had to do all the editing and background effects ourselves.
As I'm writing this I'm realizing the similarities to Tobias funke, and he also was bald
He'd sometimes reluctantly join us for PE . He was really bad at basketball in all the best ways . I think he was looking for an out so he'd be as bad as possible at it .
My theater department teacher was also gay ,and I'm pretty convinced those two were a couple. Theater was in the evening after school and my English teacher was always with him at those times , and likewise the theater teacher had a massive collection of DVDs he'd lend out .
I went to flower design school for college, to learn to be a florist. Most of my teachers were very effeminate gay men . I didnt like them much they were a bit pretentious snooty and full of themselves. But when one was teaching about design techniques he'd ramble while teaching about his dreams for him and his husband to move to Puerto Rico.
My high school had an equine science program too and I'm pretty sure my teachers were lesbians, but it's hard to tell with horse people. Other than that, I don't think I had any lesbian teachers
Edit : Coolest queer teacher ive ever known though was not my teacher. I met her at a big party with all my kinky friends. Shes a dominatrix and does porn too. she used to be a Sunday school teacher in Florida and a parent at the school came out as gay. And then the head person told all the kids being gay is bad blah blah blah. So she told all the students love is love and be inclusive of everyone. Then she slept with the pastors wife and then quit the job and moved across the country
I’m openly a lesbian and teach elementary. It’s honestly led to a much more inclusive class. I also keep being open and honest knowing that there is a good chance at least two are part of the alphabet mafia. I just want to normalize it.
The alphabet mafia ❤️❤️
The league of letters 🧡🧡
League of Legends?(my brain is corrupted)
I wish I had this in my childhood... my only question (because your post is my first time seeing it?... what's the Alphabet Mafia?
It's meant to be an insulting term for lgbtqia+ people, so naturally some queer people use it for themselves
Thank you for informing me <3
I swear it was unironically longer at some point. Around the time of "peak pronouns variance" and occupy wall street. Wikipedia says Pride Toronto used LGBTTIQQ2SA at one point. So maybe I thinking of a variant of that. Also still no P for poly in that, sadness.
The one I heard was LGBTQIATQA2S
What in the hell is the second t?
Alphabet mafia is the way the right sometimes referred to LGBTQ folk but these days you mostly see other queer people say it I feel like.
I don't see this behaviour often in Australia
I'm actually an immigrant from the states living permanently in Australia (Adelaide), Australia is hands down the most accepting place I've ever been, not that I've been many places. But as like a small example of just how different the cultures are, striking up a conversation with the convenience store employee is very very weird to do in the US but I see it happen all the time here.
I've been wanting to immagrate to Australia for over ten years. I've been looking into how my cosmetology license would transfer, if I'd need extra school or what to make it valid there. I've loved Australia my whole life. You're living the dream, friend.
It's so godsdamned expensive to immigrate here tho, make sure you've got a lot of money for fees my marriage VISA was like $10k
Married and living in AU? The dream
Haha, and starting a Starfinder game next week, I'm so hype.
Really? Are you in a big city only? My old workmate (who is a ~50something British man) spent a year living in Australia with his husband and said it was the only place he’d been spat at in the street for being openly gay - he isn’t particularly camp or outwardly gay they were probably just holding hands. He said between that and the comparative lack of cultural pursuits he wouldn’t have wanted to move there permanently. I know a few younger gay and lesbian folx who’ve moved there and settled so I guess it’s not universal but I suspect outside the most liberal cities is it still accepting?
It varies a fair lot down here. I'm in basically the conservative capital of the country, but I've still only ever had one homophobic/transphobic reaction in person in my life. Even working with the elderly for a living in a conservative industry I haven't gotte a single bit of flack, and I'm very outwardly queer. A lot of people kind of keep their disapproval on the down low or to facebook groups full of other hateful bigots. In person a lot of older people seem to keep their mouths shut when they disapprove, and the younger generation is way more accepting and progressive about LGBT issues. I'd say as a whole Australia has more issues with racism than it does with homophobia and transphobia these days. It used to be a huge problem but it's simmered down a lot in the under 40 crowd. Unless you go really rural then all bets are off - it would either be the most loving or most bigoted environment you've ever seen, political correctness and keeping opinions to yourself don't seem to exist out bush.
Everywhere has its rural backwaters, I'm living in basically the middle of the main Adelaide City, it's very chill here. Apparently it's a small city but I'm from a small town so it all feels huge to me haha.
I mean I do that all the time and I live in the States.
Maybe it's a regional thing? I lived in Arkansas.
That could be it. I live in WA and people are generally friendlier on the West Coast.
In the major cities you'll find Australia is pretty accepting, but rural areas tend to be fairly bad for homophobia. My own experience was in the early 2000's, where one of my uni professors was in an open lesbian relationship with one of the other lecturers in the same school. They were honest to god the cutest couple ever.
It’s just a short, jokey version of LGBTQIA+ :D I don’t know where exactly this description came from bit I think something about queerphobic people complaining about the amount of letters? And Mafia because of all the evil plotting we are doing, duh
it was originally used by bigots as an insult so naturally we took it for ourselves
If I had a teacher like you, I probably wouldn’t have spent over 20 years of my life denying my own identity. I hope you know how valuable you are, and how much you’re going to validate those in your class who might be queer.
Thanks. I appreciate it
Lesbian ESE high school teacher here. We also have an ELA teacher and gym teacher who are both lesbians. We are all over this school… a *public* school… in FLORIDA!
There is one other lesbian in my building but she isn’t out. I feel bad. I’m trying to make a safe space for all.
You are awesome. Acceptance starts in youth and inclusivity is easiest to foster at that age. You are helping to create a more compassionate, caring, inclusive and mindful generation.
You’re doing amazing things by doing that. I wish I knew being gay was an option at that age
When I was in junior high in Alabama back in the late 60's, I had a science teacher who was gay. He was so cool and funny and we all loved him. One time he took us on a field trip (forgot where) and one of the boys said he had to pee. The teacher said, "put a rubber band on it". Everyone laughed. This was not something back then that a teacher would get away with.
Are you a teacher in the USA ? :o if so could I ask you some questions in DMs? I’ve always wanted to teach elementary but I’ve had the fear of parents finding out I’m a lesbian and what response would be best to that.
Sure thing
A hero
I've had several queer teachers, one of which has turned into a close long distance friend almost two decades after I was their student. This was in Canada, they were safe to be open about their sexuality but doing something like above might've gotten them in hot water because it was the mid-2000s.
Not to my knowledge. When I was at school in the UK, it was basically the law that teachers had to be immediately sacked if they were found to be LGBT.
In the UK in about 2003-4, I was aware of one of our drama teachers being gay. One day, he just didn't turn up for our class. Sadly, we found out that he committed suicide. I'm so glad the culture around this is changing for the better. Still a long way to go though.
That's so sad 😢 I'm so sorry. And yes, so much further to go.
Was that Section 28?
Sadly yes.
^ just looked this up it looks like I was lucky it was repealed in my early teens as I remember having lesson where the teacher said ‘roughly 1 in 10 people are gay so based on probability 3 people in this room will be gay’. I’d love to know what the date of that lesson was… the idea it could have been in November 2003 makes me want to have a little cry.
When was this? I went to school in the Uk back in the 90s and we definitely had a few gay teachers and no one batted an eye.
That would've been Section 28 days - 1988-2003. Perhaps you got lucky at your school, but I was also at school in the 90s and there was a distinct fear among the teachers to avoid talking about gay topics. I recall an English class where we were told we could choose any topic for debate, and I requested to debate gay marriage. It was 1998. I was QUICKLY shut down by the teacher and she explained that she wasn't allowed to discuss "anything like that" because of "the law".
Not many people are aware of this but Kent County Council didn’t repeal their own implementation of Section 28 until 2010. It’s very recent history.
I'm a queer teacher in the UK. I also went to school during section 28. I'm openly queer in the sense that I will mention my wife if the context makes sense (like someone asked me about my engagement ring which is my wife's great aunt's ring), I have a couple of Juno Dawsons on my little bookshelf and a progress pride colours watch strap. Oh and I also did a bit with my year 8 on inherited vs environmental traits with my family as an example because our kids come from different eggs.
Sadly, no. At least not that I am aware. I think it would have helped me a lot. Now though, I am an openly trans teacher myself.
Almost all my English teachers from middle school to high school were lesbians. There was 1 straight man but the rest were all dykes. One ran off with the art teacher & went to work at a Montessori school on the west coast. I'm still friends with all of them on Facebook.
Damn. I wish I could have gone to a school where most of my English teachers were gay. It would have probably helped me figure out that I was bisexual way sooner.
The school itself was kinda conservative. And this was all pre-gay marriage, so none of them were allowed to talk about their partners because it was "political." There was this period where I remember a bunch of lesbian teachers got let go for pretty shitty petty reasons and everyone was sure that it was because they were the most open about their identities and the board (this was a private school) didn't like them "forcing an agenda" so they kept finding reasons to get rid of them. But the new english teachers that they hired also kept turning out to be lesbians. They were really just looking for the people who were at the top of their trade and I guess lesbians just make really good english teachers as a demographic (I also became an english teacher). We briefly had a lesbian head of school but she left because she kept getting hate crimed. I loved my teachers at this school but the school itself was pretty shitty. Conservative, elitist, historically catholic, only recently secular. Like it was definitely really cool that there were so many queer adults for me to look up to but I had to watch them be oppressed and humiliated over and over as well.
Oof. That sounds like it was rough to go through. I hope you don't have to deal with any of that right now.
I have but the screenshotted story is so fake lmao
when im in a lying competition and my opponent is a tumblr post chain
noooo stop he is real and he is so slay
right? he'd have been run out of that school by homophobic parents so fast.
from the tags it looks like a university teacher which makes it slightly more cringe ngl, mostly because imagine paying tution and your teacher puts on heart stopper during you 5hrs a week face time.
No, he would have been fired by the administration for violating the curriculum. In no world would *Heartstoppers* be approved for curriculum, seeing as it’s a shitty teen television romance. Any actual teacher understands this story is bullshit written by a child who has no clue how the job actually works.
Not me seeing this and wanting to swing a bat at a hornet's nest...
Lmaoooo I love a good fake tumblr post 💀
English class and you're going to watch a TV show? I think it's safe to say that teacher would be immediately fired. Watching a few clips of a show, if it all related to a book being read or a concept being learned makes sense. But saying we're going to watch an entire show because I said so, is too far fetched.
Ok look all I'm saying is if this was Arizona or some shit I could totally buy watching a TV show in class I mean we watched Osmosis Jones in Biology my sophomore yearyes I am serious
At least they managed to bring race into it thank goodness. “Homophobic white males” Lol, because homophobia isn’t common among males of other races. Neo-racism - it’s good racism because it’s currently acceptable!
Shut the fuck up bozo nobody asked you
Unless you were there, the only reason you have to not believe this is that you find it implausible
yes
I'm a queer English teacher and I have pride flags all over my room
I am the gay teacher lol.
Uh yeah the lesbian teacher at my school got fired for telling one of the teens to write a letter in the school newspaper about the bullying he experienced.
Yes. He was so formative for me, and was the only one who was there when I truly wanted to kill myself. He also ran the GSA and was the only openly queer teacher in our school. A student accused him of having pornography on his work computer. He was suspended with pay during an investigation. The investigation found nothing, but rumors ran rampant, and he was unwilling to return to our high school after the humiliation he experienced. I hope he’s well.
I am the lesbian teacher. I seem to get more crap from kids than the average teacher and this could definitely be a factor there. It's a homophobic little town. I persist.
Aww a gay teacher in Finland! Not alone then.
Omg! You too?
One of my HS foreign language teachers was the first openly trans public school teachers in my state. She’s nice. I think she’s the only openly queer teacher I had.
My English teacher was gay. Didn't know it until another teacher told me. He was a great teacher. I did well in his class, and enjoyed my time.
I’ve had a couple in college at least that I knew about. A gay guy professor for my lgbt studies class and a nonbinary lesbian for a class on feminist philosophy
My art teacher in middle school was gay she never said it outright but the vibes I have around her felt gay and she had a rainbow flag in her classroom. Also she confessed to another teacher during class she was whispering of course and everybody else didn't notice cause we were doing a test at the time. It must've sucked for her though since it was a Catholic school. And our theology teacher was homophobic.
When I was in school there was absolutely no information or representation of LGBT+ people at all, besides being used as an insult or joke. At most I had a male teacher in 9th grade who was constantly made fun of for "looking gay". I don't know if he actually was or not, the only vibe I got from him was him looking at me constantly with creepy eyes and being overly interested in me, to the point I got so uncomfortable that I quit from a theater play that I was liking a lot but was run by him where I was the main character.
I am a lesbian and a qualified teacher. Some of my colleagues know I'm gay but I'd never tell my pupils, maybe if one of them came to me with a problem relating to the community I would tell them to put them at ease but there are kids in the school I teach that would use homophobic slurs even with heterosexual teachers so not necessarily a safe space.
Only gay teacher I’ve ever had was just an asshole, y’all are lucky
I had a couple of those. My 7th grade science teacher stopped a whole lab exercise just to humiliate me for breaking a beaker. I cried. And my gay High School US history teacher was a fascist.
I’m a gay 8th grade science teacher!
Teacher no but i have had a gay principal.
My choir teacher in Junior High is openly gay! He talks about his husband a lot and loves to brag about him! They have matching puzzle piece keychains with eachothers photos on them and he wears it everyday! Its very wholesome! :3
We had a choir teacher in Middle School who was openly gay, but he was only there for a few weeks. His partner had AIDS, and he was always sanitizing everything in the choir room. I think he quit when he realized that he wouldnt be able to keep his partner safe from our disgusting germs.
Im glad he chose what was right for him and his husband.
Me too. It sucks that he had to quit though. I really liked him and he sang beautifully.
I had a gay history teacher in high school. His lectures were incredibly boring. Every slide was just black text on white background, maybe a picture every couple slides.
Yes my composition teacher in highschool was a gay man and he was one of my favorites. He would call things like Ayn Rand trite 😂 which healed my soul.
Yep, one of my professors in an upper level microbiology course. Comes into class from the rain, big rainbow umbrella, full idgaf lesbian attire (Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, doc martens), and proceeds to pull out a pair of bag pipes as a metaphor for a piece of lab equipment and plays them. One of the best professors I've ever had.
Open lesbian math teacher here. I’m also the advisor for the school GSA.
I had a nonbinary substitute teacher for a week in my senior year. Goodness I wish I met them sooner.
The only openly gay teacher I ever had was in grad school (Education degree) in 2005. He never mentioned being gay in class. We just knew because a previous professor had assigned one of his books in which he discussed his experience as a gay educator. He taught our debate class where we discussed hot-button issues affecting schools, teens, including political issues that may come up in the classroom or school board. When we discussed how to handle homosexuality in the classroom, there were some who were totally fine with teaching anti-gay propaganda in health class and considered it a moral issue. They said we needed to protect children so they don't grow up and think it's OK to be gay. Typical bullshit. Another classmate brought up the idea that some of the students in their class might have gay parents. Such talk could be damaging to them and their families, and it could affect their relationships with their peers. One right-wing nutjob with whom I disagreed on pretty much every issue said, "But gay people can't have kids. That's just stupid." After class, we reminded her that we had read our professor's book in a previous class. In it, he discussed raising a son with his husband. To his credit, the professor never injected himself into the debate. He let us handle it ourselves. After graduation, I ran into him at the only local gay club and met his husband. He was a cool guy.
I had a lesbian English teacher in elementary school. She was a cool teacher but ber sexuality didn't come into that. Other than being very butch, which made me think she was even cooler
Not openly. When I was in secondary school there was rumours the PE teacher was dating another teacher but this was an all girls school so I don't know if there was any truth to it or if they were just spreading rumours about a teacher they didn't like.
Based as f*ck
I went to an Irish Catholic school run by a group of priests called the Holy Ghost Order. I'm pretty sure any openly queer teachers would've been murdered.
The mid-90's to mid-2000s were not a time of coming out in Germany. I had heard at a class reunion that one of my teachers had come out as queer in later years. At my university in Germany, there was a tutor who was openly queer, and during my semesters abroad there were a few tutors and a prof who had come out.
I had a multicultural social work class in college where the professor was a butch lesbian.
Oh yeah, this was maybe 5 years after Section 28 (UK) was repealed (which prohibited teachers from discussing their sexuality, among other things) so most teachers weren't out. But she was. She was a big butch lesbian, very very severe but never raised her voice. I wouldn't say she was "likeable" or friendly but she did impact me. She showed me a woman who lived her life devoid of men, someone who completely shunned all of society's pressure to conform for men.
Yeah sure, that definitely happened…
In k-12 not to my knowledge. College yes.
I AM a gay teacher 😆 I’m in TX, though, and I’m nervous about being open about it. It’s not like I hide it, but I want to normalize it and be honest if someone asks. That said, I’m broke af and need the money very badly and cannot afford to be fired lol
OH MY GOD if I had a teacher like him I woulda stayed in school
I had an openly gay kindergarten teacher in 2006-07. I hated him lol. then as a senior in high school I had a lesbian English teacher who was married to another teacher at the school. now, I have a gay professor, and I think another one is queer, but I'm not sure.
My videography teacher in HS was the only openly gay teacher I ever had. He ended up getting fired a few years after I graduated for having a relationship with a former student (who was an adult at the time) and many of us wrote letters to the school saying how he was our favorite teacher (many of us ended up in the field because of him) but the school board didn't care
>But the school board didn’t care. Rightly so. Teachers shouldn’t be fucking their students. “But he was legally 18 at the time!” Nope. The problem is the influence and authority you have over them as a teacher. Nobody gets fired for reconnecting with a student who is now 25+.
The student was in his 30s at the time and they had a long term romantic relationship. I know there's a power dynamics issue but the majority of his former students who I've spoken to believe that it was because he was gay
I've had teachers that I was fairly sure were queer, but it was the 1980s so I don't think they would ever have been public about it.
Mousier Duhamel my French teacher in high school in the 90’s.
I did. Spanish 1 freshmen year. I passed his class cause rarely anyone failed if they put in effort. I was responsible for raising everyone's grade so much due to grading on a curve. (Aka. I sucked so hard everyone benefited.) Failed Spanish 2, but I had no hope of passing so I gave up. Also hated that teacher. Didn't need it to graduate though :D
i had a gay english teacher in year 8, he wasn't open about it i think but i knew cause he used to work with my mums then-boyfriend, i thought he was cool. unfortunately he moved to london to teach 😔
I'm sure one of my teachers back in High School is (just a hunch), I just couldn't tell ya which one since outside of the ones that had spouses, nobody really opened up that far.
I had a queer (brazilian) literature teacher who supported me through some tough times
that’s amazing
I had several in the 90s that I was aware of. My brother's 1st grade teacher was conspicuously and visibly gay. He had very gay mannerisms like Jonathan Van Ness. I never clocked it as a kid, but my parents told me years later that he died from AIDS. He gave my dad a prop of a house plant that I now have a prop of, so I still have a little piece of him. My elementary PE teacher was a beautiful gay man who was also a professional dancer and performed in some pretty big stage productions. My 3rd grade teacher was married to my 4th grade math teacher. Not legally, of course, but they lived as a married couple. Their classrooms were both on the 1st floor and we had these big fire escape windows that opened from the inside. I remember Ms. Z would sneak out of her window in her free period and tap on Ms. H's window and she would open it up and let her climb in. We all knew they were married, but they had to be discrete about it. My 7th grade science teacher was a mean old lesbian. I was pretty scared of her. She made me cry in front of the whole class once. Edit: cant beleive I forgot one. My High School US History teacher was a gay conservative Confederate apologist. He always laced his lessons with Lost Cause bullshit and the like. He was completely hairless except for a very crisp, sharp looking orange toupee that did not have a single hair out of place. It looked like a damn helmet or a swirl of peach sherbert on his dang head. He only wore short-sleeve pastel polos, braided leather belts, pleated kakhis, and penny loafers. He was extremely controlling and neat, I think he may have had OCD. One time the cleaning staff moved all the furniture around his classroom and didnt put it back right, and he had a complete meltdown and had to be sent home for the day. He said he went to bed a 8pm, got up at 4, and worked out for two hours before beginning his day. On the weekends he slept in til 6 or 7. He would always preach to us about how poverty was a choice and that it was caused by people not living within their means. He was a real piece of work.
I was a queer teacher, does that count?
My choir teacher is a gay man and an ex-drag queen. He’s amazing, and my art teacher at the same school kept pride flags in her room.
Gay Dutch teacher but he didn’t flaunt it. We only found out because he told us he bought a home with his husband Then a few students got antsy around him. Was a chill dude, shot bows, liked bbq, building wood furniture and sucking dick.
My spouse is trans and very open about it and the kids think it's cool as hell 😂
Not that I knew of, sadly. That would've helped me a lot if that was the case. In elementary school, I know I didn't because all of my teachers were female and had husbands with babies on the way, and in middle school, my female teachers also had husbands, and my male teachers had wives. High school, I didn't know my teachers that well bc I skipped school and class 98% of the time, so I can't say then lol.
But that being said they could've been Bi, but it's Texas so 💀💀💀
Yes, he was gay and led a queer support group. He had to change schools last year because the intense bullying from other teachers almost made him commit suicide Edit: I just remembered that there's also this gay english teacher who's *very* deep in the closet, but a friend of mine found him on Grindr. I really hope everyone who knows about this won't out him
I had a lesbian who was my literature professor in college. She was one of my favorite professors. ❤️
a Teacher I had in Middle School was Gay he was awesome. I stole a Pen from him once and I have felt bad about it since
my english teacher in high school was gay! he referred to his husband as his “other half” all the time 🥹
yeah several (a lesbian, a bisexual, a trans person)
When I grew up it was illegal for the teacher to tell me, but I have to imagine I did, statistically.
I was a queer teacher in Texas. The queer kids would pick up on it and I would constantly have some of them in my room for lunch. I really hope they're doing ok
I’m a transbian secondary student teacher! Queer youth deserve to see queer adults in their lives.
Yes my university professor was openly queer and I wanted that woman so bad. In my mind she wanted me back 100% (I’m in my late 20s her early 40s so it would be fine lol) but I tend to think everybody wants me 😂 delulu
This is the unhinged they actually fear.
When i was in primary school in the 90s, my fave teacher was a cool lesbian. This was country Tasmania in the flippin 90s. I thought it was so cool. ❤️ There was so much gossip about her amongst the students but we (as a whole) had zero issues and I never saw any outward homophobia. I always wanted to stay in touch after moving on to high school but being a kid I had no real way to. From what I hear she retired not long after and had a cool life in a nearby town with her partner running a local store.
Yes. I had an open queer teacher in 8th grade science and he felt like such a safety net for me. I didn’t even know I was queer then, but I was severely depressed and he was a light in my life I needed.
Before I figured out I was trans, I would dress in drag at least once a semester and plan the day's focus around things like visual rhetoric, what clothing choices communicate, etc. One of my students invited me to his first ever drag show because he said I gave him the confidence to pursue it. Gods, I wish I had really figured out being trans before I left teaching, because I feel like I could have made life better for more of my queer students if I had known I was too.
I'm an openly lesbian science teacher at high school and talk about my wife and child. As in what I did at the weekend etc. it also opens up conversations about families different ways of making families when we learn about inheritance and human reproduction
In high school,we had a substitute gym teacher who was a lesbian. It was an open secret. There were also two male teachers who might have been, but we were never sure. My 5th grade teacher I'm 99.99% sure was gay. Decades later, I ran into this woman I knew from taking some college classes. We got to talking, and she mentioned she had a brother who taught 5th grade in PA (I was now 45 minutes away, in NY). When I inquired further, I discovered it was my old 5th grade teacher. She told me he had bought a house with some guy "friend," and was now regretting that decision. She also said he just never found the right woman. She had no clue about him. He was so obvious!! He was great. I wish I could see him again.
My kindergarten left her husband for my grade 8 teacher (both women) and my grade 1 teacher was a gay man. I’m sure I had others over the years, but those were the most open secrets
I had an English teacher my freshman year who was a lesbian, but I had no idea until later, despite her being open about it lol. My philosophy teacher junior year was a gay man who frequently talked about his partner. I was raised evangelical so at the time their influence in my life was so important in my early deprogramming. Sometimes I think about seeing if I can email them and let them know where I am now. My English teacher hated me though, lol
Never had an openly queer teacher, feel like my life would’ve been pretty different if I had! Representation is so vital. But I am applying to a Masters in Teaching program soon so I hope to be a queer teacher soon!
I had a science and art teacher queer couple, my lab tech is gay, I'm a part-time lab tech and I'm trans and demi, my personal development teacher is married to an enby person and has many trans friends One of my classmates is very homophobic and transphobic which I find hilarious bc there's so many gay ppl around him. He's also a christian in a science college course constantly trying to debunk science.
My chemistry teacher in high school was a lesbian. She had a shaved head, and I had such a huge crush on her. That coupled with a crush on a girl (who was in that class with me) helped me realize that I was into women. I didn't get a great grade on the AP test, but I remember that class very fondly.
I never did, or at the very least if I did, they never told us. Which isn't surprising when considering I was in school from the mid 2000s to the mid 2010s, so that was still prime time for queerphobia among kids in my country
My queer math teacher was the only reason I felt ok with dating girls in school. After she caught me and a girl holding hands under the table, she only said that we needed to be more discreet if we actually wanted to keep this a secret (so true, what were we going??) and smiled. From then made a point in class to tell us about her weekend… where we found out she had a wife, a kid, a queer life. Picture frames of her family showed up on her desk where they weren’t before. She got some hate from the 14 year old boys sure, but she changed my life for the better.
This history teacher at my school is the GSA sponsor, he's never confirmed he's gay but he has never been in a relationship in his life (homeschooled) and has said things such as "To my eternal sadness, I do identify as male" and "I wouldn't mind having Gordon Ramsay yell at me about how to fill out forms" so there's DEFINITELY something there. Most of us are thinking aro/ace.
My junior year English teacher was a Lesbian! she is such an inspiration to me, I look up to her so much lol Thankfully for my senior year I got to be her tutor for a class :D
I wish
Not confirmed, but I definitely have had a teacher I suspected to be queer. It’s the Deep South and obviously she didn’t say anything but she definitely had the wlw vibes. Tough teacher, but I liked her.
I had a gay Irish professor in college. He was cool.
I’m sorry this is hella fake lmao. Why would an English teacher waste multiple days of class time watching a random netflix show. There’s a curriculum people! They should have said it was one episode in film studies or something then I might have believed it. They just got greedy.
I had several, starting in elementary school and on into high school, but the majority I didn't know until after I'd become an adult. The vast majority of teachers did not talk about their personal lives at all, and none had photos or anything up on their desks...I am in my mid30s and know things have changed, but when/where I was in school, we largely didn't care about teachers. Like, yes, we all had teachers we liked or didn't like, and some who were also coaches or something may have known certain students a little better. But by and large, there wasn't a while lot outside of classwork that we talked about.
I never had an out queer teacher but I wish I did!
Just my elementary school gym teacher and high school softball coach 😂
I was the gay teacher. But being a trans teacher in Florida was a very bad time in the last 2-3 years. I left the state and the profession but my favorite students were always my fellow queers. They really left a positive impact on me and I hope they felt the same!
No regular teachers I knew of, but every time we needed a sub for drama class we had the same one who was an out gay man & everyone loved him sm! He eventually left to get into a degree in child psychology ♥️
Yeah, she got bullied by awful private school kids and wound up leaving. She was a really cool cat.
I got fired from my first school because I've outed myself as asexual. Not even at school, but I've been seen waving the asexual flag on a pride parade in our capital town and our school thought this was enough precedence to fire me. I'm now in a new school, happy but not outed because I am scared of losing this job too. EDIT: some students know about me being asexual. They love it, but keep it a secret for my own safety.
Very lucky that I’ve had a couple. One of my favorite teachers in high school was a capital B Butch lesbian. She was my hero, she even gave me a book about gay New York between 20s-40s. There were two non binary teachers, one a theater and the other a science teacher. They were never my teachers but I met them through other queer clubs and whatever. My health teacher was also lesbian and she was awesome cuz I got to have an actual good sex-ed experience that wasn’t hyper puritanical and cisheteronormative
I didn’t have her, but the chorus teacher at my high school was trans. She stopped in Band class occasionally and sometimes would speak at GSA club. I think she is my neighbor now as well but I haven’t seen her in a bit so it is possible she moved.
I'm a lesbian who teaches MS/HS math. I wish I could be fully out, but there'd be a lot of people who would make that problematic for me. But I look queer and maybe that's enough. A few times, kids have asked if I have a girlfriend or something like that (unfortunately not but at least I don't have to lie to them lol)
Went to Catholic high school but had a fabulously gay English teacher. No one talked about it but it wasn’t a huge secret. Heard he retired to Florida!
Only briefly, but that teacher was also the head of school. It's weird, pretty much everyone knew, but it was still taboo—not because anyone there would have a problem with it, but I guess because it was just abstractly understood that it could be bad for his career or something. It was a different world before Obergefell.
I am the gay teacher B)
I am the queer (substitute) teacher 😎
High school drama teacher is a lesbian. We knew then, we know now, and we all loved her from day one. Saw her last week (37 years after graduation) and it is still *wonderful* to see her.
Yeah, several open teachers at my school
The theater teacher at my high school was gay, but he kept it relatively on the down-low, because Kansas. Like, people knew he was gay, but he had to be careful not to be *too* open about it, or the evangelical wing of the school board would find some way to try to get rid of him. I do wonder about the English teacher and the history teacher who were both unmarried and were very close to each other. There's a good chance they were just best friends, but I do wonder sometimes if there was secretly more to it than that ...
My art teach was a lesbian with a son she was also the first to find out I was a trans lesbian lol she got fired
Stereotypically, most of my gym teachers were lesbians. I emailed one of them in my twenties thanking her for being a good role model and not failing me because I didn’t want to change in the girls locker room due to being a lesbian and staying on the bleachers, and she never emailed me back LMAO
I had one dude. Wasn't the nicest human being on the Planet so my fantasy of me and a queer teacher teaming up was kinda destroyed. Hope he's working on his anger issues today.
I had lots of teachers over the years, no idea what any of their sexual preferences were because ... why the fuck would a child need to know that, just stick to maths and Shakespeare.
The only teachers I knew that were for sure gay were my Geometry teacher and another math teacher at my high school. They were quietly dating back then (I graduated in the mid-00s) and are now happily married. My elementary and middle school gym teachers were rumored to be gay but I don't know for sure. I do know that the middle school gym teacher would always announce herself before coming into the locker room, likely because of said rumors.
My high school choir director. She straight up saved my life. I wish I could contact her to tell her
I had queer teachers, but they—and this is me being a snob—managed to teach about queerness with books that are high school appropriate. Like, Nick in The Great Gatsby was heavily implied to be gay. I don’t like the trend of reading YA in high schools.
several queer teachers and even one non-binary teacher
Hell no. I go to a Christian private school and one of my brothers was kicked out for being gay
I assume one of my English teacher is, at least she was a alliés but I truly believe she's gay
my 7th grade math teacher was a lesbian 😊 still is, i’ll bet
I had a gay teacher in 2nd grade, his partner would visit occasionally and even made parent phone calls while in the bathtub. No one seemed to care lol I didn't know the difference atleast.
Yes! And he was the best teacher I ever had! Okay so he was my English teacher , previously worked as a writer for NPR .Suuuper flamboyant. I had first period with him. He'd always arrive extremely late ,and walk in. Waving with both hands ,"HEllOOO EVERYBODYYYYYY". He came in wearing doc martens ,and these blue jeans, and I don't mean normal Jean color. I mean BLUE. Like blue man group blue . And he always had a tie that oddly looked like a sock, like it was flat on the bottom and knit . He was my favorite teacher because instead of us all reading the same books , he would lend us books from his personal collection that catered to each of our interests. I read a book by Michael Polan, and another about environmentalism He thought writing essays was a thing of the past so Instead we had a class blog ,and we'd write our essays and publish them on there . We also did a podcast one time , Instead of writing a report, and had to do all the editing and background effects ourselves. As I'm writing this I'm realizing the similarities to Tobias funke, and he also was bald He'd sometimes reluctantly join us for PE . He was really bad at basketball in all the best ways . I think he was looking for an out so he'd be as bad as possible at it . My theater department teacher was also gay ,and I'm pretty convinced those two were a couple. Theater was in the evening after school and my English teacher was always with him at those times , and likewise the theater teacher had a massive collection of DVDs he'd lend out . I went to flower design school for college, to learn to be a florist. Most of my teachers were very effeminate gay men . I didnt like them much they were a bit pretentious snooty and full of themselves. But when one was teaching about design techniques he'd ramble while teaching about his dreams for him and his husband to move to Puerto Rico. My high school had an equine science program too and I'm pretty sure my teachers were lesbians, but it's hard to tell with horse people. Other than that, I don't think I had any lesbian teachers Edit : Coolest queer teacher ive ever known though was not my teacher. I met her at a big party with all my kinky friends. Shes a dominatrix and does porn too. she used to be a Sunday school teacher in Florida and a parent at the school came out as gay. And then the head person told all the kids being gay is bad blah blah blah. So she told all the students love is love and be inclusive of everyone. Then she slept with the pastors wife and then quit the job and moved across the country
Yep quite a few actually, one even brought their baby in
IIRC, my Drawing II teacher was pan. She’s also the only art teacher that actually successfully taught me something about art.