Any LGBT teachers on EC?

[IThinkInCircles]

Are any of you teachers? Public/private school, Pre-K, K-12, college/uni? Do your schools have protocols on being out at school? If so, what are they? If not, what are your own personal policies when interacting with other staff/administrators/?

I have a professor who is openly gay (he's also a registered GSA ally at my university) and one who is openly bisexual, and I had a teacher in high school that wasn't out at school among students, but is open on Facebook with friends and HS alums. I ask because although I've been teaching privately and as a volunteer throughout my undergrad, I'm due to graduate and receive my teaching certificate next December and am maybe a year and a half out from getting a public school gig. Any advice on general interaction? Not necessarily about everyday self-carrying, but what to say if other teachers are discussing dating/marriages etc and they ask you?

Emm

[zeratul]

Just like any other workplace, if they ask if you have a boyfriend, say no not right now. Their response tend to be, "ah you are still young, enjoy being single."

- From personal experience.

But a big no no to the K-12 kids. University kids, doesn't matter so much.

[Maddy]

I'm an education student and will be a primary teacher in a couple of years. In my school experience so far I haven't been out, except to a fellow student teacher. I had an openly gay English teacher in year 11, by which time nobody really seemed to care, but I'm teaching younger kids and it's probably safest for me to keep quiet.

[Chandra]

I teach at the college level, at a fairly liberal institution in Canada, so there are certainly no protocols against being out. However, it is the one area of my life where I tend to keep it to myself. I won't lie if the question comes up (which it usually doesn't), but I might use the word "partner" instead of "girlfriend", or say that I'm seeing somebody.

It isn't so much that I fear retaliation or prejudice, it's just that I feel more constrained by the bounds of professionalism at work. And although it shouldn't make any difference whether someone makes a passing comment about their same-sex or opposite-sex partner at work, the reality is that when you reveal in some way that you're in a same-sex relationship, it becomes a point of discussion that has the potential to overshadow whatever work-related topic you're supposed to be focusing on. It just feels like in many circumstances it would be overly personal and revealing, and thus inappropriate. (And I HATE the fact that I feel like it would be more inappropriate than mentioning an opposite-sex partner.)

Anyway, rambling. Don't mean to derail your thread.

[TheEdend]

I don't mean to highjack your thread, but I just wanted to throw in here that having teachers that were LGBT during high school was pretty liberating. It gave me the first glance for hope and for a better future.

I'm not saying that every teacher should come out. I understand that it has to be a very hard thing to handle ,but being able to be out while being professional is a HUGE help to those people or kids that might be into self-hating or in need for role models.

Teachers that are involved with an Ally program are also amazing!

Hope you don't get any problems for it. Also, I love teachers

[Victor]

Not a teacher yet, but I'm graduating this Spring and I'm hopefully going to be able to start applying to teaching credential programs and the like soon... It's a bit stressful thinking about it though. x_x

[GhostDog]

I'm still in school for it, a couple semesters' away from graduation. I'm crazy nervous about even being able to find a job in my subject area (art), because oh lord, they are gutting school budgets in Texas (not to mention teacher pay -.-). I'm going for certification for K-12.

I've asked my professors about it a couple of times, but they've mostly responded that it's been too long since they were in the school districts to really get a feel for the climate. Common wisdom seems to be that it really depends on the district and the principal. =/

I know in high school, there were a couple teachers who weren't O-U-T out, but everyone kinda knew and one guy's boyfriend would visit occasionally and everyone was cool with it. But, y'know, a gay teacher in a theater class, who's gonna mind? Half of the theater kids were gay anyway. And the other one was a color guard instructor. He taught a bunch of girls in spandex suits to wave flags around. Being gay was probably a plus for his position. Being that I was a student at the time, I don't know how much they had administration or parents breathing down their necks about it, but I know that I and my classmates didn't care.

I really hope I can find a place where it doesn't matter. Because I really liked hearing my teachers share little tidbits about their lives and families! It made me feel like I knew them better and like they liked us enough to share a little bit of their lives with us. So I'd like to be able to say, one day, "Oh, that's a picture of me, my wife, our kids, and our dogs..." and have it not be a thing.

I get the feeling that a lot of kids now don't care. My peers were pretty chill about it when I went through high school 5 to 9 years ago, and from what I'm hearing, it's only getting more and more accepted among the kids (though there is still bullying, unfortunately). It's the parents that scare me. =/

I may move to Austin. I can't see it being as big of a deal in Austin. =P

[IThinkInCircles]

GhostDog, I hear that. I'm getting my certification in K-12 music, we're getting axed EVERYWHERE.

[Gerry]

I'm a substitute teacher if that counts. I sub for K-12 and I would never be out because I'm usually only with each class for one day and that would seem weird to get them all involved in my private life. Although I haven't had any openly gay teachers before, but there were some that I thought could have been.

[Ben]

I don't really think that there's usually a reason for teachers to be out to their students, just as I don't think their age or marital status etc. is important to their job.
Of course there might be reasons to be out, but unless those arise, I don't think it's necessary.

[maverick]

Originally Posted by Ben

I don't really think that there's usually a reason for teachers to be out to their students, just as I don't think their age or marital status etc. is important to their job.
Of course there might be reasons to be out, but unless those arise, I don't think it's necessary.

I agree with Ben. Also, if I was a teacher and I was going to be involved with that kind of thing at all, I'd just be a sponsor of your school's gay-straight alliance, or start one if you don't have one.

[GhostDog]

I don't think it's so much a question of wanting/needing to be out to your students, necessarily. There's really no reason to bring it up out of nowhere. (Though I can't tell you how many of my teachers introduced themselves at the beginning of the year with a little tidbit about their family. Relevant to the class, no, but I don't see there being a problem with basically saying, "By the way, I do actually exist outside the classroom!" And most of my teachers had pictures of their families all over their desk. They never brought them up unless we asked, but there were references to their lives here and there.)

I just don't want to have to carefully edit any reference to my home life. Even my teachers who didn't share all that much about their personal lives occasionally dropped a reference to their husbands or wives. Because it's really hard to talk as if you have no personal life, 100% of the time. It may not be students' business, but going the entire year without mentioning something as significant as a spouse/partner/whatever at least once, even in reference to something else, has gotta be difficult.

I also don't want to feel the need to go shopping 20 miles away from where I teach just so me and the lady I'm with can feel relatively safe that we're avoiding students. I don't want to have to take separate cars wherever we go in town because we might accidentally run into Stephen-from-fourth-period and his parents. I wouldn't necessarily have to start out with, "Hi Stephen! ... This is my wife!", but man, I refuse to refer to hypothetical-future-wife as my roommate. It'd be bad enough to have to actively pretend she doesn't exist when I'm talking about any of my personal experiences.

[Davo]

I'm a Newly Qualified Teacher. I'm not really out yet, besides 2 colleagues, but I suspect it may be different it I had a permanent job. I do find it reassuring that one of my colleagues is also gay and seems to have been accepted with no difficulty from his colleagues.

[roborama]

obviously not my place, but i do see that it could be extreamly difficult for an out teacher; however it makes for even just one classroom where lgbt kids feel totally okay. there are two at my school and they are co-advisors for gsa and they help soooooooo much. so if theres any out there on here; thanks

[Flyers2011]

I had a teacher in college who was openly lesbian. In fact the first day of class she came out to us. Needless to say she was the best teacher ever.

[alwayshope11]

I'm a middle school teacher, and while I see no reason to tell the students, I agree with Ghostdog about the future. Right now, I'm single so it doesn't really matter.. but when I get married and have kids, I don't want to have to hide all that at work. I guess it just depends on the school environment. But it worries me a lot.

[Linthras]

I hope to start the Educational Master of History next year which will give me a license to teach up to college, but not university level.
I think what you need to keep in mind is that schools often have official or unwritten rules on these subjects.
Some schools for example might fear be accused of 'recruiting' children into the 'lifestyle' by allowing LGBT teachers talk openly about their sexuality or discuss it with their pupils.
The Netherlands are fortunately very liberal, so I hope when I will be a teacher I can support pupils who struggle with being LGBT and oppose general bigotry.

[sugarcubeigloo]

I just graduated not too long ago with a cert in secondary English and science. And I've been subbing for a few months now. I do live in a rather liberal area, and the school districts I work with have very clear equal opportunity employment standards. I've worked with teachers who were very active in GSA. During my student teaching, my cooperating teacher insisted that we participated in day of silence. But when I get an actual contracted position, I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do. I figure I won't advertise anything, but I'm certainly not hiding anything either.

[EM68]

My husband is a teacher in a middle school and he is not out to his students but is out to his colleagues. There are a couple of other gay teachers in his school and they are not out to the students either. He just doesn't feel its appropriate to talk about his private life with them, gay or straight.

[Andane]

Well, one of the band teachers in my school is gay, and everyone's fine with it. Although, it is a high school, so it's not as big an issue. He never really directly 'came out' to the class though, but it's a well known fact. He also talked to us one day and said that if we ever had any issues or needed someone to talk to, we could always go to him and he would be understanding. I was actually thinking of coming out to him to have a trusted adult confidant, but I've been chickening out =/