ok.. I have no idea if this is the right forum to post this, but it's been on my mind for a while now..so... last week I went to chat on [name of online site removed by mod] (I know.. I'm a lonely loser n I suck), they have this kinda new feature where if you let it connect to your facebook they try to find you a chat partner that shares your likes. After a couple of really random chats (seriously, everybody likes either The Simpsons or Linkin Park - it's like liking puppies) and the discovery that about 98% of the people on that site are pervs looking for girls (who don't exist on there - it's a myth) i finally found a halfway decent chat partner. Turns out it was a woman in her early twenties n she's a teacher, only found that mildly creepy, but kept telling myself I had no teachers who fit that description. We both like Chris Colfer and Kurt Hummel (Glee), so I thought we'd at least have something to talk about. She asked me if I was a girl cuz of my likes n I said no. So she said "Oh, then you're a gay boy." I kinda hate it when people are right in stereotyping me but i told her that I was. We continued to talk for a few minutes about how much we both like Chris Colfer and his character on the show and suddenly she tells me that she is not okay with homosexuality. I was kinda shocked cuz I didn't see that one coming at all, so we kept talking for a few more minutes and she actually told me that I felt like a little brother to her and she'd never wanna hurt me - I just couldn't go on with that chat at that point and told her that she already had and left. I just don't get it.. I've met homophobes before n I've been called hmophobic slurs before.. even to my face.. even by my own family.. but it had never hurt that much before. I dunno.. I just got caught completely off guard. So I dunno what i'm more disgusted by.. that a homophobe claims to be a Chris Colfer/Kurt Hummel fan or that she's allowed to teach... sorry, I know this didn't make much sense
I'm really sorry that you had that experience and, as you said, particularly from someone who identified themselves as a teacher. But unfortunately, teachers aren't immune from bigotry (nor are therapists, or just about anyone else). And yes, it really sucks that someone who teaches would be allowed to perpetuate their bigoted or homophobic views on others. I think in a way, the best we can do in those situations is try to be kind so that perhaps we can change people's perceptions through our actions. I think the majority of people who are bigoted or homophobic haven't had much chance to talk with or get to know many gay people... or they'd realize we're really not any different than any other people except maybe that we're more fabulous Most people are inherently afraid of things they don't know about. And it's not your job to educate anyone, so it's perfectly fine for you to just sign off if you aren't interested in talking to that person. But I can see why it still stings when they devalue who you are, and the best suggestion I can give is to try to understand that the reaction is generally out of ignorance and fear, not out of anything you've done specifically.
That is sad. Theyre supposed to create a safe learning environment for students. I hate when people like that are involved in the school system.
Pretty much the only group of people you can be sure aren't homophobic are gay people themselves. I know sometimes that things which should have less impact catch you off guard and have more impact than they should. But sometimes, you meet people like that, and you just need to pick up and move on.
