Rumors about teachers.

[Sheyceli]

So I have this English teacher who is male and easily at least into his 50s or 60s. He likes to talk a lot, especially about himself and his personal life, but he never mentions being with a significant other. Now, there are a lot of rumors about him that he is gay. I hear about it all of the time and it always makes me so upset. Even if I don't like him, whose business is it who he sleeps with? Certainly not his students'. Just because he never speaks of having a wife while he talks of every other detail of his life doesn't mean he's into men. And so what if he is? It doesn't matter. Whenever I hear something about him being gay, I always want to reply with, "Yeah? Well, (other teacher) is straight." So what?

Today he came into class telling us that he had to leave for a family emergency. He told us all of the details and that he was very upset about it. He had to go out into the hallway to take a phone call, and once he was out of earshot, a girl in the class said obnoxiously, "He's probably just going to see his boyfriend." I wish I could say something to defend him, even if we don't exactly get along, but I don't feel... safe, I suppose you could say, saying such a thing in a class full of teenagers who I am not friends with and who are not very accepting. Has anyone else here ever heard rumors about teachers being gay, and does it bother you?

[duriru]

Yeah, my biology teacher from high school. Everyone said he was gay even though he had a wife and a son, just because he acted very femininely. It didn't really bother me because I didn't like him that much, but if I heard rumors about a teacher I did like, I guess I would feel bothered.

[Mad Man L]

Doesn't really happen at our school. Generally, there are no rumours about teachers, just a general "dislike" feeling about the person, suspicion and all that.

[Alexandria]

It was constant in my school - rumors abound of this teacher or that. Sadly, some of the teachers *were* idiots, but in your case I would say yes stand up for him. If you don't, who will?

[Ridiculous]

Not during school I didn't, but one of my professors during my first semester at university was gay (or he atleast displayed all stereotypical gay mannerisms). One of my friends, who I wasn't out to at the time, had been making some stupid jokes about him being gay for a while, so I just said matter-of-factly "Yes, he's gay." He never made any mention of it afterwards.

[Ianthe]

In my fairly small high school, there were rumors about three of the teachers being gay.

All of them are. Of course, they were sort of just not confirming, back then, rather than denying anything very hard.

It's pretty common for teachers to be out generally and to coworkers, but just avoid the subject with students. Really, it's not the students they are worried about, but their parents. They don't want the parents to come in and say that they are trying to turn you all gay. A lot of parents don't mind if a teacher is gay as long as their kids don't know about it. But if you tell the kids about it, you are "promoting the lifestyle," or whatever.

So, if the rumors that he is gay are persistent, they are probably true--and he probably doesn't even care about them. Because really, he's probably out to the entire universe except his students. He doesn't care if anybody knows, he just doesn't want to deal with the fallout if he tells you guys about it.

The crazy thing is, the students end up spending a lot more time thinking about his sexuality than they would if he were open about it. Because it's such a juicy, delicious secret.

Anyway, I was really bothered by the rumors in high school, but now I realize that my teachers were probably fine with it the whole time.

[steel03]

My choir teacher senior year. Actually I ended up hating him because he was sooooo freakin needy I couldn't stand it. He was only like four years out of college.
But he definitely was gay, he just tried very hard to hide it from us. I was the only one from my school who made All-State Choir that year, so he and I went up to Ames alone. Then like halfway through rehearsals he told me he had to go home because his house had been broken into while his dad was at his house mowing the lawn. I was like....... okay, so your lawn was in such bad shape that it couldn't wait two days to be mowed and you had to call your dad over from across town to do it for you? It's okay, dude, I know you live with your boyfriend...

[FJ Cruiser]

The principal of my high school during my freshman and sophomore years was openly gay, but still very low-key about it. It was always talked about when someone saw him out in public with his boyfriend, not because it was condemned, but because it was so novel and he was so private.

There were rumors about a student teacher my last semester of high school, and a couple of friends and I actually saw him while we were at an art show last week. We talked with each other for awhile when a guy came up beside him and he said "Hey guys, this is [insert name], my uhh...uhh...my good friend." He introduced him in a completely different and more awkward manner than he did his other friends. It was pretty obvious to me that it was his boyfriend (since I would know all the signs of keeping privacy about those kinds of things), but no one else read into it.

In either case, I don't blame them for being so private considering the social climate here.

[Davo]

I'm gay and 2 of my colleagues in the same department are gay too. My fiance says the head teacher of his primary school was openly gay too.

When I was in high school there were rumours about some of the camper members of the teaching staff, but nothing solid. In one of the schools I worked at when I started teaching, my fiance and I were spotted together and I think 2 people guessed that we were a couple, but I denied it and it was never mentioned again. I'd like to say I'm more open about my sexuality now than I was then, but if it were to happen again I'd probably still deny it.

[thecat06]

My band director is a lesbian, we have another band director who is gay as well. Also, one of the assistant principals at my high school is a lesbian.

None of these are rumors though. We never had that problem at my school since so many teachers were open about their sexuality.

[jason10]

The only gay teacher at my school is TOTALLY open about it. He's camper than Christmas and he gets no stick for it. So it's not really an issue to be honest.

[Markio]

I went to Catholic high school, and most of the teachers were married and thus probably not gay. :/

[Allegro molto]

My senior year Spanish teacher...he was married, his son graduated the year before me (he was Valedictorian, I believe) and had another son 2 grades behind me...but he was so camp, and we all thought he was gay. xD The fact that he made us color pictures of the Powerpuff Girls and would hang them around the room didn't help.

[dreamcatcher]

When I was in high school, I constantly heard rumors about my psychology teacher being gay, mostly due to his mannerisms and his speech. He was also the supervisor for the GSA club. Most teachers I've had go on and on about their spouses but he always spoke about his "friend". One day when we were discussing sexuality, he actually said "well as a gay man" I wasn't shocked that he was gay as we all suspected but I was surprised that he did say it out loud in class. My high school was in a pretty liberal area (north jersey) so I guess he wasn't worried that parents would backlash. He might have also been tired of the rumors. I remember after that my teacher went into this well super "camp" mode when we would talk to him after school. I guess he felt he didn't need to hide anymore. Great psych teacher too btw, I was glad to have him

[Rooni321]

Quite the opposite.
There's a gay teacher at our school who has notorious rumors about him flirting with the girls in his classes