Almost Outed in Class

I think you should tell your friend before the meeting that way he isn't caught of guard that is if you plan on mentioning your sexuality during the meeting. Also I've been outed before and it sucks but the fact that your teacher made you that uncomfortable should not be dropped. You shouldn't be walking around worried about being outed.

 

If the conversation had anything to do with "French," then I can understand the teacher's response on the topic because it's very hard to be gender-neutral in French.

That said, because of the racist, transphobic and bias nature of her tirade, I'm very inclined to believe she is not fit to be a teacher. Do you have any recourse to reporting the teacher to the administration or school board? It would help more if your mom was the one to lodge the official complaint.

 

that is so rude and uncalled for! How dare your teacher talk to you like that and try to out you in front of the rest of the students. Very sorry you are dealing with a teacher like that and you absolutely should be talking to the guidance counsellor (and IMO the principal!) about the teachers behaviour. The fact that your friend is willing to go talk to the counsellor about it with you suggests they are likely going to be supportive of you when you do come out...I would tell your friend before the meeting for sure so they are not caught off guard in the meeting. Better in person if you can but if you will not be able to have a private chat with them beforehand a text or phone call might be a good plan too

 

That teacher is rude,but that aside,in French you canot be gender neutral,exept when you say "it's raining" because it (or il in french) is nothing.

 

I would like to tell you one thing first: if your teacher reacted badly to the question and started making ridiculous, racist, trans phobic, and biased remarks in your face, either your teacher has gender/sexuality orientation problems or your teacher has no clue that you are gay, or both.

If she stepped out and decided to attack you, there must be a reason. Remember that when we decide to fight someone, we are putting ourself out, and we don't do it without a reason. One psychoanalytic explanation is that anxiety about the possibility of being or becoming a homosexual may be be driving her . Here you can find an article on this subject: The Roots Of Homophobia - Putting Freud To The Test | Assault On Gay America | FRONTLINE | PBS

Or she may be thinking that you are "normal", and she is afraid for you, because asking these questions and generally having contact with "gay thoughts" you may become gay (the idea that gay ideas are contagious and can make you gay is an other idea that drive racism and homophobia).

I hope i helped you.

 

Report this teacher and do not let it drop. This country is bad enough in terms of the crap the schools are allowed to spoon feed to kids (take a look at Biology textbooks in Texas) with out homophobic, ignorant, and rude French Teachers to top it off. She should be disciplined for her actions and possibly fired.

 

I can't really give any advice, but as a high school student taking college classes, I can tell you it gets so much better in college. My classmates tease me about crushing on the new girl, and I'm always hitting on the lesbian couple behind me.

 

I agree with Etak. It gets much better at college. Much better, really.
Now, you know you're in the LGBTQ community and what the teacher said made you uncomfortable, right? Ever considered there could be other non-straight people in the class that might've felt bad too? Or that she's done that in other classes as well? You ought to talk to the counselor and ask your mother to talk to the principal about it, mostly for yourself, yes, but also for those who, for some reason, can't raise their voices against this repulsive behavior. If that teacher can't respect human beings, she shouldn't be trying to educate them.
But try to keep calm, ok? If she says again something that's harmful to you, that can be seen as bullying from teacher to student, which causes serious legal issues pretty much everywhere - therefore, once you make the first official complaint about her, she's quite unlikely to bother you again, unless she's revengeful, which will make her a bully and then unemployed person. Chill, you'll be fine either way

 

As a side note: I think "on" could be used to replace "il" or "elle" for human gender: On - French Indefinite Subject Pronoun

Par example:
On a fait le sujet de discussion.

 

There should be a rigorous psych eval to become a teacher.

 

To answer your question to the teacher, you have to pick a pronoun to be synced with your adjectives in French. They must agree.

So what your teacher should've said, instead of being an asshole, is "Pronouns always need to agree with their adjectives in French, therefore you would have to choose a sex".

There is no neuder option in French. The word "it" or concept doesn't exist.

On could not be used to the above poster because it means "everyone", "all people", "us".

In French Forks have genders, tables have genders, if an INANIMATE object has a gender, of course a living thing has one too.

There is no way around this, there is no gender-neutral in French. It's just the way it is, it's no transphobic or anything, it's just how it is.

People who use languages that don't have a neuter pronoun tend to associate "girly" or "manly" characteristics with inanimate objects simply because they are calling things "he" and "her".

For example is a french person was asked to describe an elevator(which is masculine) they would use more masculine words to describe it, but say another language had elevator as a fem word, those native speakers would use feminen words to describe it. They know the items don't have a sex, but it is so engrained in them that it is a "he" or "her" they subconsciously use relative adjectives to describe it.

 

Came here to say the same as WooEEE: 'on' is something like 'we', 'us folk', 'everyone', all of us'... It's used do mean a group of people, and not a gender-neutral individual.
And again... Go talk to the counselor and ask you mom to talk to the principal, ok?

 

Good luck with your meeting! The letter idea is a good one and your french teacher Is an ass!