The school that I'm in has a lot of politics-based classes, and we have to write a lot of opinion papers, reflect on the news, do a lot of longterm projects, etc. I'm also in a literature class, and I've lost count of all the times I could and should've said something really valuable to the conversation... but didn't because it was pretty gay. My school is really progressive and "left-leaning," and the teacher of my literature class is very openminded and even has one of the classroom safe zone agreements on the window to the classroom. How can I start to let my actual opinions on things (and gayness) leak into my classwork without it being ridiculous, risky, etc?
Hey Jencat =) As far as your literature class is concerned I'd guess you could always clarify that what you're writing is a 'fictional' story and the opinions of the characters don't have to reflect those of the author. That's not possible on opinion papers, though. About the ridiculousness: Stating one's opinion should normally not be considered ridiculous, especially in a literature or politics class I guess. So simply make sure you belief in what you say and that you are serious. If you handle it seriously people won't ridicule you or your opinion. About the risky part: If you are going to include your thoughts on this topic into your works people are most probably going to assume, fictional or not. You should be ready to deal with that. But it seems your school is a pretty liberal place (and having an open-minded teacher means a lot in these cases, cause then you definitely will have someone who has your back), so I don't see why you shouldn't go for it. Good luck =)
The first time I ever spoke about an LGBT topic was in 9th grade, before I had even identified with the fact that I was gay (actually, I think i was identifying as bi at that time.) Anyways, I had to do a 1-2 minute verbal presentation on a law or something like that, and basically I got up in front of the class and talked about legalizing same sex marriage (which was REALLY nerve wracking because I was one of 3 freshmen in a class full of seniors DX) Also, I am now taking college classes and I'm in a sociology class and we'll eventually get to the chapter on sexuality, and trust me, I have no intentions on keeping quite. Not JUST because I"m gay and wanna preach the word of the gays, but just because it's something I have experience with and I'm just very interested in sociology and sexuality studies and what have you. I"m not going to just come out and say I'm gay during a discussion, but i'm not going to deny it either. I'm just going to talk about the subject matter and thats that. So, in your case, don't feel OBLIGATED to speak up just because you're gay. If you have something you want to say, just say it, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be coming out to the whole class ya know?
For me, I often write of LGBT topics in school papers. I wrote a whole psychology paper on the correlation between corpus callosum size, particularly the isthmus, and chance of being a gay male. Just be yourself
Wow, what an awesome class! Just be lucky that your classroom protects people's opinions as much as it does. Also, you shouldn't be afraid to say something for it sounding "too gay" if anything that should only encourage you to express it more having the advantage to think the way you do. A question: Are you afraid to say "gay-sounding" things because you don't want to be associated with it, somehow outed by it (given that friends doesn't mean classmates) or is it something just so out of personality for you that it would raise a few eyebrows? As for how you could let it start leaking into your life and schoolwork, it is pretty simple to be honest. As you said, you have a lot of politic based classes, same sex marriage is a very big topic and could possibly swing an election to one side or another. You can also do statistics such as a poll that was conducted about Democrats that support gay marriage vs. Republicans that support gay marriage. If you take a music class, there are quite a few songs that have LGBT motifs, art class- interpretive art, doesn't even need a rainbow. This is pretty much all I can think of that (IMO) isn't awfully "ridiculous." Have fun with your next hopefully LGBT-based project!
