Hi, i haven't been posting here in a long time (even when i was reading from time to time), but now i have a question/problem i want to talk about. I'm studying to become a teacher (almost done) and this schoolyear i'm doing an internship where i'm at a school as an -sort of- assistant teacher one day each week. Until now nobody at school knows that i'm gay not even my resposible teacher who is allways in the classroom with me. It just didn't come up and i don't want to announce it. I'm teaching biology and cemistry and now there is sex-ed coming up with my 8th-graders. It will start next week with anatomy and puberty and then move on to the female cycle, intercourse, conception, pregnancy, contraception, sexual health and last but not least (I hope) sexual orientation. Now sex-ed when i was in school was crap and i intend to make it better, especially the lgbt-part. Again I don't want to announce my sexuality but when i came out i resolved that i wouldn't lie when anybody asked or it comes up in a conversation. The problem is, i'm not really sure if i'm confident enough to discuss this with my students. On the one hand it's not likely that i will see them again after this year and i could use it as a sort of testrun for later when i'm teaching on my own. On the other hand i'm afraid how they will react and i'm also not sure about my advisor. So every advice you have will be greatly appreciated
First off, thank you for wanting to make sex-ed better for your students :eusa_clap! I hope one day it'll be bearable everywhere. If I were in your position, I would be casual about it. Some people don't like talking about their orientation because it's personal and that's their thing but I'd say be natural about it. For instance, I may mention that I'm trans (not a sexuality but still part of the LGBT community) if I talk about having a relationship as a trans person. I could share my personal experience if I ever have a relationship. So, say somebody asks you about your relationship. You talk about you and your boyfriend or husband casually. Just make it normal. I think that would be great and show them that same-sex relationships are normal, functional relationships. If they, or worse, their parents start complaining you could just tell them that they could have declined to do sex-ed to begin with. There's always that crowd that will just say crap like that you're "ramming your sexuality down their throats" and "turning kids gay". I would ignore them because they're not worth trying to reason with. Laughing their hilariously weak arguments off is even better. (sorry if my advice is messy)
