Friday, November 4, 2011

Students are beginning to think I'm gay

Just what I needed...

6 comments:

JustAMike said...

I'm not sure about your line of work but I find being out at work is a relief and so much easier! Now I can talk freely about my BF (people ask what we're planning on the weekend for instance). I went for lunch with a group of coworkers today and a couple of the guys mentioned they like their "waitress and their food to be hot". I was freely able to say I thought our male server was cute. Nobody "batted an eye"!

fan of casey said...

Mike: What's been the giveaway? Your fashion, shoe and music fixations?

Anonymous said...

Probably not the best thing when you're teaching teenagers who use "gay" as an insult. :( How did they ever think that anyway?

Mind Of Mine said...

What makes you think so? Is it really much of a problem?

Buddy Bear said...

I'm 49 and have been teaching for 19 years. From the start, there has been the odd whisper from students about me being gay (this was well before I figured it out myself!)

I think I have a bit of a gay- sounding voice and I might not have been subtle enough in checking out the guys. It might be just that I enjoy talking to the male students more than the females and that was noticed.

Since I was married with three kids, I don't think anyone truly believed those rumours. Now, I am out to my kids, wife and school colleagues and part-way through a divorce. As JustaMike said, The freedom is fantastic!

I an anxious to be out the whole student body to serve as a role model for our many LGBTQ students. I am holding back since my 15 year old son is a student at my school. I'm not sure what he would think about it; he might be okay with it.

Here, gay teachers are no big deal as lots of them are out at school. Our school division is one of the leaders in all of Canada in supporting / celebrating LGTBQ staff and students. Coming out for me poses no risk at all.

As to you situation, I don't know if your school community, administration and employer would be as supportive so I can't really comment. However, I think that it is inevitable that teenagers will figure their teachers out. We are under such scrutiny!

While it would be inappropriate for teachers to talk about their sex lives, honesty might be a good thing. Perhaps, you can scope out the feelings of a trusted teaching colleague on this and maybe even the administration if you know them well enough. Any LGBTQ teachers at your school who you can talk to about this?

Good luck!

Aek said...

And who says kids aren't perceptive? Haha, gotta give them some credit though, eh? What would the ramifications be if they found out for sure? It seems like the faculty are pretty supportive of you.