Two speakers discuss how teachers can support queer students. One recalls a high school with only one out nonbinary student and an English teacher who encouraged drag references in class presentations. The other describes teachers who wanted to help bullied queer kids but lacked the tools and institutional backing to actually stop the bullying.
I did want to touch a little bit. Were there any teachers or educators in your life that gave you a safe space for being queer or gave you any kind of, like, you know, comfort? Because I think that's a common trope, you know, in memes and such. Like, oh, you know, there's always the ally English teacher who's always an ally to all the queer children. Or the art teacher who always had a safe space.
You know, anything like that for you? I think that I had teachers who were compassionate but didn't know how to deal with it. There was no language or there was just no modeling. Teachers didn't— although they feel the human compassion for a kid that is being bullied, they see it, they just don't know how to go about it because everything else says that this is wrong. Yeah. Yes. And so I really felt that there were teachers who cared for me and tried to protect me from all the bullying, but it stopped there. You know, I think the least they did was separate me from the bullies, but that was it. I appreciate it, you know, but I was bullied so much.
How about you? For me, I think I can still remember when I was in high school. This is around like 10 years ago is when I started high school. They had— I could name one queer person in my entire high school. So out of like, what, you almost 1,000-something kids, one who is out, they/them, nonbinary. That was the first time we were talking about pronouns. And I was, you know, at that point I'm like, I'm an ally. I'm an ally! I think we're a little more than an ally now. No. But back then I was like, yes! I see you! You are represented and I'm here! That was also when I first started getting into Drag Race. Season 6 of Drag Race was the first season of Drag Race I ever watched. And I remember there was an English teacher. She made me feel so seen in my appreciation. Because, you know, people were like, people liked anime, people like, you know, different reality TV shows. People had their interests. When mine was so obviously drag, she was the only person at that time who was so supportive of it. I remember I would put GIFs of Jiggly Caliente into my English teacher presentation, like English class presentations. I would put GIFs of Laganja Estranja on my, you know, documents and everything to like, you know, just to like, this is how I'm decorating. And when other kids would put like anime characters, I'd put drag queens. You just made me feel so old. Oh my gosh, come on. That's the varied experience that we bring.
