Hey Queer Educators, how you doing?

We asked 22 teachers and this is what they said

Marty Wilder
Age of Awareness

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A smiling teacher with a rainbow tie stands in front of a classroom of children.
Queer teacher in front of a classroom. Generated by AI: June 29/2024 at 5:13 PM

It’s June. School’s out and queer teachers can be out now. As an educator, Pride Month and the end of the school year go hand in hand to create an elevated sense of freedom. I mean, any job involves code switching to some degree, right? You put on a different persona for work than you do at home. But in education, the stakes are much higher. We are representatives, role models, and civic servants entrusted with shaping the future generations. What our administrators call “professionalism” encapsulates an unwritten code of ethics that dictate what is or isn’t acceptable behavior at school. This is especially intense for those of us whose gender identity or sexual orientation fall outside the “norm.” June is the time to remove that mask and step out into the rainbow colored sky.

This June marks the end of a unique school year for me. Last fall, I helped form a team of teachers who set out on a mission to check the pulse of queer educators in two local school districts. We called ourselves the GSRM Action & Advisory Team. GSRM stands for gender, sexuality, and romantic minorities. We chose this over the ever growing LGBTQIA2S+ acronym that strives to avoid exclusivity by adding more letters and a plus sign. We set out to conduct empathy interviews, informal questions and…

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