Member-only story
What I Learned Today as a Trans Sub Teaching in an LGBTQ School
Coming of age together as a transgender adult with LGBTQ high school students
I recently started substitute teaching in a New York City high school specifically designed for LGBTQ teenagers. The goal is to provide a supportive environment that other schools cannot. Here, the needs of the individual student come first.
More than a dozen teaching days in, and I have learned so much from the students. In addition to being typical teenagers, I am impressed by how casually they are LGBTQ students.
They simply are.
I have shared with some of them that I am transgender, and unlike adults I have told, my dramatic gender reveal is met with a smile and a shrug. It is part of our conversation, not the entire conversation.
Most of the students appreciate the unique nature of the school. Some don’t seem to register anything special about it. To them, it is still just school. There are one or two who don’t even know why they are there; they are not LGBTQ at all, but somehow the system swept them there.
From hoodies to face piercings, the students mirror a youth culture that I can’t entirely identify with. It doesn’t mean I don’t understand. It just means I need a new lens…
