This story comes to us from Pink News about a gay teacher (in England) who came out to his class in an effort to teach his students about bullying and how wrong it is. That way his students would know that when people make hateful and/or homophobic statements/comments, that that person was also speaking about him (their teacher). His coming out to his class seems to have influenced the class in a positive way, and especially one nine year old little girl who later wrote him a touching letter. The teacher says that he intends to keep that letter forever.
From Pink News:
The teacher told PinkNews: “As a primary school teacher I’d always worried about mentioning my sexuality, despite the fact that my colleagues talked about their husbands, wives and significant others all the time.
“Then, as part of anti-bullying week, I’d asked who’d heard ‘gay’ being used as an insult. Almost every one of my class put their hands up. I was stunned.
“After speaking to my Head, who was very supportive, we agreed I could tell the class that I’m gay so they at least knew one gay person and hopefully explain that when people use that word they’re talking about me.
“The reaction was fantastic – there were a lot of gasps and shocked looks and some basic questions – do you have a boyfriend, etc – but after a couple of minutes they were over it and we moved on to the rest of the lesson.
“The letter came a couple of days later."
The letter is reproduced below:
“Dear Mr R
“Even though you’re gay, I will always treat you the same way as I do now. I still think about you the same way as I used to. You’re a great teacher and these are just some of the word’s (sic) that I would describe you as: great, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome and brave.
“The reason why I say brave is because you shared a personal secret which was very brave.
“You don’t have to feel scared because I know that everone in the class feels the same way as I do.
“From A x x
PS. We are all proud of you”
Out of the mouth of babes ...