GAYLETTER

GAYLETTER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GAYLETTER

ONE TEACHER IN TEN IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

I’m sitting in a Chelsea coffee shop crying. My Tinder date is late, I just got a mediocre haircut, and it’s raining, but I’m on this bar-stool sipping a late afternoon cappuccino with tears of pride running down my face. I’m reading One Teacher In Ten In the New Millennium and feeling like a real queen.

 
OTITITNM has been around for a while, but she just got reset for the millennials. Kevin Jennings, founder of GLSEN, has edited together an updated and expanded collection of autobiographical coming-out stories from gay, queer, and trans educators around the world. Each chapter follows a different teacher as they weigh the burden of invisibility against the dangers of honesty in their decision to do what’s best for students, colleagues, and most importantly, themselves. Why do students need to know a teachers’ sexuality? What does queerness have to do with curriculum? Where are the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in the classroom? This book begins to answer some of those increasingly complex questions.

 
“Voices largely absent from the first two editions — including transgender people, people of color, teachers working in rural districts, and educators from outside the United States — feature prominently in this new collection, providing a fuller and deeper understanding of the triumphs and challenges of being an LGBTQI teacher today.”

 

 

While we must remember those that remain silenced and without access to the resources that made these success stories possible, this book is a powerful read none the less. Hopefully my date shows up, but either way, it turns out there are bigger hurdles in life.

 

Get yours here.