My Former Students' Reflections on Having an Openly Gay Teacher in High School

ABSTRACT

This study examines how high school students were affected by having an openly gay teacher and compares its results to a previous study (Rofes, 2000). The author's lesbian, gay, or bisexual students experienced a sense of relief that they could finally feel comfortable about themselves, as well as feeling happy that others in the school were talking about sexual orientation issues and were becoming more accepting of gay people. His heterosexual students learned that gay people are people too and that sexual orientation is only a small part of one's identity. The author proposes that there be more encouragement and legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teachers to come out.

KEYWORDS:

• Coming out
• homosexuality
• high school students
• international schools
• Mexico
• secondary education
• sexual orientation
• teachers as models

Ian K. Macgillivray, PhD, is Academic Policy Officer of Teacher Education with the Colorado Department of Higher Education. He is the author of Gay-Straight Alliances: A Handbook for Students, Educators, and Parents and Sexual Orientation and School Policy: A Practical Guide for Teachers, Administrators, and Community Activists ([email protected])

This article is dedicated to Eric Rofes (1954–2006).