When I brought this up with my student and shared my own lifelong struggles with anxiety that stem in many ways from the homophobia I experienced as a kid, he told me: “Mr. He suggested to me a book called The Velvet Rage in which psychologist Alan Downs explores how the pressure for young gay boys to prove themselves sufficient enough for society causes many of us to develop perfectionist anxiety about our work and goals. In fact, I had recently expressed to my gay therapist that I struggle to contribute verbally in my graduate classes because I am worried that any thought I offer is not intelligent enough. Johnson stayed after class to talk to me about his struggle with feelings of perfectionism that made it difficult for him to complete assignments, I saw myself in him so clearly. When the same student who emailed me about Marsha P. From my own position as a teacher, I have tried to support my queer students by being open about my own experiences. Research shows that concerted social support in schools, such as gay-straight alliances, helps LGBT youth reach better mental health outcomes and higher academic achievement goals. Schools, however, also have great potential for supporting queer youth.
For many young queer people, affirmation of who they are is an issue of life or death. These challenges are exacerbated for transgender and gender non-conforming kids as states (including my home state of Mississippi) move to pass laws that ban transgender women and girls from participating in sports and prohibit trans kids from receiving gender-affirming healthcare ( ACLU). In fact, in part because of a lack of acceptance in their homes and communities, approximately 40% of all homeless youth across the United States are LGBT ( ). According to Western Michigan University, LGBT youth definitively experience higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors stemming from their experiences with bullying and unaccepting environments. Broadly speaking, this is common for LGBT youth. In my own schooling experience, from elementary school through high school graduation, I experienced every degree of physical and verbal harassment because of my femininity and sexual orientation. Schools are not often friendly places for queer kids. I couldn’t have been more joyed to have a student who not only openly-identified himself as queer to me but also was pushing me to improve my practice as it relates to the histories of LGBTQ people. Johnson and Stonewall when we get to our unit on social movements of the 1960s later in the year, and I shared some resources on LGBTQ history (see teaching materials below). I promised him that we will talk about Marsha P.
He suggested that we talk about her in class. Johnson on Tik Tok- the Black transgender woman who was a Gay Liberation activist and is most well-known in folk histories for throwing the first brick at police in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. Days later, I received another email from him in which he passionately voiced his frustration about not having learned any LGBTQ+ history: “Out of my 11 years in the American Education system, I have never heard of LGBTQ+ activists nor history.” He went on to tell me that he had learned about Marsha P. These are identities that we share and that he is not used to seeing in school. Within my first month of taking on this new role, a student reached out to let me know how excited he was to have a gay male teacher. Upon returning from Winter Break earlier this year, I got a new crop of students having gone from a student teaching position in 8th grade to lead teaching 10th U.S.