DURING A LESSON about homophobic bullying, a primary school teacher in the UK came out as gay to his class of nine-year-olds.
A couple of days later, he got this letter:
It reads in full:
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 words 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 haved to feel scared because I know that everyone in the class feels the same way as I do.
From A
P.S. Mr R, we are proud of you.
Pink News, who first published the letter, also interviewed the teacher who received it. He said he came out to the class after being surprised by an incident during the school’s anti-bullying week:
[When] I asked who thought that people who were gay or lesbian were bad or wrong in some way… almost every hand went up.
He discussed the issue with the school’s headmaster and they agreed that he would come out “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.
He got the letter a couple of days later, “with all the other slips about dinner money, school trips and doctors’ appointments… I’ve had a lot of letters and cards over the years, but this one I know I’ll keep forever.”
via Pink News
