I See Me: Representation of LGBTQ+ Teachers in the Classroom
Laura Zingg
Writer-Editor, One Day
During Kristal Torres’s sophomore year of high school, she transferred from an all-girls Catholic school to a coed public high school. After keeping her queer identity under the radar for so long, the move to the new school signaled a big transition.
Kristal discovered the school’s Gender and Sexuality Acceptance (GSA) club where she met Dr. Sanford, a teacher who was openly gay. And for the first time in her life, she had a positive picture of what her future could look like.
“I remember thinking, Wow, look at her. She's an adult and she's out and people don't care. She is confident in her sexual orientation and who she is. And she was unapologetically herself,” Kristal says. “I remember thinking, I want to be like that.”
Kristal has taught pre-K and kindergarten for six years, after joining the 2014 corps in New York City. She is committed to making her classroom an open and affirming place for her young students as they begin exploring their own identities--something she didn’t have growing up.
Unfortunately, far too many students who identify as LGBTQ+ report that they do not feel safe at school because of their sexual orientation or gender expression. These students are at higher risk for missing days of school, dropping out, and experiencing serious mental health issues. Yet studies have also found that the presence of supportive and affirming teachers, including those who share students’ LGBTQ+ identities, means LGBTQ+ students are more likely to attend school, have higher self-esteem, and achieve better academic outcomes.
Educators across Teach For America’s network are working to ensure that more students across the country are able to have that vital connection to a teacher who shares their identities by launching more than 25 Prism boards—a network of support groups for LGBTQ+ and allied educators—in regions across the country. This LGBTQ+ Pride Month educators from across TFA’s Prism network share how their experiences with LGBTQ+ teachers and mentors shaped who they are today and continue to fuel their fire for increasing visibility and creating more safe and inclusive schools.
Seeing Myself, Imagining My Future
Without LGBTQ+ Teachers, It Was Hard to Understand My Place in The World
“I grew up in an upper middle class, religious area in Ohio where it didn't really feel like gay people existed. I had friends in theater who were gay, but I didn't see any examples of what life would be like as a gay adult. It wasn't until I was in college and had professors who were gay that I really had any picture of what it was like to be a gay adult in a regular relationship with a family.” -Lainie Augensen (Greater Chicago-Northwest Indiana ‘15) Assistant Principal
“I feel like I could have had a lot of questions answered, especially about what my life could look like. I'm a very future-oriented person. But it was always kind of hazy. I’d sometimes try to fit it into this heteronormative box of what it would look like, but it felt wrong.” -Gargi Sundaram (Indianapolis ‘18) High School Biology Teacher
“If I had teachers who shared my identity, I think I would have been less scared when I was navigating my identity as a teenager. I was actually outed by a girl in my grade. Getting outed was a scary experience that I had to deal with alone since I had no one at all who understood what that felt like.” -Brian Tussey (Kansas City ‘18) ESL Teacher
My LGBTQ+ Teachers Helped Me Navigate My Identity
"I didn't have a teacher who I knew identified until my sophomore year of college. And then I had one more teacher who identified as a lesbian my senior year of college. Neither of them ever talked about it as if it were a burden or something they wanted to get rid of. Instead, it was like something that they were proud to identify as, and that really helped me during my coming out period during my junior year of college." -Lexia Banks (Alabama ‘18) Middle School Social Studies Teacher
“One of the first teachers I had who identified as LGBTQ was in high school. They incorporated a lot of literature that was both dynamic and explored sexual identity and brought out the humanity of the characters that they chose to analyze within that class. I think for me it was really, really helpful to feel like I was appreciated. Like I was seen, heard, and visible.” -Adam Mogilevsky (Eastern North Carolina ‘15) Middle School Lead Humanities Teacher
