This past week has been exceptionally difficult for me. I came face to face with institutionalized, systematic discrimination, and my heart is breaking. Don't get me wrong, I've endured hatred and homophobia from people my entire life, so I have developed thick skin out of necessity. For the most part, I just take it and keep driving forward. Ugliness like this says more about the individuals perpetrating it than it says about me personally.
But this past week revealed something more sinister to me. You see, I knew the issue of being gay/being transgendered would not be a big deal to my students, and it hasn't. Youth have a tendency to judge you based on how you treat them. If you treat them like they matter, if you treat them fairly, if you demonstrate a genuine ethic of care about them and their learning---well, they grow to trust and respect you very quickly. But I never expected my own administration to behave the way they have, and sadly, much of it surfaced this past week.
I discovered that about a month ago, several of my students were pulled out of class (individually) and asked several questions about me. I'll refrain from divulging details at this point, but I think you can imagine where this leads. In addition to these private interrogations about me, I also experienced this past week being forced to fulfill special requirements that only apply to me. Requirements that other teachers do not and have not been subjected to fulfill.
My friends, this is what institutionalized, systematic discrimination looks like; this is what it feels like. I have been judged based on other peoples' fears and prejudices (which gain momentum as more join in), rather than by my academic and professional accomplishments. This is a nasty, ugly business, and ultimately, our students pay the consequences, many of which reverberate and last a lifetime.
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