While many educators take the summer away from the classroom, one 32-year-old English teacher from California instead spent two weeks teaching writing at a queer summer camp.
Flint, who uses only their first name online and as a teacher, is trans and nonbinary. This summer, he worked with young LGBTQ+ students, many of whom had never met a trans adult.
“Just existing was enough for them to feel that they could make it, they could make it to adulthood and they could be happy and successful as well,” he said.
As teachers across the country begin the 2023-2024 school year, they face over 200 number of anti-LGBTQ+ education laws and ramped-up attacks by conservatives. While some members of the right, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have attacked LGBTQ+ teachers for “indoctrinating” students, many teachers say that narrative is harmful and inaccurate.
Instead, queer teachers say they are just trying to exist and do their jobs while making their students feel safe and respected.
Here’s what it actually looks like inside the classrooms of queer and allied teachers across the country.
Flint, they/he, 32, Orange County, CA
Flint (TikTok @justflintisfine) has been teaching for 11 years, since graduating college. Early in his teaching career, he got involved with the Queer Student Alliance at their high school. He went on to earn a master’s degree focusing on how best to support LGBTQ+ students in classrooms. He now teaches English and Film at an Orange County high school in California.
Flint tries to make sure his classroom is a safe space for all students.
“The way that you make LGBT students feel safe is you make everybody feel safe. If you have a classroom in which students feel connected and important and respected, then that’s going to work for everyone,” Flint said.
He focuses on group work, discussions and projects in his classroom, and strives to listen to his students to make sure they feel completely heard. Plus, his classroom is cute he said. As the advisor to the Queer Student Alliance, Flint keeps a shelf of LGBTQ+ books in their classroom, though Flint is quick to note: students are not forced to read them as part of the curriculum.
For the most part, Flint’s students, and their parents, are understanding. He receives the most backlash from parents in the community who do not have students in their class, he said, as well as vitriolic attacks from conservatives online.
Fox News ran an article deadnaming Flint, and Majorie Taylor Greene tweeted Flint’s TikTok to her followers calling him a “groomer.” Flint said he even received bomb threats to his classroom.
“We come in peace, trans teachers are not predators, but man, I really hate the onus of that being on me, a trans person that has given absolutely no reason for anyone to not trust what I’m doing in a classroom. I know I’m a good teacher. And it is so frustrating, continually having to justify my existence in the classroom.”
Flint, 32, Orange County, CA.
Flint advises between 40 and 50 LGBTQ+ students in the Queer Alliance every year.
When students express concern for their own or their teacher’s safety, Flint responds, “As much as it’s challenging to be trans and out right now, it would have been impossible to be trans and out [as a teacher] 30 years ago.”
Nonetheless, Flint said he loves being trans and he loves his students. He has run into students at Disneyland Pride and had one student reach out to him the morning after waking up from top surgery.
“High school is not a place where a lot of people are ready [to come out],” he said. “And so I always love getting to see my students when they graduate, find those communities, and find those people.”
Ms. Chang, she/her, 50, Atlanta, GA
Every year, at the start of school, Jere Chang (TikTok @mschanggifted) gets the same question, without fail. “Are you a boy or a girl?”
And each year, she calmly explains “I’m a girl,” and then waits for their questions. Chang rocks a short, spikey haircut, which is usually what prompts students’ curiosity.
She then says “It’s really easy to have short hair. I don’t like spending time on my hair because I’m a mom, and I’m busy.” Then she’ll say “Oh, your hair is adorable!”
Jere Chang, 50, has been teaching at an Atlantic public school for 16 years. She teaches gifted education for grades first through fifth. With her wife, she has two children, both of whom go to her school.
In her classroom, she keeps things simple. She answers kids’ questions when they come up.
“You don’t have to have this big gender studies discussion with a 5 year old.”
Jere Chang, 50, Atlanta.
Chang promotes inclusivity in a way that makes sense for the ages she teaches. She highlights Black and brown scientists when teaching her second-graders about space. She reads her students a book called “It’s OK to be different.”
The ACLU is tracking 228 bills introduced in state legislatures that attack LGBTQ+ rights in education, 29 of which have been passed into law. These bills include limiting or banning discussions of LGBTQ+ identities in curriculum, preventing trans students from using the bathroom and requiring teachers to use students’ deadnames.
A teacher in a school district near Chang’s was fired after reading students a book about gender identity called “My Shadow is Purple.”
Chang said this creates fear among educators about what they can and can’t say to their students. She said she’s lucky enough to be in a district where her administrators are supportive and encourage teachers not to fear book bans.
When Chang first started teaching, she was only out to a few of her coworkers. Now, she has a picture of her wife and kids on her desk and will answer students’ questions when they come up.
“I just started living my life unapologetically queer and a lot of people misconstrue that and they assume that I’m literally marching down the hall, indoctrinating with flags and telling everybody to be queer, “ she said. “That’s not what I do. I exist.”
Teacher Robi, they/them, 28, Camden, NJ
During the pandemic, Robi Colón (TikTok @robigotsoles) came out to their middle school students as nonbinary. A few students had questions, which they made sure to answer after class, as to not disrupt from class time.
Now, a few years later, all of their kids comfortably refer to them just as “Teacher Robi.” They’ll even correct each other on using they/them pronouns.
Colón said their students value openness from their teachers.
“Kids appreciate the authenticity of being yourself and being different and being something that’s outside of a societal norm,” they said. “Connecting with kids in the classroom, as a nonbinary teacher, it definitely kind of brings another level of understanding between us.”
Robi Colón, 28, Camden, NJ.
Colón, 28, has loved working with kids since their first job as a YMCA counselor at 16. They teach art to students in sixth through eighth grades at a Camden, New Jersey, public school and also serve as the sixth-grade level chair.
Colón said they’ve experienced support from their fellow faculty as well as families in the school district.
However, they do face backlash from strangers online, as they post to their TikTok account about their identity.
“At the end of the day, my nonbinary identity affects no one other than me and the people that I love,” they said.
Emily Petrin, she/her, 32, Wauwatosa, WI
Just last month, Emily Petrin (TikTok @emilycondon2) got married to her husband. She identifies as straight but still makes it a priority to ensure her LGBTQ+ students feel safe in her classroom.
Petrin teaches engineering to students in sixth through eighth grade. On her classroom wall, she has a big “Ally” flag. She said LGBTQ+ students recognize that means she’s on their side.
“My number one goal as a teacher is first and foremost to make the students feel welcome and included,” she said. “I feel like if they don’t have that sort of connection with me, the likelihood they are going to learn something from me is slim to none.”
Petrin takes conscious steps to ensure all her students feel accepted. At the beginning of the year, she makes sure to ask students to let her know if their names and pronouns are different from the ones listed on the attendance sheet. She tells them to inform her at any point in the school year if they’d like her to use a different name.
She also makes sure to note that some students go by a certain name and pronouns and school, but have not come out yet to their family, so she can use the appropriate names when talking with parents versus in the classroom.
“I’m not part of their coming out story, I’m part of their support system,” she said.
Emily Petrin, 31, Wauwatosa, WI.
Four states have passed laws requiring teachers to inform parents if a student comes out to their teacher, according to the Movement Advancement Project. In most states, teachers are only required to inform parents if the student expresses thoughts of experiencing violence or harming themselves or others.
As a teacher, Petrin said she is uniquely able to provide support for her students, as she’s an adult figure they can trust but a little more removed from their immediate social circle.
She also makes an effort to diversify her curriculum, highlighting the achievements of all scientists, including those of different genders, races, sexualities and abilities.
“I make sure that I mention these people in an organic way…I seamlessly loop them in and normalize it so it’s not a thing, it’s just part of what we talk about,” she said.
Petrin teaches respect in her classroom, of all identities and perspectives. She notes that some of her students disagree about LGBTQ+ issues, but she’s not there to change their minds (even though sometimes she’d like to, she said).
She said a common misconception people have is that she tells all her students they have to be different. Petrin said she simply encourages her students to be themselves, whatever that looks like.
“They think that we are forcing kids to be gay by saying ‘it’s ok,’” she said. “I’m saying your child is coming up to me saying ‘This is the way I am please accept me.’”
