Student was told by 'homophobic teacher' being gay was 'inappropriate' — they responded with a classy move
It isn't easy to be around people who don't accept you for who you are. Especially if it's an authority figure who is meant to be your safe space. A student found themself in a similar situation with their math teacher at school after they mentioned that they were gay. The teacher went as far as to tell them that it was "inappropriate." So, the student decided to respond to her homophobic statement with a bold move. The student shared the entire story through a now-deleted account on Reddit and the internet applauded their response.
"So, my math teacher was fine with me until I mentioned that I’m gay. She told me that it was 'inappropriate' and she suddenly felt uncomfortable around me," the post by the student began. The student eventually ended up dropping the math class. However, one day, the student ordered a pack of 12 mini Pride flags and carried three in their bag to school. "First, I stuck a Pride flag in her math classroom and one in her study hall." Soon enough, the person found their teacher staring at them in the hallway. "I walked up to her, handed her a pride flag and said, 'Happy Pride!' She was like 'Thanks…' She looked so confused and annoyed and she gave me such a side eye, but it was worth it."
The teacher threw out all the Pride flags after some time, but the student was not surprised by that. They still thought that it was "worth it" to hand out the flag to her. In a note, the student revealed that the school knew that the teacher was "homophobic" but was reluctant to fire her because of a shortage of teachers. Many people supported the student in the comments section and shared similar experiences.
u/danielle1525 wrote, "Had to correct a teacher/coworker on a student's pronouns today and immediately was fuming when she acted like it didn’t matter because the student wasn’t present at the moment. I literally just kept aggressively correcting her until we couldn’t have a conversation unless she used the student’s name and pronouns. I’m sorry you’re dealing with homophobic teachers; you deserve better." Another person commented, "I use they/them pronouns outside of work and it makes me cringe whenever they call me Ms. or Mrs., so I have started telling them to call me Captain as a 'joke' since it works well with my last name. I'm really bad at insisting on my own pronouns, but others getting disrespected puts a fire in me. I’ll fight for you and you fight for me, okay?"
u/Alpaca1061 remarked, "At least the school wants to fire her. They haven't, but that's because they really can't." u/stradivari_strings shared, "There is no room for homophobia in schools. They really should screen prospects better before letting them get a teacher's education." u/NPC_Behavior expressed, "Having been on the receiving end of school staff being insensitive, it makes life living hell and scared me away from school and education in general for quite awhile. So while other kids benefited, my ability to feel safe in an environment I was supposed to learn was taken from me, which tanked my grades and my ability to learn well."