Should I Have Come Out to My Students?

On keeping it real in the classroom

“Do you consider yourself part of the LGBTQ community?”

The text caught me off guard. Of course. Then I realized: Why would he know — I never said anything.

I’d shared a link to Austin Monroe’s article about queer culture with a former English students (let’s call him Jay). He’d responded with an applause emoji — and the question.

Jay is out and proud as a Catholic teenager in a small, conservative Spanish town. His joie de vivre…