A drama teacher in the UK comes out to her students every year, hoping that being open about her sexuality will help other students become more accepting of the LGBT community.
Emma Baldry started coming out every year after taking her civil partner’s surname in 2009.
The 31-year old told The Liverpool Echo:
“I’m a drama teacher and one of the first pieces of work I do with new year sevens is about family.
“We talk about families coming in all shapes and sizes including adopted, foster, single parent, mixed race and same sex. I’d ask the kids to bring in a photo of their family and I brought in mine: of me, my wife and our cat!”
So Emma was touched when she received a letter this year from one student who was particularly moved by Emma’s bravery.
The anonymous student wrote:
“To Mrs Baldry,
If it wasn’t for you I don’t think I would ever ‘come out’ at Risedale. When I first started here I was really scared to come out mainly because the words ‘gay’ and ‘dyke’ were used all the time as insults but also because at that time there wasn’t anyone else that I knew of that had ‘come out’. Then I heard that you had ‘come out’ and because you were a teacher it made being gay more normal and accepted. Then when you started doing LGBT assemblies and lessons it changed loads of students’ opinions and being ‘out’ wasn’t so weird. It made it a lot easier for me to ‘come out’. Knowing that you were ‘out’ I always felt I had someone to talk to and go to. It was also really nice to have lessons that were based on gay relationships instead of it always being about heterosexual couples. Hearing your stories about when you ‘came out’ made me feel a lot better to know I wasn’t the only person in the world (which it sometimes feels like).”
Now that’s a real life lesson everyone should be able to walk away from after school.
Story via The Liverpool Echo
