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Are there any adults or older teens in your life who you consider role models? Anyone who helped you to be proud of your sexual orientation? Or let you know that there were even any options other than being straight? Who are these people, glbt or not, teachers? clergy? family? coaches?
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Posts: 1101 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Jun 2000
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My P.E teacher. I'm not sure if she's glbt or not, but she's like the smartest person I have ever met. And she's really funny and nice. And I feel like I could talk to her about anything. And when she's nice to me, I feel like if someone like her is nice to me, then maybe I'm not so bad after all. She's my hero.
Posts: 896 | From: Europe | Registered: Nov 2001
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My older cousin was a big help. She helped me realize that I can't change who I am no matter how much I may want to. She, unlike my mother, knows and told me that it's alright to be gay/les and she's always nice and junk.
Posts: 7 | From: New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Dec 2001
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My Social Studies teacher from sixth and seventh grade was one of those "goddammit, I'm not going to shut up until everyone gets some rights around here!" people. She was pro-everyone's rights, which meant LGBT as well. She was just awesome. Besides, she was a great teacher.
Then my art elective teacher from seventh grade. We got time to chill out in her class while doing our work, so this one guy kept on calling me a queer, yadda yadda, and she'd stick up for me. Her brother was gay, too, she'd tell us stories about going for rides in her brother's limo with his boyfriend, without adding "oh, he's gay," like the rest of the world usually does.
And my cousin's a lesbian, and no one ever says that she and her partner are just friends or something like that. Yep, that's about it.
------------------ I don't want eternity. But Arashii is mine.
"I never said I was a boy." - Tenoh Haruka, episode 92, Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon
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My seventh and eighth grade Social Studies teacher as well. Actually, a lot of my teachers at that point. (I went to a tiny, hippie, liberal school.) And some of my parents friends.
Posts: 57 | From: Minneapolis | Registered: Jan 2002
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Hmm. This woman that I worked with, Wendy, who is in her forties, was so very cool and never acted like, "oh, you are different but it doesn't matter" (in a patronizing way...ya know?). She's straight but always told me that "nothing is ever set in stone...just live your life and love who you want to love, don't make excuses for it!" Also, at home, my next-door-neighbor family is a lesbian couple with two young [adopted] boys - whom I babysat for, and even though I was too nervous to come out to them (how do you bring up something like that? "um, oh yeah, you know that thing that you are? well, so am I." heehee), they kinda showed me that like, it's possible to have a normal family (what's normal, anyways?) and that life is not all focused on sexual orientation. I also have an uncle who's gay, but he's 61 and we often end up fighting about issues and stuff rather than getting along...but I suppose he did help me in coming out to my parents (since he IS my dad's brother and all).
------------------ ~*frog*~
Posts: 41 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2002
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I'm part of a very big family. In general, we're all socialist liberals, which was almost bad in a way, because I had no idea how nasty people could be until came out of the (public) closet.
My aunt Lilly is someone I love; she's mid-50s, pansexual and just has this very strong, confident personality. I've also got 2 aunts (one an "actual" aunt, the other related to me by handfasting {Wiccan marriage}) who have been totally supportive just by being there, out and comfortable.Thanks guys! lol
------------------ "If you don't like gays, then they're everywhere, coming out of the woodwork to corrupt little children... but if you are gay, especially if you're in high school, you're the only one in the universe..."
Posts: 66 | From: Perth, Australia | Registered: May 2001
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Honestly maharet, whenever I read one of your posts I get almost sick with envy!
I really have no GLBT people in my daily life, so there's no real role models to be found. Nor has there ever really been anyone who has encouraged me purely to 'be myself'. I have a very religious (Jehovah's Witnesses) family, who have encouraged me to do exactly the opposite, a homophobic brother, fairly close minded friends, and I've never been to a school where the word gay was mentioned without warnings of hellfire and damnation or giggling. So it's pretty miserable really. Which is why i love the internet so much.
Posts: 394 | From: Manchester, Lancashire, England | Registered: Dec 2000
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I am not GBLT but I have a teacher that is the best teacher in the world she taught me Global, History, and Psychology. She is non-violent, vegetarian, and has the biggest heart for anyone ever! Even if you are GBLT or whatever your BIG heart desires, she will luv ya.
I think that it is great to have a role model like that!!!
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i've got a cousin who's 6 or 7 years older than me, and really, she's the coolest person in my entire family. she's a lesbian and always has a cute girlfriend (different one every time i see her). and somehow, my entire family is oblivious to her orientation. and she works in finance at an insurance firm in orange county. she's rad. regardless of her orientation, i've always looked up to her, ever since i was a little kid.
------------------ straddle the fine line between profundity and profanity...
Posts: 12677 | From: Los Angeles, CA ... somewhere off the 10 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Not to drag us too far off topic, I have to say, glitter, I've got teacher who matches the description that you gave, almost exactly. While I haven't told her my little secret yet, I know that she would be supportive of me and my... er, lifestyle (I truly hate that phrase ). Just thought I'd throw that in.
------------------ Tim
"Conversation, like certain other portions of anatomy, works best when lubricated." -- the Marquis de Sade (Quills)
[This message has been edited by Dude_who_writes (edited 02-06-2002).]
Posts: 712 | From: Michigan, US | Registered: Oct 2001
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i think my best role model has been my Health teacher She's taught me for all 3 years of middle school & i've learned soo much from her, about how to deal with all the pressures of middle school, being safe sexually, not caring about what others think, dating and relationships, dealing with my dad's death, etc. She cares about me a lot, enough to urge me to get professional help when I confessed to her that i'd been sexually abused.... she also thinks i'm a great person and always has a ton of good things to say when I'm feeling down. About her lesbianism, it's not a positive thing but she's VERY butch-looking. also when she coached 1 of the girls' volleyball teams, she had her partner coach another one of them. It wasn't announced (that they were lovers) but they seemed close enough and even drove home together. also once when I asked her advice on how to deal with my homophobic brother, she told me how SHE dealt with homophobia. I found it very helpful. she's just a very cool person
------------------ Prosperity that the golden Muses gave me was no delusion: dead, I won't be forgotten -Sappho
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My cousin Ruth is 28 or 29 and she's a lez. My 6th grade soc stud teacher and my 7th grade algebra teacher were like someone said, pro everyone's rights. And my dad's gay, so I find it easy to talk to him about my sexual orientation. But people at my school are such homophobes. I got slammed last month for wearing a rainbow on my backpack and everyone calls me 'dyke', 'shim', and 'GI Jane'. But people shut up some after I got my head shaved because they realized I didn't give a.
------------------ "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." -Margaret
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My best friend helped me a lot. I got to know him before he told me he was gay. It was sort of a wake up call for me. He helped me realize that there was nothing wrong with just being myself, and that I shouldn't be ashamed or embarrassed because I'm bi. Before I met him, I used to get upset everytime I felt attracted to a girl because I live in a very conservative "redneck" sort of place and I'd always been taught that it was wrong. But he showed me that it wasn't wrong and really supported me while I was trying to sort everything out.
Posts: 88 | From: Hixson, TN, US | Registered: Mar 2002
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Well, I don't know this person. And although I don't believe that she is openly gay I still think that she IS gay and she started me on my way to accepting myself as being a lesbian myself... She is Jodie Foster.
Posts: 1 | Registered: Apr 2002
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i'm a closet case lesbian and dont personally know anyone else who is glb or t, or anyone who would/does make me feel proud to be who i am. i do however look up to famous lesbians who have shown their sexuality to the world without fear or shame eg portia de rossi, ellen degeneres, angelina jolie, alex parks, p!nk and KD Lang....to name but a few.
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Posts: 3 | From: Scotland, UK | Registered: Jan 2004
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(FYI, Pink identifies as heterosexual, as does deRossi. To my understanding Joile IDs as bisexual.)
Posts: 63427 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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I got a huge list, straight & glbt, fictional and real.
I've had lots of teachers - my grade 8 social studies teacher was the most liberal person I knew - we were both city girls in a conservative christian school/town. She was young and friendly and I had a little crush on her. My grade 9 media teacher was this easygoing, funky man who was confident I would make something of myself and used to proof-read my lesbian smut stories for me. Then I had my ceramics teacher last year. She always acted like one of the students and was always nosy about everyones business (which I liked). She even used to teach one of my ex-girlfriends. One day she came to school with blonde hair - she was having a mid-life crisis. A few nights later I had a dream about her and she became an object of desire. I used to not do my work in class and talk loudly about the kind of 'interesting' topics she liked to hear about just to try and get her attention.
As for fictional characters, I love Willow & Tara on Buffy. Faith is also really inspiring with her full-on sexuality. And Anya. She's as tactless as I am and I love her for it. Phedre in Kushiels Dart is a sub masochist bi courtesan who is smart and sassy. I love the villaness in the book too. Then there's Nan in Tipping the Velvet - I love that book and I love how much I can relate to Nan - and Racheal Stirlings portrayal of her in the mini-series brought her to life.
The last two would have to be Shar Rednour (author of "The Femmes guide to the Universe") and Heather of course - you rock girl.
Hugs & Scully, Winnie :0)
Posts: 465 | From: Canberra, ACT, Australia | Registered: Jan 2001
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One of the directors I worked for at a church camp was openly gay, and it made me feel good to know that he was accepted in the church community and that he was still able to direct church camps and be a youth director.
Also one of the directors at a church camp that I was a camper at was lez n she figured me out before I figured her out, and she's always just been someone I could confide in and look up to. ^.^ ~shybione
Posts: 4 | From: San Diego, CA, USA | Registered: Jan 2004
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My history professor. Hard woman to get an A from, I'll tell you that much. She instantly read me as having issues. She's a lesbian, and although our situations are different, she's been a great source of information and inspiration.
Posts: 50 | From: Austin, TX, USA | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm a little unsure of my sexuality right at the moment, and I really haven't talked to anyone about specific feelings that I've been having, but I'm lucky to have a mother who loves and respects me, and is extremely perceptive. She understands a lot of the problems that i go through in everyday life, and obviously suspects that I've been having some issues with my feelings and possibly sexuality as well. She's made it very clear that she loves me and that I should be myself without allowing others or society to influence my decisions, so I know that whatever the outcome of my indecision may be, she'll love and support me completely.
Posts: 8 | From: Kingston, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jan 2003
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My friend Ryan is openly gay, though i personally think he might like girls too as much as he tells me they are icky. but like i have told a couple people on the boards it's his decision to figure out and i resecpt him and he's gonna be my friend either way. My friend Talena is also bisexual like me, and i have a couple other friends who accept me as i am and a pretty supportive. And even though ive never met them, therer are people on the boards here that i look up to, people like Heather(you're my hero) and Hanne and kittengoddess and gumdrop_girl. i could go on but i wont. :P
------------------ ¤dreamBaBy¤
"Cuz, she's the girl all the bad guys want!" --Bowling for Soup, "Girl All The Bad Guys Want"
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My GLBT role model is one of very few I even know, and he's my same age.
He runs our GSA, is completely out as being gay, is active in our area QYC, and is just an all-around cool person.
Recently, our QYC started asking only its male members to "register". This is because a huge part of their funding comes from AIDS prevention and they have testing there every two weeks. This is a government requirement, apparently, so they're leaning on the AIDS people who in turn are forced to lean on our poor QYC.
He registered because he wants to be able to keep going (he says that he now has a gay registration number, which is just flat-out scary), and even though I think it sucks that he had so I respect him even more because he's not ashamed and he's not scared. If I'd tell anyone my age about my being bi (besides my boyfriend, who deserves to know), it would be him.
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I think my two GLBT role models right now would be two of my teachers at my school - though I'm new to the school so I guess it's kinda early to label them as role models, but I admire them deeply. One of them is the faculty adviser for our GSA and he's so funny and adorable and nice... He's a great person to talk to and to listen to, and he's completely open about being gay, which leads to really funny anecdotes. I just love the guy. The other one is a woman, she's a RelPhil teacher and she's just an amazing person. I don't know her much yet because I only met her at the beginning of this Winter term, but she's a *great* teacher. She's open about her being a lesbian but didn't mention it in class before last week, so I guess I admire her more as a person than as a lesbian. Her being openly gay is just another great aspect of her personality. I'm looking forward to learning more about her experience as a lesbian in the teaching field and as a mom - I guess I also love the fact she has a kid and she's (from what I know) raising her with her partner.
------------------ "bewilderment is something constant in my life." - bill bryson
Posts: 7 | From: Andover, MA , USA or France | Registered: Jan 2004
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My dad is openly gay and his complete understanding and acceptance of himself has helped me to come to a place where I accept my own sexuality, though I've yet to hammer out a good description of what that is. I am attracted to people sexually based on a number of things - personality, intelligence, sometimes a very good looking face or beautiful hair. I am attracted to people emotionally based on personality, intelligence, etc - basically what's in their heart and mind. The whole issue of what sex are they, or what gender do they identify as, has never really come into it. My dad and I have long conversations about all this, and knowing that he's thought about these things, and been through the difficult process of coming out, has made my own journey that much easier.
------------------ when i look at you i squint / you are that beautiful. - ani D
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