All the time in middle school and high school, I’ve heard, for example, “My girlfriend doesn’t like that I do X” or “My wife and I did X this weekend”, and since the teacher is a man, it’s seen as acceptable.
Would casually mentioning having a girlfriend cause angry emails from parents, even if I’m not discussing forms of romantic attraction in schools? These kids are like 11-14 anyway, parents’ job to teach orientation (which I’ve heard argued) or not.
Also, we learn relationship descriptions in middle school Spanish if you choose to take it, which includes words like novio, novia, esposo, and esposa. (Shouldn’t matter, especially if the school I teach in is at a non-Conservative community)
For my answer I’m going to assume - because it wasn’t all that clear to me - that you are also female and you’ll be teaching somewhere in the United States of America. If I’m mistaken, stop reading here.
Kids don’t care. If you tell them this person loves that person and that’s why they’re together, that generally settles that. The problem here is their parents or other influential grownups in their lives … if they’re a-holes or just always have something negative to say about LGBT+, or worse. If news filters through to them and they’re fond of the MAGA hat, I would not be surprised if at the very least you’d be heavily discussed in a text thread of like minded parents.
I would like to say “eff it, it’s 2025, you do you! Shout it from the rooftops. You have nothing to fear in reprisals.” But I’m thinking “sh!t, it’s 2025 in America, there is a chance that you will have to deal with a ton of it if you’re unlucky.” So the question becomes one of your inner fortitude: do you think you can do this job while facing sh!t every day? This ranges from hushed chatter to outright questioning and condemning you for your identity, from kids to parents and possibly to the faculty? Do you want to risk putting quite a heavy load on your shoulders on top of what teachers carry in general? If you say yes, or you can find other work when it gets too much, go for it. If not, I’d be cautious to make it about you. You can talk in general about how relationships are described in Spanish without casually mentioning where you stand.
Personally, I want all of us to live in a world where any of these considerations seem laughable. My gut feeling tells me that we have been closer to that ideal in the past decade than we are today.
it’s sad, that there is nothing in this comment i can’t agree on.
but i think, IF (big one) op is able to eff out when things go belly up, they should absolutly scream from the rooftop.
thing is, that i know nothing about lgbtq+ in the us. here in germany the nazi party leader is in a lesbian partnership, so take what i say with not just a grain of salt.
BUT (also big one) this is how the big shit startet over here. nazis are not the real problem. it’s the fear of the ordenary people to stick out. people need to realize, that their future will be uncertaint even if they fit the narrative for now. because there is no ending. lgbtq+, jewish, muslim, latino, black, women…
from this side of the pond it looks like you should think about having a plan b. like leaving the country plan b.
with that little asterisk in mind, i would say, op should feel the water. what is the mindset of other teachers, children, neighboors? are there other lgtbq+ people? what do they think you should do.
p.s.: it would be so emberassing if i had to stop reading after the first paragraph of the comment, wouldn’t it?