Nine-year-old girl writes letter to 'amazing, fantastic' teacher after he comes out as gay
Exercise was part of anti-bullying week
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Your support makes all the difference.A nine-year-old child’s seemingly heartfelt letter to her teacher after he came out as gay to the class has been celebrated by online users.
The unidentified girl apparently wrote the letter to a primary school teacher after he used his own sexuality to explain to his class why homophobia was wrong as part of anti-bullying week.
“I’d asked who’d heard ‘gay’ being used as an insult. Almost every one of my class put their hands up. I was stunned,” the unidentified teacher told Pink News.
“Then I asked who thought that people who were gay or lesbian were bad or wrong in some way, again almost every hand went up.”
After speaking to the headmaster of the primary school, the teacher agreed to tell his class about his fiancé in order to “explain when people use that word they’re talking about me.”
He continued: “The reaction was fantastic – there were a lot of gasps and shocked looks and some basic questions – do you have a boyfriend, etc – but after a couple of minutes they were over it and we moved on to the rest of the lesson.”
The girl slipped the letter to the teacher shortly after the lesson and he claims that it “brought tears to my eyes”.
Online, users celebrated the letter with one user writing: "Wouldn't it be lovely if everyone saw things as innocently as this little girl".
You can read a transcript of the letter below:
Dear Mr R
“Even though you’re gay, I will always treat you the same way as I do now. I still think about you the same way as I used to. You’re a great teacher and these are just some of the word’s [sic] that I would describe you as: great, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome and brave.
“The reason why I say brave is because you shared a personal secret which was very brave.
“You don’t have to feel scared because I know that everone [sic] in the class feels the same way as I do.
“From A x x
PS. We are all proud of you"