“In a way, I think of it like being Spider-Man, you know? Like he’s so strong and brave, but he can’t really identify as Spider-Man because he knows it will hurt everyone he loves. And I think I war between that you know, like part of me wants to be, you know, the person that my mom wants to be, but then I realize that I’m a greater person when I’m not the person she wants me to be.” (Sadowski 139)

This piece, especially coming after the election of a vice president who believes in gay-conversion therapy, highlights the level of hate that still exists towards the LGBTQ community and the very real fears LGBTQ students have. I chose this passage because I felt that it truly embodied the confusion and struggle to form an identity as a human being.As humans, I think the fundamental question we all try to answer is “Who am I?” and this search for identity comes easily for some and harder for others. But finding and accepting one’s identity is especially difficult for those whose identity does not fit in with society’s norms – as was with Matt, whose passage I quoted, who identified as transgender. I sympathized with Matt and his struggle to appease his mom because I honestly do not know what I would have done if I were in his shoes. My mother is a very conservative woman, and while I look up to her in many ways, her callous and often discriminatory language towards certain groups of people make me cringe. Thus, knowing my mother’s stance on the LGBTQ community, I do not think I would have had the courage to tell her if my sexual orientation deviated from the norm. And I think this very much played in with the fact that Matt states that he believes trans people are heroes. They are heroic in that they are doing what’s right by them – instead of succumbing to the pressure and influences of opposing family members or friends, they’re doing what they believe is right for them.

From the articles, I felt that I also learned about how to be a safe space as an educator. I was honestly shocked to read that 27% of students, who identify themselves as LGBTQ, attempted suicide in the past 12 months (119). Twelve months! These students have so much to live for and to see their bright futures stolen from them because of bigotry was very upsetting. And the biggest takeaway from this is that as educators, it doesn’t matter what our personal beliefs are, you cannot encourage or tolerate hate that will drive students to killing themselves. We have to set the example for our students, therefore the very least we can do is put an end any type of harassment or violence aimed at LGBTQ students and find a way to be more inclusive.