Closeted Gay High School Arts Teachers...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 5:58pm

... are they pathetically tragic creatures passively trapped in circumstances they lack the bravery or ability to change or are they untenable overcompensators who hide behind the cloak of a political image that distracts people from their true natures because they think nobody would ever be able to guess their horrible secret if they pontificate in a manner that they personally don't associate with stereotypical homosexuality (ie being a high school arts teacher)?

Just wonderin'...

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 6:15pm

[Jon]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 6:15pm

My high school drama teacher in Omaha, Nebraska was a white haired lady who had been teaching for over 40 years. She was forced to retire at age 65 - the end of my junior year. My family moved to Chicago that summer. After graduating, I went back to visit my friends in Omaha. I learned that the new drama teacher, Mr. O_____, had slept with AT LEAST two of his male students.

He may have been a good teacher, but, come on, dude!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 6:18pm

Was he out or closeted? I'm wondering if that sort of thing happens more with closeted drama teachers than out drama teachers?

[vbplayer]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 6:39pm

Wow, this just brought back memories that I would rather forget. Although not in Omaha, I was one of those students at my HS.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 6:48pm

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/12/06 at 10:00pm

Sorry VB, sometimes when unspoken things are brought out in the open it causes old trauma to resurface.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 6:51am

my drama teacher, Don Hite, ATTEMPTS to be closeted, but fails miserably
like, students will IM him, and he will say "oh, this is Don's girlfriend, Don isn't here right now", and then people know its him, and will say "hi mr hite" because it is so obvious...
and just a lot of other things, but yes- if he gives extra credit to students who see BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, he is obviously gay
and when he chooses the male students he thinks are cuter, and doesnt even cast based on talent...i have some issues with him

so no more drama class for me

sorry, venting :P

back to the point- my drama teacher is definitley in the open doorway of the closet

[i*heart*fame]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:14am

However, there is a difference, I believe, between closeted and not out. I have some teachers who we know are gay yet have not told us. They are not closeted, but they understand that they are our teachers and some teachers believe that there is a line between student and teacher and that they are not to tell us about their personal life. I don't know if I subsribe to the school of thought that says that there should be a line between student and teacher, but some teachers don't tell us anything about themselves and I see this more as their trying to just teach as opposed to being closeted.

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 7:21am

Two of the three band directors I had in my life were definite 'mos. I think they were more not out at school as opposed to closeted, though, as my first teacher moved to Florida, where she proceeded to FLY into the open...but I guess a small, hyper-conservative, racist town in the deep South isn't really the place to be a butch, flannel-wearing, mullet-sporting lesbian.

[Color and Light]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 11:54am

n69n, you get extra love for the Wigfield picture!

Anyway, my high school drama teacher was married to a woman who was making a decent living as an actress in regional theater. Patchy, as I will refer to him, stayed in Delaware while she traveled and taught at my school. Mrs. Patchy was never around and they had no children. My classmates used to speculate about his sexuality all the time. While I don't think he was gay, he had a rather unhealthy obsession with his dogs. I think the only reason we did the Wizard of Oz my junior year was because he wanted his Yorkie named Trudy to get the final curtain call.

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 11:54 AM

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:00pm

Honey, your high school drama teacher had a Yorkie on whom he was acting out his Mama Rose scenarios?
Even if he wasn't homosexual, that's gay.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:21pm

I think it makes perfect sense to keep a professional line that makes a teacher feel comfortable. Of course, straight teachers DO often mention their opposite sex partners.

But I'm wondering about the toll of more than being a not-out teacher, but rather a closeted one. Would he or she be more likely to overcompensate in some way. Say you're a gay male arts teacher who is deeply closeted... would you try to take on the persona and point of view of a person whom nobody would EXPECT to be gay so as to keep yourself hidden in plain sight?

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 12:30pm

What's the point of this?
I'm pretty sure there was a gay teacher at my high school, but I never had him. His name was Mr Feather.. something. Call I remember is the Feather part.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:00pm

Who? Oh, that guy who used to post here? I wasn't even thinking about him. I was thinking about Mr. H_______ from my high school. Directed the musicals, designed and MADE the costumes. Was about as masculine as Corky St. Clair but tried to pull off this butch blustery straight as an arrow persona that everybody who met him, in person, could see right through.

However, if you saw pics and read interviews with him in the school paper without having met him, he totally pulled it off. He could play the part ON PAPER.

I often wonder what it did to him on the inside and how it made him behave in other non-scholastic arenas.

[DG]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:06pm

"wonder what it did to him on the inside and how it made him behave in other non-scholastic arenas."

I had an English teacher that fit Namo's 'on paper' description to a T. He ended up hanging himself when he became one of the first to contract 'gay cancer' (it was early enough to have been called that.)

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:24pm

did ya not read the parenthetical?

[Jon]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:27pm

Back in the 1970's there were no "out" high school teachers.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:29pm

*head desk*

[SNAFU]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:30pm

I do believe that a closeted teacher might very well adopt a stance which would divert attention away from his (or her) orientation. How many closeted, men and woman have adopted an anti Gay homophobic persona before coming to terms with their own orientation? I have known by quite a few.
In this day of PC it wouldn't be looked upon kindly having a teacher spew an anti gay sentiment, however, there is always siding with a political belief or philosophy that is generally not considered apart of the "Gay mindset" which could be used as a diversionary tactic. I can see where a closeted teacher might think that by loudly crowing these beliefs might shift the focus away from their sexual orientation.
I find it unfortunate but each of us has to go through what we have to go through.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:34pm

sorry, my head's way too hard for that.

Updated On: 9/13/06 at 01:34 PM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:37pm

no, i meant what i wrote. i tend to do that. you know, use the words i do for a specific reason.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:44pm

Concede Papa, he's correct. You are thick and hard and I am inexplicably moist.

[DG]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:46pm

eyeluv - I used that term to underscore the time and environment that it took place.

And, Jon - we actually had a few gay teachers who were open in the 70's. There was even a lesbian couple who taught there (in different departments) who were highly regarded and accepted. It made that English teacher's situation all the more sad.

[RobbO]

Posted: 9/13/06 at 1:46pm

i thought dollypop taught english?