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The Bravery of Being Queer — Waiting to Be Punched in the Face
The epitome of courage is acting true to oneself, knowing you will be bullied as a result.
Being queer in a heteronormative world is daunting.
The queer community is constantly bombarded with messages that they are not normal and that there is something wrong with them— something to be ashamed of.
Quick story, with names changed to protect the innocent (of course!).
Samantha had always known she was different. Growing up in a small town, it wasn’t easy to be an LGBT person, and despite her best efforts to fit in with the crowd, she often felt like an outsider. And that feeling only grew when Mrs. Sinclair became her teacher at school.
Mrs. Sinclair was a hard-nosed woman who believed firmly that any kind of “deviant” behavior should not be tolerated in a classroom setting — something she made very clear on the first day of school when Samantha arrived late for class wearing clothing that didn’t meet her standards. From then on, Mrs. Sinclair seemed determined to make life difficult for Samantha by assigning her extra work and giving her low grades no matter how hard she tried or how well she did on assignments.
But despite all this, Samantha never faltered in being true to herself, even if it meant standing…
