I initially posted this on Facebook the other day but felt it was important enough to share here.
I look back on school as being some great times, although I did suffer at the hands of bullies. And then I think about how I never knew any LGBTIQ people at school, and how unlikely it is that out of all the people I went to school with no one wasn’t LGBTIQ.
School was a hostile place to be different. Coming out would have been really hard for anyone to do. And it is a personal thing – not everyone needs to be told. Perhaps it was just never talked about. I just wonder how many of the people I knew were hiding their true selves trying to get through and fit in without getting hurt (physically or emotionally).
I wonder how many people were destroyed at school because someone wanted to feel cool, or act cool, or look cool. I wonder if these people look back and realise the pain they caused.
I don’t know if much has changed when it comes to being at school and being different, whether that is sexuality, gender, race or size. I guess I can only keep pushing those around me to reconsider their points of view and hope they do the same. The more adults who have shifts in their thinking, the more kids who will be brought up with this changed thinking.