British Teacher Comes Out, Gets Letter of Support From Student

After a British teacher came out to his primary school students as gay, he received a heartwarming letter of support from a nine-year-old child in his class, letting him know that it wouldn't change the way she felt about him.

The Daily Mail reports that the teacher, who has remained anonymous, decided to come out to his students after hearing all of them use the word "gay" as an insult.

"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," said the teacher. "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."

The teacher spoke with the head of his school, and together they agreed that he would tell his students that he was gay, and use it as a teachable moment, so that "they at least knew one gay person and hopefully explain that when people use that word they're talking about me."

Pink News reports that the teacher told them he had always worried about mentioning my sexuality, despite the fact that his colleagues talked about their husbands, wives and significant others all the time. So with the support of the administration, he came out to his students.

"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," he said.

A few days later, he received this letter from a little girl in his class, who gave it to him at the start of the day, with "other slips about dinner money, school trips and doctors appointments."

It reads:

Dear Mr R

PS. We are all proud of you

"Reading it brought tears to my eyes and it took me a little while to compose myself," he said. "When I thanked her she just shrugged and repeated something one of the boys in the class had said during the lesson, 'It's just your life.' Then she went back to her maths."

He said that although it was a surprise to his class, for them, it was just another piece of information about their teacher, which they accepted without judgment.

"Now, I can mention my fiance as easily as any other teacher and my class know me a little better. I've had a lot of letters and cards over the years, but this one I know I'll keep forever," said the teacher.