One down, oh-so-many to go…
Coming out to my highschool class ended up going pretty well. The board member liaison and I hashed out language for the email and letter going to parents, which included (basically) the following bathroom language:
We are sure some of you are curious about the restrooms facilities at our building, and we would like to reassure you that there are both public and private restrooms available.
Basically, this was a compromise to not explicitly indicate that I’d be using a private bathroom (I won’t be) but to let parents think that if they want, and let them tell their kids to use the private bathroom if need be. I still didn’t like it, but was willing to agree to it in the interest of diplomacy and compromise.
But it didn’t end up being an issue, because the Chairman of the Board was finally consulted before the final version went out, who basically said ‘Fuck the parents and take out the bathroom language.’ Everyone in the office was impressed at this, because the Chairman of the Board was intentionally left out of the process by the board member I’d been talking with to shield me from more organization politics, and apparently the CotB is usually difficult to deal with.
The highschoolers were all, as I expected, awesome. It was a little ridiculous because they had all come back from break and I sat down, took a deep breath, and launched into my explanation. I was feeling pretty good about it and my voice wasn’t wavering too much when one of the students came into the room who had apparently still been on break. So that broke the tension a bit, as we all laughed and I had to come out to everyone again, so she could get the whole story. Rather ridiculous.
But good, in the end.
-R
Themocracy