“I was tired of being alone”

That statement stopped me dead in my tracks while reading a document very close to:

http://www.canadianliving.com/life/community/growing_up_lesbian_or_gay_in_canada.php

an article that describes athlete Mark Tewksbury experiences through life and current awareness and education fronts on  Lesbian and Gay youth. 

The reason these 6 words made me put the article down is because in such a short, concise manner this man has described everything wrong with teaching, especially when it comes to youth who are queer in our classrooms.  There are very few people in this world that can fathom what it means to be alone.  This is especially true in every other way you should fit in (this boy in particular was athletic, presumably doing well in school, probably otherwise socially adept) but for one reason that you cannot change about yourself you are ostracized. 

Now what about youth “in the closet”?  They would feel the exact same sense of loneliness (not being able to relate, be a “normal” student in the eyes of society) except.  We have so many terms these days, just look at the alphabet soup of lgbttiqqccp2sa, and as teachers it is very easy to say something that will make a student feel more alone.  Especially when we are the role models of the classroom and set the tone of most interactions in our school.  Now I am not saying lets all jump on the PC bandwagon, but a certain care must be taken to inform ourselves on all of these issues.  Otherwise we will continue to make students feel more alone, and not even know it.