(Mis)adventures of a Queer Student Teacher

One of the projects I have given my Grade 4/5 class is to practice and present a story through Reader’s Theatre. Today, one group of students presented their performance to the junior kindergarten class. One of the members of this performance troupe was Aaron, a boy who has apraxia – difficulty with the motor movements required for producing speech. Every time he said his lines, the kindergartens laughed at him for the way he talks (I recorded it, edited out faces, and posted it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouOlp3q49Zw). The kindergarten teacher shushed them (and had a talk with them afterwards about respecting people’s differences). But the damage had been done – as I walked Aaron back to class, he was near tears. He said he felt humiliated that the kids had laughed at him – and understandably so. What can you say in these moments? I told him that people who are different often get laughed at or treated badly and its really unfair. I said that even I get laughed at because of how I look compared to most female teachers, and its really hard. But the good thing about it is that, since we know what it feels like to be treated badly for unfair reasons, we know not to do this to other people. It can make us both stronger and kinder. I also said I was so sorry this happened to him.

But these words are not enough. What now?

I thought about how I would respond if he was being laughed at for reasons related to queerness. I would probably want to plan some lessons to raise awareness about differences in gender expression. I’d probably lead discussions about how students feel about and respond to people who are different from them and what the effects of this are. I might even start some kind of ‘don’t let gender box you in’ club to support gender-queer students. If I did these things as a teacher candidate during my practicum, I would be stirring the pot and likely gain myself a reputation that could prevent me from landing a job after I graduate. The good news is, it is socially acceptable for a teacher candidate to stand up for kids with disabilities. Maybe I’ll focus some of my energy here. It’s certainly needed. I wonder if some of my responses to homophobia could be tailored to fight ableism.

This leads me to wonder about the intersections between queerness and disability. How are our fights bound together? For one, my non-conformist gender identity and expression often leads me to use the wheelchair washroom to protect my safety in public – I am not a wheelchair user; I use these spaces because they aren’t usually designated for a specific gender. What does this say about how society views the gender and sexuality of people with disabilities? Maybe these folks don’t fit the norms associated with ‘real’ men and ‘real’ women. Neither do queers.

Furthermore, being ‘homosexual’ has historically been classified as being disabled. More specifically, homosexuality was considered by the psychiatric community to be a mental illness until 1973. Today, being transgender is still listed as a mental illness under “Gender Identity Disorder” in the DSM-IV-TR. This is a revealing example of how disability is socially constructed (and laden with heterosexist values) in order to govern what will be considered normal and abnormal, and thus who will enjoy unearned privilege and who will be oppressed.

I’m sure there are plenty of other intersections between queerness and disability and its not my intention to list them all here. My point is that being a queer ally means being an ally for people with disabilities and vice versa. So I want to make Aaron’s fight my fight.

Filed under: Practicum, Queer Activism Tagged: | apraxia, disability, intersections