Andrea "Fitz" Fitzgerald: A Tale of Resilience and Authenticity as a Queer Teacher

Bryan: 0:05

Teaching While Queer is a podcast 2SLGBTQ+ educational professionals to share their stories in academia. Hi, I'm Bryan Stanton, host of Teaching While Queer. We are a proud member of the educational podcast network and can't wait for you to hear our stories from around the world of LGBTQ educators, administrators and, well, anyone who works in academia. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Teaching While Queer. I am your host, Bryan Stanton, and I'm so excited to have with me Fitz. Hey, Fitz, how are you doing today?

Fitz: 0:45

I'm doing good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Why don't you tell us a little bit about?

Bryan: 0:49

yourself. Where are you from? What do you teach? How do you identify within the community?

Fitz: 0:54

Okay, yeah, so my name is Andrea Fitzgerald. I'm from Memphis, Tennessee. I am well. Actually, I taught for seven years now. I'm a math coach, but I identify as a lesbian out here in these streets. I'm a lesbian, yes yes, yes, yes, yes, that's me. My pronouns are go, she, her, hers.

Bryan: 1:16

Awesome, and so you are a math coach now, but you've had experience in the classroom.

Fitz: 1:24

Absolutely. I taught for, I think, seven years in Memphis and it was so cool because I taught at the same high school that I went to. So, yes, that was one of my best moments. Yeah, yep, that's awesome.

Bryan: 1:40

You're not the first person to tell me that on this podcast, and I think that's so unique because, like well, I live in a different state so that ain't happening. But I think it's so fun to be able to go back and kind of like get the other side of the experience.

Fitz: 1:55

Yeah, yeah it is, it definitely is. I think it's something I'm like super proud of. And just to pour back into kids and where I came from same neighborhood, it's just, yeah, I definitely loved it. It was a cool experience.

Bryan: 2:09

Absolutely so. Then what was it like for you growing up as a queer child?

Fitz: 2:14

So it was really awkward. I felt awkward, I felt out of place and I didn't fit. I told my mom when I was like second grade, it was this girl I liked, and I told her and she was like I hope not. And I was like, oh, this is, I guess this is not normal. I thought everybody, I thought everybody liked girls. I mean, come on, yeah, that's not the way, right, right. But I just felt out of place. And then, on top of that, we grew up in the church and I think that made it even more challenging because it was like this, like, almost like this shame, you're kind of taught, you know, oh, you're not worthy, and some of those things. And I think I took on some of those narratives and honestly, I think that's why I had the hardest times coming out because of that in particular. Like I remember being in church and just like being so sad when I was in college. Like I was just like man because I, I'm, I just, you know, I like girls and I knew that. But I tried to play the role I tried to, you know, date guys and date some really great guys, but yeah, it's just like no, not really, I wasn't, I wasn't into them, like that.

Bryan: 3:23

So it was definitely for sure. I have distinct memories of liking boys starving at like age four. And it's so funny to me that people are like oh, they're just too young.

Fitz: 3:33

You're too young.

Bryan: 3:33

It's a phase or whatever it might be and I'm just like no, it's, it's stuck, it's been around my whole life, kind of like for street people, Like I'm assuming for street people that they know that they like they like the opposite sex. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Fitz: 3:53

I definitely agree with that. And it's like, why, why would you choose, like to like? You know, I say all the choice. No, it's really not a choice. You know, like to be, choose to be ridiculed by people constantly.

Bryan: 4:08

So yeah, or especially growing up in the church is like the choice is rejection from your community. Right, like if you follow through with who you know yourself to be, you run the risk of being rejected by your community.

Fitz: 4:24

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, yeah yeah definitely so how do?

Bryan: 4:30

you think those experiences have informed your teaching and working with kids?

Fitz: 4:36

Well, I think that I'm going to be real, like I ain't coming to door with empathy and compassion as a teacher, like I'm going to be straight up about that, like I was kind of biased in some ways, like I came in to parent household stuff like that. So I, you know, I didn't understand, I guess, some of the dynamics as a teacher, not necessarily judging against, you know, queer students, but definitely like just some of the some. Like I was a black teacher, biased against black kids and I definitely you know more stuff where I became I came better at that. But I think as far as like queer students, I think that it, I think it made me want to be more authentic because I realized, like I remember just seeing like small windows of gay people growing up and I was like, oh my gosh, yes, like I remember Pedro on the real world, I don't know if you know, pedro, on the real world.

Bryan: 5:40

Oh my gosh Right.

Fitz: 5:43

That was like oh my gosh. And then like you see, like lesbians and stuff like that on TV, you like, oh my gosh, like are you serious? So I think it was really important for me to be authentic, like I think right before I became a teacher, I used to still try to wear like feminine clothing so that I could present like best really, who I was, you know. But as a teacher, I just like say, listen, I'm doing it all day, every day. Like out of work I wore clothes like this, but it worked. I wore something different and it wasn't authentic. So I think it was really important for for people to see someone that they could relate to and someone that looks like like who they are. I think that's really important, especially being like masculine presenting. I think that that was really important.

Bryan: 6:27

Do you consider yourself more of a football lesbian or is that not in your like meal house of labels? I know there are lots of labels out there for right, I do not subscribe with, but like right, right.

Fitz: 6:39

How do you sit?

Bryan: 6:40

with that.

Fitz: 6:42

So I mean I would, I would say I am, you know, and it's so crazy, like in the black community, they, I mean gosh. We have labels for days. You got studs, you got stems, you got themes, you got I mean gosh. You could go on and studs like more masculine presenting. I think that I would if I had to label myself as something. I mean, if I had to. I mean, I dress like this. We're really inside. I'm kind of sensitive and I really had to do a lot of work around that, because the previous relationship I was in, she not she, let me, let me not even put it on her, but she had said that, you know, she dated a man after me and I internalized, that is, I needed to be more masculine. So In my next relationship I was trying to be somebody that I wasn't. I was like, listen, that ain't me though. Like I'm sensitive, things are my feelings. I'm not better sit here and pretend like I'm hard core out here, cuz that ain't me, like it's not me. So I'm actually in therapy right now with that thing. You know, I'm saying Right, right, listen, I say I'm crazy. I gotta have somebody talk to.

Bryan: 7:57

Absolutely there's someone like the way I try to explain it to my own children, who are, like anti-therapy is like you have this cheerleader who is always there to like help your life be better. Like that's what this person's for. Yes, and it's like they're not there to like change you Jurastically. They're here to like cheer you on so that you can get what you want out of life In. It doesn't work for teenagers.

Fitz: 8:25

It did not work on selling them on it.

Bryan: 8:27

But here we are, so have you had the? Opportunity to work with queer students. I know that you, you worked in schools. Now you're a math coach. So actually, before we dive into working with queer students, tell us a little bit about what you, what you do as a math.

Fitz: 8:46

So as a math coach, basically I help. I help new teach, not new teachers, that's. That's like my own, my own business and my own personal business. I I work with new teachers like I wrote a book for new teachers bam, bam, bam. Yeah, yes, yes, I wrote a book for new teachers. So that's what I do in my in my business, like I Support and help new teachers, not quit cuz y'all. My first year was a whole disaster out here. We do that. But as a math coach, what I do is basically just support new team, not new teachers. The support teachers and leaders around, like the Common Core standards. You know the new math that's what. That's what I do. You don't help the people with the new math. You know they like get rid of the common yeah.

Bryan: 9:32

As a parent, I was like I, you're just gonna have to get help in school. Oh, I got it. I'm sorry.

Fitz: 9:39

I can tell you how to get the answer, but it's not the right way. Yes, yes, exactly, that's exactly it. Yes, I the visual models and you take the 10 and you read yeah, so that yeah.

Bryan: 9:52

Yeah awesome. So then, during your time as a teacher, do you have the opportunity to work with queer students or students who may have been discovering that because you did work with a younger group of Kids, correct?

Fitz: 10:03

I work with high school.

Bryan: 10:04

Oh, you did work with high school.

Fitz: 10:06

I work with high school, so they was just unapologetic, yes, they would, they would just now. This is what I thought was cool and was very different. You know, like when I grew up, it was like, okay, well, you go to college, you do your thing and you come back it's like, oh, by the way, yeah, I like girls, you know. But now, like the people at high school, they like, yeah, this is my girlfriend. Like they walking in hallway Holding hands and stuff like that, and I mean it was crazy. You know, I had students that want to talk to me about their little relationship. I'm like, okay, well, I can, you know, give you a little advice or whatever. And I and some of my players, when I coach, they still call me. They still call me and they'll ask me here and there about this and this was happening, man, what should I do? And stuff like that. So, so I think, yeah, definitely, I had the opportunity to work with them for sure.

Bryan: 10:55

I love that, and did you ever have to deal with any kind of anti-queer behavior while teaching?

Fitz: 11:05

I don't think so. I had a really supportive principle, just an administration like they, just kind of let us do what we needed to do, and I think it helped to that we produced results. So they weren't. They weren't really. Yeah, they, and I don't know it was. It's definitely was different, I think, in this high school as far as, like people, just being unapologetic, unapologetically who they are, was a lot of freedom, very different from how I, how I grew up when I was in high school, like you were not you went out, you kept up to yourself and People just they just deal with. They did walk holding hands. It's like no big deal. It's like no big deal. And I think they even had a student they allow. Allow he was a true or she was a transgender student. They just allow her to wear whatever you know. It's like no big deal, right? So and and definitely even like supported their student, like you wouldn't allow people to bully and stuff like that. So it was. It was definitely a progressive place. In my opinion. That's awesome.

Bryan: 12:12

That sounds like a really affirming environment where there's specific things that you can think of, that they did Like you intentionally. Know that they were doing these things to help students kind of be themselves.

Fitz: 12:23

Well, I think it started I mean it was kind of I think it started with the staff, the people that they hired. I mean, like I can definitely think about different people in the building with like different skill sets. And you know, I don't know if you read this book good to great he says you gotta have a right people on the bus, and I think that that's what made that school the way that it was, like it was like in every classroom it was a solid teacher and it was. It was people who really were invested in kids success and they were okay with them being different. You know, like they didn't, they didn't judge them for for being different. So I think that was to me one of the most pivotal things because it didn't like. It seemed to me that they were very Intentional about who they brought in that building and that, I think, makes a huge difference. Just like with anything type of culture you trying to build, you gotta have to write people on the bus for sure.

Bryan: 13:17

Absolutely. I think it's so funny because so many Teacher education programs they use like business books To help teachers with the relationship part of our job. So you know reading like good to great or the school districts that I've worked for. I've done like a lot of Renée Brown Working through shame and empathy and how do you, how do? you have uncomfortable and vulnerable Conversations and all this stuff, and it's just like these skill sets that teachers have, like I, really just across the board. It's so funny because when people are like I'm thinking about getting out of teaching, I don't know what to do. I'm like look at all, look at all the things that we do. All you need is someone to help you market that in a different way, right? Like classroom management is, you know, operational organization, and Doing these book studies on things like good to great is literally leadership management skills. So it's so interesting Just how it's almost like the professional development we get is trying to get us for like a whole other industry. Yeah, sometimes I'm like that's not.

Fitz: 14:41

Yeah, I think a lot of times that people focus on tactics, but it's like stuff, it's like the other things you really need to do the job, like. That's literally what inspired me to write that book. It was like, yeah, that's great, okay, you wrote me a lesson plan, all right, but what is it? I really need to do this job, like you were saying. Like, as a teacher, you are a master manager. You, like you said, classroom management, you do your teaching, you're watching the kids, you're being a therapist, you're being a coach, you're being a parent. I mean, you have so many different roles and it's just. You know you need a lot more than than what you get what. What you get in your teacher education program?

Bryan: 15:26

for sure, absolutely, and so let's talk a little bit about your book. Let's do a little shameless plug for our folks who are not watching. You held it up earlier, so tell us what's the name of your book. What can people find in your book?

Fitz: 15:41

Yeah, so the title is the Ricky's Playbook for new teachers. So basically, you know, just kind of like what you were talking about, like I did not feel prepared to be a teacher and that it bothered me, you know, like it was just like man, I wish somebody would just make this real simple for me. So that's really really what I hope to do, just practical things for new teachers. Because I think, like, going back to what you just said earlier, like if I'm a new teacher, good to agree, great, it's not going to help me right now, like I need to know what I could survive yesterday. So that's really the whole purpose of me, because essentially, like, even though I work in education, to me it's about building the confidence and self efficacy of people and I just, you know, I really just want people to believe in themselves, you know, absolutely. So it's really, it's really important.

Bryan: 16:32

And I think that's so helpful too, because a lot of the times we like as teachers, we get graded once a year. You know, we have our evaluations and whatnot. And I was always told like just know that you are going to be like at the center of this rubric, like you're going to be in the middle, like that's the goal, your first year teaching and maybe your first five years teaching, and I'm like okay. So then why, if I am like middle ground, why are you training me from good to great when I'm not good yet, like I'm still brand new? So I love what you're doing and that you're giving practical kind of advice on how to handle those first couple of years teaching, because especially that first one can be incredibly difficult.

Fitz: 17:21

Oh, very much so, very much so. Yes, awesome, definitely get me a run for my money for sure.

Bryan: 17:28

For sure. And if you don't have a group, also if you don't have your people on campus, then not only is it difficult, is incredibly lonely.

Fitz: 17:37

Yes, it is, it absolutely is. And I think you know, just thinking even about like like I'm thinking about this, this podcast in general, like especially like kids in class, like you know, you know you kind of need your people to support, like just like as a new teacher, we need support. I mean I'm imagining the students do too right, like I mean I would have been so valuable to see someone that looked like me when I was a student. So it's just, you know, we need people out here in these streets, we do.

Bryan: 18:07

Absolutely. Representation is so important, and so it's so exciting to see just like in doing this podcast the variety of people that are out in front of students every single day.

Fitz: 18:19

Yeah, yeah, it is, it is. And you know I mean clearly you can tell, looking right here, listen, ain't no secret what's going on up in here. You know what I mean. So yeah, and then.

Bryan: 18:35

So if you got this book that's giving advice to new students are, rather to new teachers in their first couple of years, what advice would you give to a new queer teacher who's coming into the community and are into the classroom and maybe they're not sure if it's okay to?

Fitz: 18:54

be, themselves. What kind of?

Bryan: 18:57

advice would you give for them?

Fitz: 18:59

I love. That's such a great question that I mean I just love, I just love, love, love that question, because I literally made the decision to dress how I was going to dress, right like literally the summer before I started. And I would say to any new teacher that is in a profession, in a profession, I would say be unapologetically yourself. I would say, because, especially when you think about the I mean the one part of it is I mean, obviously, I think kids connect more to someone who's genuine, and the research behind that says says so. It says that kids won't learn if they don't feel safe. Well, how do you make them feel safe? You be genuine, you be authentic. And the other part is is it just feels better to be yourself? Like you have been in a relationship with somebody and you don't feel like you can be yourself. It is the worst thing in the world like. It's like, oh my gosh, can this just be over already? Because you just you don't ever adjust. It's like a bad outfit or something. And so I would say to any new teacher man, be yourself and one of the. I think the beauty and being yourself is like you are going to help so many people by you just being you. Imagine it was students, that they didn't have any anyone else to have that conversation with, but they like. Okay, miss Fitzgerald, I know I can talk to her. I see her and her girlfriend in my basketball game. Okay, I can, I can just let her know what's going on because, like you create a safe space, like we naturally gravitate towards people who are more like us. So, man, please be yourself like, do not, do not hide who you are. Bring all of this sauce to to the roll.

Bryan: 20:40

I love that, all that sauce. I have a friend who teaches an acting class in Chicago and he calls that like your stank and you. The image that he has for it is a looney tunes like Pepe Lepus the skunk, and he's got like it's smell walking after him. That's your, that's your stank and it's all who you are.

Fitz: 21:02

I love it.

Bryan: 21:03

I love that too, so.

Fitz: 21:10

I lost my train of thought.

Bryan: 21:14

What do you think that schools can do better to make school more inclusive for LGBTQ students?

Fitz: 21:25

I think you know how you had, like a math club and stuff like that, like I think it would be cool to have a space like that for LGBTQ I plus students. I think just knowing that it's people in the building that you can relate to and safe spaces, like man, it would have been invaluable for me. Just knowing it's other people that potentially are you know, have the having the same experience like and I think, also empathy. I mean I think that that educators and we need to be trained on this stuff, because some of the things that we can say are not like, it's not inclusive and it's biased as hell. I mean I can remember being at a job like I'm, I'm gay. As they come and the, the people are like they were reading this article about, about Cheryl Soops and I think she was dating a woman or something. They were like you, you know. I mean imagine I'm not out how that would feel. So I think I mean not just diversity training, but like they really need to understand like the experience of people who are different, like this is the. The last two jobs I've had have been the first places where it's very inclusive and it's because they okay, what are your pronouns, um, what you know, like it's very inclusive, like, oh yeah, my wife, this I mean it's no problem. Like no one cares who like who you date, like they don't care, but, um, I think that would be just, that'd be very, I think very helpful, like having having a safe space, a club or something you know, like to talk to the people and and just like the training, but not just the training, like it should be in our values and how we show up and how we do things. So I think that would really help. Um, help schools for sure. Absolutely, and I'm a huge value centered person.

Bryan: 23:24

So I think that that's right on point. Like the schools do a really great job of being like. Here's our core values. I'm like my daughter can recite them and do a little dance for each. You know core value, but it's that next step of like. How do you live that core value? How do you show up with that core value every day?

Fitz: 23:44

right.

Bryan: 23:44

I think that we, we lack a little bit on, especially right now. It's getting so fraught with republican pushback or conservative pushback about like the idea that like we shouldn't be teaching kids to be people, kind of like there's some things that need to be taught at home. But at the same time, like we always knew that education was a community job, we all we've always known that kids will learn some things at school, kids will learn some things at home, right, and that everybody involved is helping to shape that child. So it's really interesting to me when people are like I don't know if you should be talking about core values, because my core values at home are different than you know this core value and I'm like okay. Well, the core values at the school are honesty and integrity. Like right what, what? Is wrong with those core values what are we?

Fitz: 24:39

concerned about yeah, yeah, it's almost like I hear you saying like are we really living these out?

Bryan: 24:45

yeah, absolutely are we, and are we teaching kids how to do it?

Fitz: 24:48

absolutely, because it's it's. It's one thing to say something, but it's another thing to actually do it and live it. That's, that's a little bit different.

Bryan: 24:55

It's just, you know, more intentional for sure absolutely I think about you know, a few years ago there was a lot of pushback on you know that Instagram teachers and their wildness. That always happens right around this time in August and June. The late July, where they start posting their beginning of the year stuff and what they're planning on doing and like family tree projects, became a hot topic for a couple of years and for me, because I have adopted kids, it was like a really big issue because I had a child who was like break down in tears because they were given a family tree project and it was like brings up questions that they didn't realize that they had because they weren't really thinking about it until they got kind of put in their face, and so it's interesting how what you're talking about is to just be like culturally aware of the kids in your classroom space and make sure that they are not only represented in the classroom but like seeing her yes, yes, yes, and and it's so interesting and I think we have as a culture and maybe it's not as a culture, but I know in the black community it's like girl, shut up and get in that corner you shut up but it's.

Fitz: 26:09

It's like seeing kids for who they are and them bringing themselves to the space and us being okay with it, because a lot of times we can reject kids for who they are because we don't feel comfortable as an adult and man how, how terrible is that? Just because I'm uncomfortable with you being yourself, I'm gonna squash you like that's. That's disappointing to me.

Bryan: 26:28

It really is, and there's so many people that I've known. So many teachers were just like well. I'm not using those pronouns. Well, you won't have a relationship with that child.

Fitz: 26:40

We'll see how long that they stay in your class or whether that they're able to succeed because they have no support from you and it's so disheartening it is, it is, it is and it's like, and you don't have to, you don't have to understand it to agree with it.

Bryan: 26:54

I feel like no, absolutely, and it's not even necessarily agree with it so much as accept. Yes, like there has to be a point when people just accept that what I'm telling you about myself is real because, it's me and myself, and I know myself better than anybody else is gonna know myself, and and you know yourself better than anybody else is gonna know you, so absolutely it just seems so hypocritical to be like I know myself and this is my limit. But you, I don't agree with who you think you are. You, obviously you're wrong yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fitz: 27:35

Oh, you dropped some jams on that, you dropped some bars on that. That was deep right there. That was real. I love that.

Bryan: 27:46

Absolutely yeah. Well, before we wrap everything up, is there anything that you would like the opportunity to ask me?

Fitz: 27:56

Yeah, B Look, I don't get you a nickname and everything you B now.

Bryan: 28:01

I am A. I love it.

Fitz: 28:03

Yeah. So I would say you have some little ones, that's so cool.

Bryan: 28:08

I do. They're not so little anymore but yes, okay.

Fitz: 28:11

So what was your first year like as a teacher?

Bryan: 28:14

My first year as a teacher was pretty intense. So I teach theater and so it can be very busy because you've got like in class work that you're doing within you also have the after school elements of it. And my first year teaching I was teaching by myself. My classroom was a black box theater. So for those who don't know, a black box theater is literally a room painted black so you can kind of maneuver furniture and whatnot so that you can set up any style of stage in that space and the way that the previous director had like place the lighting the lights were shining from above. There's a walkway so that way we can adjust the lighting and whatnot and use it as a performance space. The lights were shining through the bars and the rails of that walkway. So literally I felt like I was in prison because on the walls and on the floor with these shadows of bars. So I had a really big struggle my first year teaching, because like just the environment of the space itself before I realized, oh, I can move things, I can make this space my own. And then I did and I put colorful lights on the walls and all of a sudden it was like oh, rainbows and sunshine and happy. But for a long time I was in. I called it the Batcave because I just felt like I was in this dark cave. I was constantly working, I never stopped. I was always working during my lunch, wow. And it wasn't until about three quarters of the way through the year that my best friend now, who was working across the hall for me, was like you need to get out of your classroom. You're going to come here during lunch and you're going to hang out with me and then, like when you don't have rehearsal, you're going to go home Be with your kids. And all that because I got so swept up in perceived expectation. That part yeah where it may not have been real what I was thinking I needed to do. It was just what my brain told me. If I wanted to be a good teacher, I have to do all these things, and I could equate that to like people who are looking at Instagram going like, look at those perfect, beautiful classrooms that have, you know, wood grain on the wall and they built a tree with all the room and all this stuff, and like my classrooms over here with like white walls and a billboard.

Fitz: 30:49

Right.

Bryan: 30:50

And that's great, that's fine, it's just like you get this in your brain like if I'm, if I'm going to be, a good teacher, I have to do x, y and z, but really you have to do like x.

Fitz: 31:00

Yes, that's, that's. That's so good, that's so good, I think. I think. I think in general, like social media, get you every time man, have you convinced that you supposed to do something? Yeah, those perceived perceptions are real. Oh, I got a follow up question, be go for it Okay, I got, I got questions okay, so so what is it like for you Like teaching, walk where?

Bryan: 31:25

so it's been an interesting ride for me, because I have four kids and because at the time when I started teaching, one of my kids was at the high schools teaching at. The other two were middle school. The youngest one was in kindergarten, so, like they were present in my life and so I was outed when I was young. For those of you who don't know, go listen back to the welcome episode on season one, and I explained my whole outing story. But I was outed when I was young, and so I've had a long time to be comfortable with myself. When I moved to Texas, I had the opportunity to become a teacher, and I did, and so from the get go I was gonna be myself, because there was no hiding it when literally, my son walks from his class to my classroom. I'm not going to tell him he's not allowed to talk about his dad's. I'm not going to tell him he needs to lie. So I was just myself. In my first year teaching at least, I had one student who used my being queer as an excuse to drop the class after the deadline, siding how I was discriminatory and straight white boys. And I was like you know, and my principal said you know, maybe you shouldn't be out so quickly with your students here in this community. And I was like, well, that's not going to happen because, like I have family here and subconsciously I realized after the fact that I have, like the following year and the year after I had moved my family from, like my about me presentation that you get at the beginning of the year. And it wasn't until I went through it a few years after those like I really took that feedback to heart. And like absentmindedly went back into a little closet when I didn't need to. I mean, I still have like a rainbow flag in my classroom and all this stuff, but for some reason, they just stopped talking about my family, with the exception of talking about my kids, because some of the students knew who my kids were and what not, so it was really interesting. Now I feel like the biggest struggle that I have is not taking on the banner of being the game teacher in the sense that, like when I left, my previous district. I was emailed by people and called by people and told, like my kids who are in middle school, like they feel safe on their campus, because you are out in yourself at the high school campus, like you're making it okay for the community. And I'm just like that's a lot of responsibility for one person, and so that's one thing that I have to keep in check for myself is that I had to remember that like above all else, my family and myself have to come first and I can be that light for the community but, I don't necessarily have to take all the responsibility on myself to like make everything perfect and better for everyone else.

Fitz: 34:47

Yeah, yeah, that seems like that would be heavy, you know. Yeah, like this is heavy to carry, sure.

Bryan: 34:54

Yeah, absolutely, and it's like in the community that I was teaching in. I mean, I feel like all of us who were some sort of minority felt Like at one time or another, we were the banner carrier for our minority. The friend who is black and he was like the social justice teacher. He took care of the social justice club and all the stuff. I have a friend who is Mexican and she was like the like. We each represented almost our minorities because the group or the school that we were working in was majority white students and perceived cisgender heterosexual. So we each kind of had to carry some sort of banner in a way, and I think that we just need to remind ourselves that it's okay to take banner up, but you're also allowed to put the banner down when you need to, because if you aren't filling your glass and if you're not making yourself okay, then you can't be there for everybody else and you can't take on any extra responsibility of play. I'm here to save all the queer kids for the school. You're not. You're here to show them that there's a possibility for their future, and the way you do that is just by being yourself.

Fitz: 36:16

That boy. That's the song, that's thank you, that's it, that's it. Love that, love that, love that I love it.

Bryan: 36:23

Well, fitz, I've had a great time talking with you. I appreciate that you came with me on this journey on the episode, so thank you so much and I hope that everybody at home or wherever you're listening, enjoyed this episode of teaching while queer. Bye everyone. Thank you for joining us on this episode of teaching while queer. Teaching while queer is a member of the educational podcast network. I hope that you listen wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great day and don't forget to review us. Bye.