Sharon Tang's Insightful Journey as a Queer Teacher

Speaker 1: 0:05

Teaching While Queer is a podcast for LGBTQIA plus teachers, administrators and anyone who works in academia to share their stories. Hi, my name is Brian Stanton, a queer theater educator in San Antonio, texas. Each week, I bring you stories from around the world centered on the experiences of LGBTQIA folks in academia. Thank you for joining me on this journey and enjoy teaching while queer. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Teaching While Queer. This is our last episode of season one, so thank you so much for joining me on this journey. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sharon Tang. Hi, sharon, how are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:49

Hi, I'm good. Thank you, how are you?

Speaker 1: 0:52

I'm doing fantastic, thanks. It was a lovely Sunday after an incredible storm last night, so it's nice and it's a little cool, which is so much better than a hundred degree Texas spring, oh boy. Yeah, so you're in Los Angeles a high school art teacher, so tell me a little bit about how you identify with the community and your experience. Just kind of grown up. Were you always from LA?

Speaker 2: 1:24

I identify as queer. I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, mainly because when people not from LA ask me where I'm from and I say where I'm from, they're like where is that? And then I give them a couple more stays or a couple more activities and they're like where is that? And I'm like I'm from LA because it's just easier.

Speaker 1: 1:49

I get it. I'm from California, so yeah, I grew up in a suburb of LA where people were like, where did you grow up?

Speaker 2: 1:58

And I'm like, oh wait, you're from California, I'm from.

Speaker 1: 2:01

California. I'm from California, which is oh that's so funny.

Speaker 2: 2:05

My sister lives there, so I do know where that is. But I thought you meant like Whittier, texas, because like yeah. Oh, that's so funny. I was literally just there last night visiting some friends. But yeah, my sister is there, so that's cool. Did you grow up in Whittier?

Speaker 1: 2:25

Yeah, I grew up in Whittier. My parents moved to South Carolina when I was 21 and I was like I'm not going, so I moved to San Diego and then married and children, and now we're in Texas and hopefully soon we'll be in New York City. Job offer pending.

Speaker 2: 2:41

Wow. So but yeah, that's pretty much the same with me, is? You know? I tell them I'm from the Valley, because that's where I'm from, but technically it is LA County, so I just say Los Angeles. But I did. I've been here my entire life. I grew up here where I specifically am right now. I've been living in this area for about five years now, which is how long I've been teaching as well, and then where I'm currently teaching, I just started this school year.

Speaker 1: 3:14

Awesome. So let's take a journey back in time. What was it like for you? I'm really interested in hearing this too, because I also grew up in Southern California, so what was it like for you as a queer student? Many folks think you know California progressive state is going to be easy, but that's not always the case and sometimes it is, so I would love to hear what your experience was like.

Speaker 2: 3:40

So I actually don't have an experience because I didn't come out until I was 27, I think 26 or 27. So I have nothing to like fall back on in terms of like being out or being in the closet or whatever while in school, or you know, compared to like my fiance because I was already out of school. Well, wasn't I? I think I was in like my last year, like my credential program. So I don't know, I don't have that kind of experience. But the experience that I do have, you know, coming out as an adult from a Latinx family and Asian family. So I do have that experience. So when I get to interact with queer youth, I am able to like use that experience to be able to connect with youth. So that's the extent of my, of my experience at like being a student, at least.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Sure, and what would you say? That experience was like kind of. I guess coming out later is foreign to me, namely because I was outed when I was 13, right, so like I don't have that kind of background. But I wonder often if, if it's like a surreal experience, given the idea that you kind of thought about yourself for one way for so long and then, and then you have a whole other experience. So can can you dive into that for a bit?

Speaker 2: 5:30

I wish I could say that coming out as an adult, like coming out as an older person, is easier, but that, at least for me, that definitely wasn't the case Because, again, you know my background and my family and stuff and my culture. Like it was not an easy thing and I've been out for what? Five years, I think at this point, and it's just barely like getting a little bit better and I know that. My experience, I know how hard it was. Like I don't wish that on anyone, I don't. It's such a hard thing to go through. It's such a hard thing to experience, which is why, like, I make it a point to create safe spaces for my students in my classroom, Because I know what I went through as an adult. I can't imagine what kids and students like are going through as teenagers or even younger right, it's just such a scary thing that I had to experience that I don't want kids to have to experience Like I want them to have some sort of face space in their life.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Absolutely. I think it's so interesting because so much has changed since we were young and yet there's still this kind of stigma towards the coming out process.

Speaker 2: 7:21

And.

Speaker 1: 7:22

I think it all comes down to the idea that cisgender, heterosexuality is considered the norm. But with all these people coming out and there's millions of queer people around the country, or really across around the world, it seems to me like we kind of need to bend that idea of this is the norm. It frustrates me too, because I think about mythology and, like you know, in mythology there are queer characters, there are queer people.

Speaker 2: 7:53

Yeah, I mean in certain cultures I think it's like the Hawaiian culture and I say that because I think Sasha Colby from RuPaul she talked about it how in Hawaiian culture there's a third gender and I don't know the full extent of that story, but even today in some cultures, like no-transcript, it's accepted but for some reason, like it doesn't get through people's minds. It's just, it's completely wild.

Speaker 1: 8:31

It's so wild to me, especially because I think it's. If you look back at Indigenous cultures, there's so much of it that is progressive. I had a guest on earlier in the season who is from Nigeria and like just had the dawning realization a year or two ago that in the Nigerian language they only have they, them pronouns. There was no he, she and so um, or is no he, she? So it's so interesting to me that, like that is built into the, into the language, meaning long ago they understood this and then, as culture changed, there's been, you know, a shift in cultural norms. But it was just a really fun moment for her and I think there's so much in Indigenous culture that if people just step back and take a look like this has been around for a long time. Yeah, yeah, so you've been teaching about five years. What has your experience been like as a queer educator?

Speaker 2: 9:35

Um, now, I agree, when I first started teaching, I was really scared. I, because not only was I going to be a first time teacher who was queer, I was also like barely coming out, like barely coming out of the closet, cause I think I got my job offer, I think it was like within a couple of months of me coming out, so it was like fairly new. And I remember, you know, sitting with my principal at the time and I just kind of like broke down crying because I was so scared, because I didn't, like I didn't know any of the policies in terms of, like, the district. I didn't know really anything about the queer community aside from like, because I had been like an ally right Before I realized that I was queer. So I didn't really know a lot of like the state policies of protection for the queer community. So I was just I was scared, I didn't know like I didn't know how to handle it, Like I didn't know if it was okay for me to be out in the classroom or at school, on campus, whatever. But my principal was really sweet and she assured me that, you know, everything was fine, that I was going to be completely fine, that there was queer, other queer teachers on campus and stuff, and if I needed to like I could reach out to them. And I remember, because I had just started teaching, I found a couple of like other teachers on Instagram and one teacher specifically was very big on like being open, obviously, if possible, and like just accepting and stuff like that. And I remember having a picture of my now, if you know what I'm saying but my girlfriend at the time and I put it on my desk and that was the first thing that I did and for a while that was kind of all I had out was just a picture of me and my now fiance. And then, you know, slowly, as the years progressed, like I was more comfortable with being out and stuff. Like you know, I have a pride flag in my classroom. Like I have all these signs in my classroom. Like I have all these posters, I have safe space posters and stuff like that. So it was terrifying at first, but now I'm just this big old queer teacher on campus, which is really nice because I think kids needed that.

Speaker 1: 12:17

So that's awesome Speaking of your students like what is it like for you working with queer students?

Speaker 2: 12:30

Emotional at some times and I say that because you know I, so I work with high school, right, and high school there's just there's. There's so many emotions, they're just, they're all over the place, all the hormones and everything right, but not a lot of them are out, or if they are out, they're only out to like one or two friends and very rarely to the, to the adults on campus. So I've had a couple of students like come out to me this year and I had a student after the show aired that Monday that we got back to school. She pulls me aside and she's just like immediately crying and I'm immediately like worried and she asked me to go outside and she wanted to talk to me and she said that watching the episode gave her the courage to come out to her friends. And now at this point we're just like both bawling, we're both crying and stuff like that. And it's just really nice to be able to work with queer youth and to be that, because I think there's just a lot going on in their lives right now and there will you know, they'll continue to have things going on and if I'm able to be some of this like sort of light or beacon in their life where everything's just calm and safe. And I do it 100 times over.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Absolutely. And for those of you who don't know, ms Ting is also known as Madam Fang from an episode of season 15 of RuPaul's Drag Race. So that's the episode she's referring to is being on national television and being authentically yourself, which I thought was so beautiful. In fact, I shared, you know, real love. I was just filming you on the show and shared it out to the world because representation is so important, and I just love the fact that there was a queer teacher on television saying like we're here and we're just looking out for kids and like thank you for that.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Yeah, it's funny, like it's been, I think, over a month or so, that it's, you know, abandoned air and I've been getting all these you know attention and stuff like that, and it wasn't until literally just now, this moment when you said it, that I was on national TV as an out queer teacher and that doesn't normally happen.

Speaker 1: 15:39

No again. We were talking just before the show that I created this space because the queer teacher perspective wasn't seen, and so I love the fact that here we are. Like I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to watch the episode. You know, they change up the challenge every week and every season slightly different, and so they were doing a makeover challenge and then, all of a sudden, it was teachers that they were making over, and I was like, well, that's fantastic. And then there's this queer teacher that they're making over and I'm just like, oh my gosh, like this is the space that we need, especially right now, because all the things being challenged queer teachers are being challenged hardcore.

Speaker 2: 16:22

Yeah, I was the only queer teacher because I think everyone else was an ally or, in some sort of capacity, had family or friends or whatever. But yeah, I was the only queer teacher.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Well, again, thank you, cause it's such a beautiful thing to watch and see and it was a lovely episode and your story was wonderful and I don't know. I love that. You kind of get to have that moment also for yourself, like it lives on. Yeah, so when it comes to you know you had a hard time maybe at the beginning trying to figure out where you, or where your person yourself, fits into education. What's it been like for you? Have you had experiences of I hate the term, but homophobia? I feel like it's not a fear. But I guess discrimination or hate. Have you had that actual experience arise? I know that's in the back of my mind. That's the thing I'm constantly worried about.

Speaker 2: 17:38

I surprisingly know, and I feel that it's weird, that I haven't had at least like not direct like instances. Again, right, I live in California, I live in Los Angeles, I work, or I live in a state where we have protections. I work in a district where their you know employees are protected against discrimination of any kind. So I haven't had to deal with anything, at least nothing that's been brought to my time. So I've never had to deal anything with students, With parents. I think it's different just because in the schools that I've worked in and I'm only working two schools, but in two schools that I worked in there hasn't been a lot of parent interaction and the interaction that I have had has all been great, but there's never instances where I come up in that sense.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Fair enough.

Speaker 2: 18:53

Right and I think I don't think I. I think that's partly because they're, you know, during open houses or whatever. I think one or two times we were required to put up some slides into like introduce ourselves and everything to the parents and stuff. On the introduction slide that I gave parents I think I took off the photos of my partner and I and I would only say my partner Like I wouldn't say my girlfriend, mainly because I don't think I wanted to see any reactions if they heard me say girlfriend and if, like, cause all my kids know I'm not right, so every single one of my kids knows that I'm queer and they know that I have a fiance and stuff like that, and if they've told their parents, that's okay, like I don't care. But I haven't heard anything negative, so that's good. I guess the only thing that I have experienced was because of the show, but because I got interviewed by my teacher union and it wasn't necessarily like anything. I mean, I don't know if you could qualify it as like homophobic, but it was this comment on the post where it said the person says that I'm talking as if the parents don't protect and take care of their kids at home or something like that. But any of that kind of stuff like should be left to the parents and the work and personal life shouldn't mix. I obviously didn't respond to it because I frankly don't want to, but that was kind of it. But I did see other people like coming to my defense, which was nice.

Speaker 1: 21:02

That is nice. Always when someone comes to your defense, I find that incredibly like uplifting, especially when you're trying to do something really good in the world. You know, yeah, and I think that argument is so interesting to me because it's like okay then for those of you who are married straight people, please take off your wedding rings. You can't wear them to work. Please take down the pictures of your spouse and your children. You can't have them at work, because your personal life and your home life, your personal life and your work life shouldn't mix. But it only applies really to queer people. They really just don't want to see us, and that frustrates the heck out of me because I'm just like yeah. If we're gonna do it, fine, let's do it. I'm fine with separating personal life and work life. I'm getting really a lot better about leaving work at work. I'm a theater teacher, you're an art teacher. Sometimes we do things after school or on the weekend to prep and whatnot, but I'm getting really good at being like all right, it's 4.30, I'm done let's get out of here. And so, if that's the case, just make a unilateral decision about it. But this idea of holding the people to the same accountability is wrong. Like it drives me nuts. It's so hypocritical and I hate hypocrites.

Speaker 2: 22:29

I mean, just a couple weeks of, this female cisgender, heterosexual teacher was getting married and you know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 22:46

I do, he keep going. Let's tell everyone together.

Speaker 2: 22:52

So this teacher decided that it would be cute to have a wedding in her classroom and I don't know what grade, I think it was like elementary school, because I didn't think middle or high school would have gotten this, so I must have been in elementary school. But she set up a wedding where the kids could get married and stuff. And that's a little weird, but it was socially accepted because, you know, everyone thinks it's cute and of course it's a man and a woman doing it. But, man, if a queer person were to do that, all hell would break loose right, we just did the same thing.

Speaker 1: 23:35

We did the same thing, oh yeah. Absolutely that stuff really irks me. It really irks me especially like and this is nothing against my daughter's teacher she's out on maternity leave right now and the parent the room parent decided that we were gonna have like a baby shower for her. Ultimately we couldn't because she went out on leave early, but there was this whole thing set up for us to have a baby shower for her. And I'm just like they're in third grade. If I were to have a baby shower, like when I adopted, would that have been okay? Or if a surrogate is happening, if surrogacy situation is happening, would that have been okay? My best friend's a lesbian. Her and her wife have two kids. Could they have had a baby shower? And all these things pop up where I'm just like what would happen if it was on the other side of the situation, if it? was someone from the other side of the situation.

Speaker 2: 24:42

You know, funny enough. You mentioned that because I just not realized that, because it would go along the same lines of like people announcing that they're getting married right Cause I just got engaged back in December and I started off the school year and you know the kids all knew that I had a girlfriend and stuff. So I wanted to tell them that I was engaged and I didn't even don on me that, like in some states, in some countries, like I wouldn't have been able to do that, I would have been able to tell people publicly that I was getting married to a woman.

Speaker 1: 25:22

It's really scary what's happening in some states right now.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Yeah, so like I recorded me myself like telling my students and like you can hear in the video, like they're all ecstatic. It was really funny, cause I started I wanted to play a trick on them and I said I said I no longer have a girlfriend. And then I waited a couple of seconds and they, like you could see like just the life drain from them, like they were sad, they were about to cry and then like I pulled out my hand and I showed them the ring and stuff and I said I have a fiance and just like the class is just like erupted with like claps and applause and everything and stuff, so like we were really excited, like, and that's what people don't understand, is it like kids don't? Can I curse, yes, kids don't give a fuck. Like kids do not care, they really don't. And I think what one of the teachers, Mrs Mahoney, on the episode she was saying because she teaches or she taught kindergarten and like they don't the whole love is love concept. Like they understand that they can grasp that idea, right, everything else doesn't really matter and it sucks because the kids genuinely don't care. If you're queer, at least in my experience, right, I can't really say about, you know, other cities, other states, countries, whatever, but like usually, they don't care.

Speaker 1: 26:58

I'm like from the Texas perspective, I'm seeing that also, like my daughter's best friend has two moms, we are two dads Like the kids are fine with it. They're like oh okay, what do you want to play? You know?

Speaker 2: 27:13

yeah, like they have so many other things that they're like they find other things so more important than who I'm going to marry. Yeah like they don't care.

Speaker 1: 27:25

And for a while I was working at the high school that my children were going to, because I have four kids my three are older, one graduated, but the other two are still in high school and like they'll have people checking on me because I don't work there anymore, like, hey, tell your dad how you're doing, like how your dad's doing, and it's just like fine, because my husband would help out, you know. And so these students will check in on us through my kids at the school and it's like completely normalized and not even an issue. Like really the people with the issue are parents and grandparents, in at least my perspective. I then doubt a lot with students who are innately discriminatory. I think that it's definitely learned behavior, it's all learned behavior. There's like a beautiful song from South Pacific that, like you have to be taught to like hate, and so that's 100% true and you know, some guys wrote that 50 years ago. There's something else I was thinking about too In regard to this conversation this idea of love is love and we totally get that and it's a huge push right now, and in a lot of this stuff, the problems come from etymology, from the fact that, like, some straight white guys were like sexual orientation and they put the sex first, like it's all about sex, and then we're stuck with this term and so now we're still use sexual orientation and it's like a negative thing because it's about sex, and so obviously children shouldn't be talking about it because it's about sex. They shouldn't know what their sexual orientation is because it's about sex, but it's really not. It's about love.

Speaker 2: 29:18

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:20

So, you know exactly that we could be here on the front lines by night. Good battle. I would love your perspective, being from California, about the things you see happening around the country, and there are varying like levels of some of the legislative things and discriminatory things that are kind of happening everywhere. So I'd love to know what the perspective is from a place where you are fairly safe doing your job and being who you are.

Speaker 2: 29:49

You know that last thing that you said, where I'm fairly safe, like it sometimes feels like I'm not, because I start to like and I try and I try not to let it like overcome me and my thoughts and everything but like I wonder like are we next? Is California next, is you know, is? Is my district next? Like what's going to happen? And I know that's probably not going to happen, you know, knock on wood, but like it is a very real possibility and it like just the other day, I think just this week, that it was announced that the don't say gay bill or whatever was going to be extended into high school, so 9 through 12 and terrifying, like it's, frustrating it and it legitimately like breaks my heart because there's so many people that are going to suffer because of that, there's so many people that are going to be pushed back into the closet because of it and I don't understand how we got here. It's scary to think that who you are is becoming illegal.

Speaker 1: 31:05

Absolutely. I was talking with someone recently. My daughter, my youngest is in cheer and we were at a cheer competition. I was talking about how we were going to go to the Capitol to protest anti LGBTQ laws and I let her know that there was like 140 or 132 laws on the docket that were anti LGBTQ in the state of Texas and so we went out there and protested and many of them didn't pass, and many of them looked like they weren't going to pass and then, in the middle of the night, in closed sessions, they passed them. After. You know, thousands of people said that this law shouldn't exist. They just ignore us. It seems to be a theme that if you are a conservative politician, you don't have to represent your entire constituency. You only have to represent the people who vote for you, or at least that's the mentality that I'm seeing. And so we were talking about it and she was like, well, that's not going to happen here, like yeah, that's happening in Florida, but that's Florida, it's not going to happen here. And I'm like, literally it's happening in Tennessee and it's happening in other places and they're all kind of circling around Texas who is trying to pretend like they're this big conservative Republican state where gay people don't exist. So why wouldn't it? Yeah, the reason I'm trying to move is because I don't want to be in this space when the shit hits the fan, I guess, like I want to just be in a space where there's more diversity and my children can be themselves and we can be ourselves without an issue.

Speaker 2: 32:42

Exactly, yeah, it's terrifying.

Speaker 1: 32:47

It really is terrifying. It is so frustrating and I think about, like anti drag laws are happening too. And as a theater teacher, like 90% of the time I'm casting a woman in a male role, you know like yeah. And that they say things in these public hearings like someone will say education, what about theater? What if? What if theater has somebody dressed in drag and in in the chambers with everybody there in public? They're saying, well, that doesn't count. But then if you go read the law, what's on paper says no drag. And I think about like, stand your ground, laws has been a huge thing right now with that young man, ralph. That story kills me, it just makes me so sad. But I mean there's even three other instances this week of it happening. But people don't know the law, they're not reading the actual law, they just know that they're supposed to be able to quote unquote stand their ground and they can just make it up and that's something that pisses me off is that's like these laws are passed with very little guidance and nobody knows what they actually are, so everybody's going to. If you put a $5,000 bounty, essentially which is what's happened here in Texas they're proposing a $5,000 bounty for anybody who reports drag queens. Essentially, yeah. If you put that on there, people are just going to play complain whenever they see someone in drag, like it doesn't matter what your law says on paper or what you said in your public processions or sessions it doesn't matter, because people only know what the headlines are telling them, which is anti drag. And so let's talk I don't mind a little bit about your experience on the show and kind of dive deeper into that, just maybe for our drag race, including myself.

Speaker 2: 34:54

I think drag queens are the utmost respect.

Speaker 1: 34:58

They do, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 35:00

I was only on the show, or we only films, for two days and in those two days the amount of work that I saw these Queens do was ridiculous. They do so much for their art right there. There's so much that goes into this and I don't think people realize that and I don't. I don't also, like I can't have them how people can think that doing drag is this horrible and sinful thing? Because it's. It's quite literally the opposite. It is the most beautiful thing that I have ever had the experience of, like witnessing and experiencing myself. I had so much fun doing the show. I did not expect everything that happened, like we all of the teachers just we had so much fun and it was such a great time doing something that we had never been before and experiencing like a runway and experiencing like just all these things. It was great and I wish like a lot more people couldn't experience and could do it. And then I just I loved working with mistress. Like I'm so happy to have been paired with mistress and I say this all the time and I mean it because I, because of the show I am, I am no longer the same person, like I have such a genuine, like newfound respect for all these Queens and for the show and stuff. Like even the production company. Like they, they treated us so well. I loved every second of it.

Speaker 1: 37:07

That's awesome. I think that episode, honestly, and most of this, is edit right, because I understand I work in theater and I've done stuff with film and I understand that there's edit to everything like a lot of the season. Mistress was painted in a like a very, we'll say sassy way, and what I loved about this episode is that we got to see her heart kind of come through and then it completely changed for the rest of the season, like there was a complete new perspective on who she was as a person, yeah, and so I think that was really beautiful and I think that whomever decided to do this challenge, they did a really great thing, not only for drag queens, but education, because across the country we are under attack.

Speaker 2: 38:09

I, like you're totally right in that a lot of the stuff from the show is edited and she was painted in a way where people would call her a bully, and the same thing goes for locks, right, but that's so far from the truth, and what's interesting is that I think it's more of a mistress not caring what people say about her, and that's a good thing, because mistress lived for so long having to experience things and things that people shouldn't have to experience, and got to a point where they said that's it, I'm not going to take it anymore. I'm not going to be living my life as something that I don't want to be, or I'm not going to be living my life hidden. I'm going to be living my life authentically, and that's something that mistress taught me and something that I'm going to continue to do is living authentically, because it's not fair to yourself, it's not fair to have to live hidden, have to live and stuff like that. So I'm really glad that the production company decided to edit the episode in the way that they did and show our story and our connection and stuff, because that connection was genuine, those tears that you saw, those were all genuine and it was just a really nice interaction that I had with mistress.

Speaker 1: 39:52

Absolutely, it was beautiful. It's honestly my favorite episode of the season, including the finale, which was wonderful. And I found or rather realize about halfway through the season that last year, when I was in Houston for grad school in the summer, I actually saw mistress at a Pride event tonight. So I've got to say that mistress is a powerhouse performer. Oh, definitely.

Speaker 2: 40:20

A few weeks before the episode aired I was able to see mistress at one of her shows in West Hollywood and it was kind of nice because I was able to be there without obviously people not knowing who I was inside. I brought her flowers and I got to get to the meet and greet so I could talk to her and catch up a little bit, and it was just really nice. I think it was one of the pictures that she posted to her Instagram, the one where we're hugging. That was at the show that I went to and I actually before RuPaul's Drag Race. This is actually the first season that I had watched from start to beginning. I had also never gone to a drag show. I've seen clips here and there and stuff. I was a fan of Trixie, all these things right, but seeing mistress perform that night, oh my god, that was wild. The control she had over the crowd and it was just great. It was beautiful. I loved it. I want to go back to another drag show and, yeah, I'm hoping I get to see her again because that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 41:43

When I was in Southern California I was a huge fan of the Dream Girls Review which is ran by Chad Michaels, who was on the first reigning queen of All Stars. It was on, I think, season four and then All Stars and Chad does those shows all over Southern California, so San Diego and LA and I just loved it because it was local queens. But then they would also bring in Drag Race queens and quite literally, if you're a drag fan, southern California is kind of the place to be if you want to see Drag Race stars, because they kind of catch the California bug after living out there for so long for filming, because so many of them have moved from wherever they were in the country to California after being on the show, and so it's kind of cool because you can go just pay a normal cover and see this brilliant amount of talent, and the money that they put into their productions is also insane. So you get to see something that's almost like a fully produced stage show, but it's at your level bar Super cool.

Speaker 2: 43:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 43:04

Yeah. So before I wrap up to the last couple of questions, I wanted to offer you the opportunity to just maybe share if there was anything else that you would like to share about your time on the episode and the impact that you think that it's had. I mean, what has that been like for you afterwards, with all these people now seeing you? Can we discuss earlier national television? What has that been like for you?

Speaker 2: 43:37

So, oh man, it's been wild. It's been completely, completely wild Because not only was I getting attention because of the show, because people fell in love with me and my story really resonated with a lot of folks, it was also the fact that Mistress shared my teacher wish list to their Instagram. Oh yeah, so From the moment they posted, for the moment Mistress posted that post with her story and everything and about me, I think my phone would not stop buzzing for 48, 72 hours. It was constant. It was constant buzzing, constant likes and follows and just all these things. One of my tweets went viral, I found out and for the internet. My face was all over the internet. There was memes about me. There was interview not interview but there was articles written about me. There was videos done about me. I had fan art done. I just finished an interview a couple days ago with an art education magazine. I had another podcast interview just yesterday. I had another interview with my teacher union. That was posted already and it's been wild. It's been almost surreal because not only was it just the attention, but it was also people buying and donating things like supplies to me and my students. I live in a tiny apartment. My poor apartment was flooded with Amazon packages, like just ceiling to floor flooded with packages At one point. I think the biggest shipment that I got in was, I think, 142 packages came in at one time. Oh my gosh, like there was a big I know not by name, but I know one of Amazon delivery guys now because he came so often. Like he had to back up his truck into the apartment and drive away to be able to get all the things down. And it took me a week and multiple trips and multiple cars to get everything from my apartment to my classroom. Like I had to have coworkers come help me like put things into their car. It was ridiculous, it was wild, it was crazy. I just I couldn't believe it. And then, of course, all the notes that would come in, all the messages that would come in from literally around the world thinking me and thinking me for everything that I do with my students. And I had messages from other queer youth like around the country saying that they wish they had a teacher like me in high school, and from adult saying that they wish they could have had someone like me growing up. And I've been an emotional wreck for weeks and thank God for therapy, because if I didn't have my therapist, I don't think I would have emotionally survived this.

Speaker 1: 47:15

It's a lot of attention for sure. I think I messaged you about interviewing on this podcast the day after I watched the episode, which may have been the night it aired, it may have been the day after, I can't remember, but I remember seeing, because I went to your Instagram account and I was like your numbers were in the thousands or something. And then, two weeks later or something, we were communicating and your numbers had jumped up. I was like dang yeah, so much attention and I just can't imagine what that's like almost overnight success or at least overnight influencing, social media influencing. So that had to have been, and probably still will be, a wild experience. And Drag Race is syndicated, so it's just going to play again and again and again on different platforms and whatnot. It's just so neat and I'm really glad that you were there Because, as a queer teacher, I'm sitting here going. Finally, finally there's somebody like us on television sharing experiences and whatnot, because I think that the visibility of us we just need to be more visible and it's so scary right now for many people, for very valid reasons, that it was like a little glimmer of hope that there are people out there in the world doing what we do, and we exist across the board and we're not alone in being that queer teacher at a high school.

Speaker 2: 49:01

No.

Speaker 1: 49:03

So thanks for that. I don't know if you meant to be the banner of an entire community, but I think you handled it well on the episode and hopefully you continue to handle it well with your social media up.

Speaker 2: 49:15

I definitely didn't mean to be that, but I have absolutely no problem in doing it, because if it means that we're going to be seen, it means that kids know that there's someone out there that's going to be looking out for them. And then, yeah, I do it over again, over and over again.

Speaker 1: 49:35

Absolutely so. I'm going to run out our episode, as I do with every episode. There's two questions that I ask. The first one talks a little bit about or? The first one is an opportunity for you to give advice to a new teacher who may share some of the concerns that you had when you started out your first year in the classroom.

Speaker 2: 49:55

OK, are we talking about just first year teacher or first year queer teacher?

Speaker 1: 50:09

Realistically, it's kind of both.

Speaker 2: 50:11

So the question itself is what advice?

Speaker 1: 50:14

would you give to a first year teacher who is not sure if they can be their authentic self in the classroom or if they should be their authentic self in the classroom?

Speaker 2: 50:25

I probably would say if it's safe for you to do so, if you're not going to be at risk of losing your job and mentally and emotionally you will be OK, then please by all means live authentic, Because I know what it means and what it feels to live unauthentically, and that's not something that I wish upon anyone, and I know that, as a community having more out visibly queer folks, it means a lot to us, Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 51:23

Final question is what can teachers, parents and students do to help move the needle toward inclusivity?

Speaker 2: 51:33

Oh my gosh, stand up with us when we're being attacked. Stand up with us now because we are being attacked. I guess, like teach your kids to not to mean. That's just kind of it. Teach them to not be mean, please. For the love of all that is beautiful. I'm just saying first that is, my one wish is that parents teach their kids to not be mean, to not be cruel, to be accepting, to be loving of others.

Speaker 1: 52:24

Absolutely. I think it's so interesting because I saw a quote on social media today that was basically like maybe we should change it from allyship to take a side or pick your side, and I absolutely agree with what you just said about it's time If you are a quote, unquote ally, it is time for you to stand up and be there in the lines alongside us, making your voice heard, because sitting back and saying things like that's not going to happen, while it's happening is not true. Allyship.

Speaker 2: 53:06

Not to mention that it's exhausting standing alone 100% and we're tired.

Speaker 1: 53:11

I agree with you entirely on that, Because I said here, especially my previous school district right after I left, they did this at the start of the school year, basically being in rainbows.

Speaker 2: 53:25

Oh, boy it was wild.

Speaker 1: 53:26

They banned rainbows, I think people were in an uproar and I'm still a parent there and so people were sending me these messages like what can you do? And I'm like, what do you want me to do? Because I held the banner and I fought for five years, or four years on my own. Like you want my help right now, but I'm not that person. I can't do it by myself. Like you stand up, you say something because you're a straight woman and your voice in this context is more important than mine.

Speaker 2: 53:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:02

So I agree with you on that 100%. If we can get our allies to stand up with us, they'll see that there's millions and millions and millions of voices of support. And that the hate is actually the minority in the situation.

Speaker 2: 54:19

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 54:21

Well, Sharon, thank you so much for spending the afternoon with me. I really appreciate it and it was so cool to talk to you about your experience on Drag Race as a fan. Like I've been on a RuPaul's Drag Race cruise. I'm like a little like crazy fan from a long time, so it was really neat to get the chance to talk with you.

Speaker 2: 54:39

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 54:43

Awesome and thank you all for joining us on this episode of Teaching While Queer. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Teaching While Queer. If you're enjoying the episodes, please leave a review. Wherever you are listening to our podcast, check us out on Instagram at teachingwhilequeer, and if you're interested in being on season two of Teaching While Queer, please visit teachingwhilequeercom. Have a great day.