Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

{inaudible}
AM: …do you think that people see that as really weird do you think?
H: Its like, I liked girls even before like in year five…
V: {it’s like my cousin, she came out in like year five at primary school she was getting
loads and loads of crap at school in primary school and she just stood up in the middle of
assembly and went look I’m a lesbian what are you gonna do about it and that was in
year five.
H: (inaudible)
T: {I think like if you are sure like that [//] but if you are not sure…
AM: {Just let Helen talk for a second.
H: There’s time you cant know but you can’t hide from your feelings, like I was always,
I’ve always felt like closer to women, like most of my friends are women like maybe
that’s because I’m a girl, but I’ve always like just always felt more comfortable with
women and I’ve always had feelings for them and it’s just, I think like with anyone,
anyone can have strong feelings for whoever they like but it’s just kind of how they
interpret the feelings, whether they’re romantic or whether they are just like whether that
feel that they can have stronger bonds with people of like the same gender.
V: {I thought I was a freak
AM: So it’s the interpretation of these feelings. So like did this effect you by not going to
school (inaudible)…
H: {Yeah cos you learn things from when you are younger, because if like if you’re
abused or hurt when you are younger like by like a male figure or a female figure you’re
obviously, you’re obviously going to associate that with all the people that you meet
because they all, they all react with each other. It’s like, it’s how you develop fears and
things. Like if you’ve fear water it’s because like you nearly drowned when you were
younger, things like that (inaudible) So for example like if your mother or father was gay
and you knew that split up your family, that’s…
D: {That’s something that happened to us
H: …well that’s something that ruins everything [//] like I think I’m gay, what if I’m gay
I’m going to ruin everything, oh my friends gay…
T: {I lost all my friends when I turned gay though. Which I thought they were like my
real friends, but clearly they wasn’t so.
V: I did too.