Award Winning

No not me, but a teachers out in Kansas has won the National Educator of the Year by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

Transgender Wichita teacher wins national education award
Wichita Eagle
By Suzanne Perez Tobias
April 23, 2018

About four years ago, Stephanie Byers addressed her students on the first day of class.

"I said, 'Obviously, there's something different that we need to talk about,'" says Byers, a North High band and orchestra teacher who came out as a transgender woman in 2014.
[…]
Byers, 55, says she didn't transition to be a pioneer or an advocate, but she has become both. She thinks she is the first Wichita teacher to transition after being hired into the district. As she contemplated her transition, she called district officials to ask about it and, "There were no protocols in place for this," she said.

Over the past few years, Byers has quietly met with school leaders, participated on panels about LGBTQ issues, talked with parents about gender identity, chaperoned a local "Day of Advocacy" and spoken at the state Capitol. Last week, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) named her National Educator of the Year.

Congratulations!

Being a teacher is hard enough but transitioning on the job must have made the job so much harder but she got through it and made her that much stronger.

I know of a couple of teachers who transitioned before the non-discrimination law was passed here in Connecticut and they were fired.

I hope for the day when a trans teacher wins an award that is not by a LGBTQ organization.

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I have been up at the cottage with my brother and a friend cleaning up the cottage and then this weekend is the Trans Health and Law Conference, on Sunday a GLAD next weekend is the NASW conference on May 4, May 5 is Noho Pride and that is followed by a new Pride event in Bethel. I also hear rumors of a clam bake at a friends house on Sunday.