Teacher Of The Year

Who would have thought a few years ago that a trans person could be named teacher of the year… well it just happened!

Transgender man named Michigan Teacher of the Year

He knows as a transgender man that "everything else takes a back seat" when you don't feel safe in school.

LGBTQ Nation

By Alex Bollinger

July 22, 2020

The state of Michigan has honored a transgender educator as teacher of the year.

The Michigan Department of Education announced at a virtual meeting on Friday that Owen Bondono is Michigan’s Teacher of the Year. He teaches ninth grade language arts at Oak Park High School near Detroit.

Bondono said that his perspective as a transgender and queer man has helped him help students feel safe in school.

“My goal is to always make sure students whether they are marginalized because of their race, their ethnicity, or their gender identity, their sexual orientation, that they feel safe in school,” he told Fox 2 Detroit.

“I know from a personal standpoint how vulnerable you feel when you’re not safe and how when you feel that vulnerable everything else takes a back seat.”

[…]

“I can say without a doubt that Owen has dedicated himself,” said Jamii Hitchcock, the superintendent of Oak Park schools. “He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk every single day to ensure that equity and justice is served. Every time he walks into the classroom it has an impact on the students he teaches.”

It is good that we have roll models, we need to show the next generation that they can come out from the shadows. We are doctors, scientists, engineers, lawyers, educators, and musicians.

Bondono is now in the running for National Teacher of the Year.

Go for it! And good luck.

Society back in the Twentieth Century trans people were found in the back alleys of society. They had marginalized jobs or lived off the street. Lynn Conway website of transgender success stories was very thin when I found it back around 1999, now it is brimming with those of us who have become leaders in our fields.

We have made the computer revolution possible

We have made satellite radio possible

We have helped put people in space

We are leading medical research in fighting disease

We are international know musicians

We are New York Times best selling authors

We are starring in movies, television shows, and on the stage
We have been appointed to the White House staff and agencies heads

We are elected politicians

Thirty years ago we were the but of jokes on TV, and we were the psychopath killers. We cannot go backward only forward.