美国国家公共电台 NPR Coming Out As Transgender Strengthened This Teacher's Commitment To His Students

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Today is Transgender Day of Visibility. The Human Rights Campaign calls it a time to celebrate transgender people around the globe and the courage it takes to live openly and authentically². NPR has been reporting on the challenges transgender teachers face in their schools and communities. A national survey conducted by NPR Ed found many transgender teachers experience discrimination on the job. But it turns out, coming out as transgender in school can also have some rewards. From member station KUT in Austin, Claire McInerny has the story of one teacher who found his commitment to teaching strengthened.

CLAIRE MCINERNY, BYLINE³: When he graduated college, Mario Suarez knew two things for sure about his future - he was going to be a teacher and he was going to transition from female to male. Right after graduation, he got a job as a high school math teacher in Austin.

MARIO SUAREZ: I was already living outside of the professional life as a male. So I - the next step, you know, through my therapist she recommended - it's, like, well, maybe it's time to come out in the workplace.

MCINERNY: But because his workplace was a high school, that meant he wouldn't only be coming out to his co-workers but the hundreds of students and their parents who cycled through the school each year. When Suarez spoke⁴ with his principal about his transition...

SUAREZ: He asked me, how would you feel if you start fresh somewhere else? Like, he kind of wanted me to go to - transfer to a different school.

MCINERNY: Suarez didn't want to do that. He liked his colleagues and the students he worked with. Hearing his boss react that way made him nervous. He said other teachers expressed support to this school's administration, so Suarez ended up staying, transitioning and starting his second year in the classroom as Mr. Suarez. He said the first year, kids would ask a lot of questions, but it all came from a place of curiosity and not malice⁵. A few years later, Mario started dating. And eventually, he met Guadalupe Marquez-Velarde.

GUADALUPE MARQUEZ-VELARDE: We had these, like, online profile. And I - like, I read some of the interesting stuff. But I skipped the bottom where he talks about being transgender.

SUAREZ: By the time Mario brought it up with Guadalupe, she was already falling for him.

MARQUEZ-VELARDE: I guess it's always been my philosophy that you fall for the person and not I guess their external appearance.

SUAREZ: It was love before they knew it and they married soon after. As they started talking about their future life together, Mario was also thinking about his professional future. He loved teaching, but he also loved how transitioning in the classroom taught him so much.

SUAREZ: And then that made me started to realize, like, it's not a big deal for them. Like, you can be who you are. And I started noticing that over the years working at that school is that it wasn't about the kids. It was the grown-ups that weren't always OK with it.

MCINERNY: Mario started to think more about those grown-ups - his co-workers, his principals and the parents. He also thought about his own childhood. Growing up in a small town in southwest Texas, he was never exposed to transgender people. It wasn't until college that he even had language to explain what he felt for so many years. He realized he wanted to shift his teaching away from high school algebra⁶ and toward helping⁷ K-12 teachers work with LGBT youth. So he enrolled⁸ in a Ph.D. program at Texas A&M where Guadalupe was doing her graduate work.

SUAREZ: One of the biggest reasons I'm here is because there's little research on LGBT youth, particularly trans and gender¹-nonconforming and intersexed youth in the classroom.

MCINERNY: Mario's research is focused on how K-12 teachers can discuss LGBTQ issues in the classroom and support those students. He wants all kids, including those realizing their sexual orientation⁹ or gender identity at a young age, to have the same opportunities he's had. He's also having a more immediate¹⁰ impact, something Guadalupe sees happening over and over at A&M.

MARQUEZ-VELARDE: Because of him, a lot of people that probably would have never met a transgender person before have been able to not just meet him but become his colleague, his friend, and sort of get a broad view of what it means in terms of gender identity.

MCINERNY: One of these colleagues is Kim Wright. Before attending A&M as a graduate student, she taught middle school in a small, Texas town. She says working in small, conservative areas, she didn't meet a lot of people with radically¹¹ different life experiences. Mario changed that.

KIM WRIGHT: He's taught me so much about what it feels like and looks like and doesn't feel like and doesn't look like to live between lots of different worlds.

MCINERNY: Wright teaches future educators, and she often invites Mario to guest lecture. He speaks to these soon-to-be teachers about LGBTQ issues that may come up in their classrooms.

WRIGHT: He's talking to them about issues that they have not really thought about, likely, before.

MCINERNY: Being so public about his gender identity has brought more awareness¹² to trans issues at A&M. But this also carries some anxiety. Guadalupe says she worries when he doesn't come home right after his class or she doesn't hear from him for long periods of time.

MARQUEZ-VELARDE: I have friends who are gay and lesbian. They've been through hate crimes in this town. They've been beaten up. They've been assaulted in public spaces. So I was definitely fearful that he would be in some sort of danger.

MCINERNY: But to Mario, it's important to keep telling his story in the hopes that teachers will open their minds about teaching LGBTQ youth.

SUAREZ: These are children that are just trying to be themselves. And they're trying to live their life as who they know they are, but our society needs to shift in that way.

MCINERNY: He thinks teachers should help initiate¹³ that shift. For NPR News, I'm Claire McInerny in Austin.

(SOUNDBITE OF WAKING AIDA'S "BLUE SHELLED")

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 authentically   

ad.sincerely真诚地

参考例句：

• Gina: And we should give him something 2 authentically Taiwanese. 吉娜：而且我们应该送他有纯正台湾味的东西。
• A loser is one who fails to correspond authentically. 失败者则指那些未能做到诚实可靠的人。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 malice   

n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋

参考例句：

• I detected a suggestion of malice in his remarks.我觉察出他说的话略带恶意。
• There was a strong current of malice in many of his portraits.他的许多肖像画中都透着一股强烈的怨恨。

6 algebra   

n.代数学

参考例句：

• He was not good at algebra in middle school.他中学时不擅长代数。
• The boy can't figure out the algebra problems.这个男孩做不出这道代数题。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

10 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

11 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

12 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

13 initiate   

vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入

参考例句：

• A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
• They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。