As a millennial, I have witnessed some real changes when it comes to LGBT rights: the repeal of section 28, the legalisation of adoption for same-sex couples, marriage equality and, most recently, Ofsted’s decision to ensure that all schools are promoting equality and clamping down on discrimination.

But, despite all the changes that have happened in my lifetime, I still feel nervous about the prospect of being personally “out” in the classroom.

Coming from a typical state school in Oxfordshire, I don’t remember hearing anything positive about LGBT people when I was growing up. “That’s so gay” was recited at anything slightly out of the ordinary and pupils’ word choices were never challenged by staff.

I was not aware of there being any LGBT members of staff, nor even an out student. Looking back, this probably contributed to my decision not to “come out” myself until my first year of university.

Vicious cycle

In September, I’ll be going into my first year of teaching and, of course, being out is one of the many things on my mind. I don’t have any experience of teachers being openly LGBT, so being out in a school environment is uncharted territory for me. Yet something has to break this vicious cycle and I recently realised that change starts with me.

I came to this realisation at an event for LGBT History Month, set up and run by the charity Schools Out. In a room surrounded by LGBT activists, couples, families and academics, LGBT History Month founder Sue Sanders asked: “Who in this room heard anything positive about LGBT people at school?” No hands went up. Not even those of us who were young enough to be students after section 28 was repealed were able to raise our hands.

Schools Out started life as the Gay Teachers’ Group in 1974, at a time when female teachers could not wear trousers and gay teachers faced retribution for being out. Things have improved since then, but many teachers still don’t feel comfortable to come out in schools, or if they do, it is often only among their colleagues and is kept secret among staff.

Being a role model

So why do I feel so strongly about being out? I’ve often heard people say “well, isn’t it a private matter”?

Studies have shown that 41 per cent of young LGBT students have attempted or thought about taking their own life because of bullying. That amounts to two in five.

On top of that, 99 per cent of gay young people report that they hear the phrases “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” in school and 96 per cent of gay pupils hear homophobic language such as “poof” or “lezza” regularly.

Teaching students about equality shouldn’t be done in a one-off PSHE lesson. LGBT people need to be seen across the curriculum, in assemblies, in classrooms and in SLT. So being out in school isn’t really a choice for me. I owe it to my teenage self to be the role model who was missing from my education.

James will be teaching English in London from September through Teach First