Like, get over it!”: On “getting” and “getting over” sexuality in the classroom

fourth and third years, respectively), we have found ourselves frequently dis-cussing the issue of coming out in the classroom, probably because we are the only non-heterosexual instructors in our respective departments. This topic is of scholarly interest, as each of us is academically engaged in the critical study of gender and sexuality, and of personal interest, as we, as a queer couple, negotiate the conservative social climate of rural Pennsylvania. Much of our conversation around the dinner table has focused on the ways in which our gender presenta-tions are taken as evidence of our sexual orientation by our students: Tara’s masculine presentation is read as lesbian, whereas Megan’s feminine appearance is read as heterosexual. In the surrounding community, Tara is regularly subject to intense glares and outright hostility, but Megan rarely is the target of homo-phobic remarks. Rather, Megan faces the necessity of self-disclosure in order to have her bisexual/queer sexual orientation recognized (since she is presumed heterosexual when alone, and lesbian when with Tara); that self-disclosure is frequently met with inappropriate sexual advances. This difference in our queer visibility fundamentally shapes our approaches to disclosure of our sexual orien-tations in the classroom. We sought to understand the implications of coming out in the classroom through our own reflections and by interviewing students who have been in our classes and are aware of our sexual orientations. Each of us conducted semi-structured interviews of queer and straight students from the other’s classes; the inclusion of their perspective here provides a more complete picture of the ways in which our sexuality shapes our classrooms. Sexuality is highly relevant i