Coming Out When You're Not Really In: Coming Out as a Teachable Moment

Willman address a specific technique of coming out in the classroom by allowing students to discover her sexuality. Using coming out as a teachable moment helps to challenge students' assumptions about heteronormativity. As students realize that she was never 'in', they are prompted to question preconceptions leading to subsequent discussions about LGBTQ stereotypes, political agendas, and gender norms. As this technique is an extension of her everyday experience, this tactic compliments her ambiguity about coming out in the classroom context--her ambiguity of course being that she was never in, and therefore do not approach teaching with questions about whether to come out.