“What goes against nature will die.”
Actually, since I was at school, my friends knew I was gay, from the way I present, how I hang out with girls and such, but hardly anyone cared and I didn’t get bullied much. Maybe it’s because people thought I was funny, and when I was at school I was the class clown. But I did experience discrimination from teachers.
In 9th grade, there was this Biology teacher. I remembered learning about human genetics, something about XY and XX. In the middle of teaching, she looked at me and said: “XX is female, XY is male, if there were any issues then you would get someone like Quý, kids.” I was pissed, but I was young then, so I didn’t say anything.
When I reached high school, there was this hag who taught Civic Education, you know, the subject that teaches you morals. There was this time when she taught us about idealism or something, then she said: “In this life, what goes along with nature survives, what goes against nature will die.” Then she turned to look me dead in the eyes and added: “Everything must be black and white, one is one, two is two, no such thing as half this half that.” I knew for sure she was talking about me because everyone could tell I was gay just by looking at me.
I remembered that was the time I was studying for the university entrance exam. To be honest, I can pass Civic Education in my sleep, so I was always talking in class and sometimes skipped her class. One time, when I was at home reviewing Math and English and whatnot, she called my homeroom teacher to force me to go to class. I was so mad because I was doing revisions at home. So I wore my pajamas to class. When I arrived, she kicked me out, saying: “How dare you show up to class wearing that?” After that incident, my homeroom teacher called me for a private conversation and asked why I had that attitude. I said: “I was at home reviewing English, plus I just need a passing grade for that class so I don’t need to study for it.” So pretty much after that, my homeroom teacher was on my side, and that hag slowly got off my case and pretended I was never in class. In the end, when I took the test for Civic Education, I got a 9.5/10, I spent a couple of minutes on the test and just slept at the desk.
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Rồi Sẽ Ổn Thôi (“Gonna Be Alright”) is a project that collects coming out stories from the LGBTIQ+ community and their loved ones in Việt Nam. To find out more details or to read more stories from the project, please visit our official social media site on Instagram at ComingOutVN.
