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Andre Goh: So part of the high school experience was also realizing that somehow I wasn't fitting
with the norm of boy girl attraction. I found myself, "Oh I think I'm attracted to guys."
Didn't know how to deal with it, had no language for it. And in the school, I was bad enough
trying to blend a wall. But one of my more pleasant and positive experiences at the time
was with the guidance counsellor, Miss Bell. It's funny you remember names like that.
And I went into her and I -- partly, I was a regular visitor to her because of my language
skills and because English wasn't my first language. But at one point, I remember her
asking me, "Is there something you want to tell me? You seem very distracted." And I
remember, and I said, "I don't think I fit in here very well." And she was able to draw
out that maybe you're not attracted to girls and that's okay. And keep in mind, this was
a long -- way before *** orientation was even covered under the Code. And she was already
with it, and she -- no judgment on her part.
And she said, "I'm going to give you some pamphlets, some ideas and some things to think
about." And she gave me things like the 519, the Body Politic. So those were the early
things. And I remember looking at it, freaking out. "This is not me," right, and then her
being more supportive and calling me to come and see her again and asking, "What do you
think?" and making me talk about it.
Once I realized that okay, I think I'm different -- and the word back then was, "I think I'm
homosexual," -- made me feel even worse. Not only was I an immigrant, a racialized individual,
but here I am a homosexual as well, great. Three strikes against me. How am I ever going
to survive?
But I have to say, as human beings, we're tough. We just learn to cope, the hard way.
Some of the oppression in high school was, yeah, don't ever come out. If there were any
gay kids -- and I'm sure there were -- I did not know and they certainly wouldn't have
reached out to me. And it appeared that Miss Bell didn't know either because apart from
me, I don't think -- 'cause I would have thought she would have liked me to get in touch with
those, but no.