ABSTRACT
The interview process provided most participants with their first oppor tunity to reflect on and describe their perceptions and experiences as gay or lesbian educators. Participants described the process as both exhausting and exhilarating. One teacher spoke of the interview as simultaneously “ liberating and terrifying.” Because they spent so much time separating their personal and professional identities, some group members were ini tially at a loss about how to talk about these identities as integrated parts of themselves. During the interview one participant responded, “Before joining this group, I never thought of myself as a gay teacher.” Another participant said, “ Being asked about being a gay educator took a few minutes to compute because I split them so. I had to take off the mask.”
