Maurice Blackmon is a high school Literature and Social Studies teacher at Essex Street Academy. He began working with the Proud Teacher Initiative several years ago when seeking to understand the impact of students having positive LGBTQIA+ educators in their school communities. He works to normalize queer identities in his school community by coming out to his students each year, working to support the GSA, and teaching a unit on gender and sexuality in his Social Justice humanities class. Maurice’s lived experience has taught him that all social issues are intersectional and must therefore be approached from a lease of intersectionality. This belief informs his work with the Proud Teacher Initiative and other advocacy groups he works with.