Christ’s old boy comes out with pride group
Jeremy Johnson kept his sexuality a secret as a student at a prestigious Christchurch private boys’ school.
‘‘It was clear that being gay was not accepted because there was nobody that was gay,’’ Johnson said.
The 32-year-old is the youngestever president of Christ’s College Old Boys’ Association, and suspects he is also its first openly gay one.
Through the formation of the College Tuis, a new group dedicated to gay, bisexual and transgender (GBT) former Christ’s College students, the partner at law firm Wynn Williams hopes the school’s current rainbow students will have it easier than he did.
The group held its first social function in Auckland with half a dozen members in November 2016. A second will be held next month.
‘‘The idea of the Tuis was to really send a message that if you are of a different sexuality you are still part of our community,’’ Johnson said.
‘‘We want to recognise and reaffirm that. We also want to send a message to current boys that gay, bisexual, transgender and so on are just like us – or just like straight people.’’
While Johnson acknowledged he had a good time at school, ‘‘it wasn’t an easy place to be’’.
When he graduated in 2002, he was not aware of any other students or staff who were openly gay.
Some 15 years later, there are at least five men from the 100-plus in his year who were.
‘‘Gay was used as an insult. There was a lot of joking around it. So you have that sort of broader cultural issue of ‘how do you identify as something that is clearly not accepted’.’’
Johnson said the culture within Christ’s College changed a lot in the five years he was there, and even more so since the arrival of headmaster Garth Wynne in 2016.
‘‘There are a lot of great things at the school, and bigotry isn’t one of them.’’
Wynne said the Tuis establishment was a reflection of how the school celebrated diversity in all its forms.
‘‘We’re fortunate to be in an institution that is able to do that. Really, it reflects modern approaches to the diversity that is existing in our community.’’
Wynne did not see the Tuis group as the start of a new era, or cultural shift, but rather ‘‘a normal and ongoing development’’.
‘‘The community is coming to expect different things of itself . . . it’s a healthy way to respond to the needs of the individuals we serve. This is a conversation we wouldn’t have been having anywhere, 10 or 15 years ago.’’
Christ’s College old boy Nicholas Forbes said surviving high school as a gay male from 1998 to 2002 meant developing ‘‘an ability to verbally defend yourself’’.
‘‘I certainly wouldn’t have felt comfortable owning my sexuality, even though I was aware of it at high school, for fear of being judged.’’
Some felt that they could not come out, and no-one did while he was at school.
‘‘There was perhaps an image of what it was to be a strong young man that schools like Christ’s College projected and it was easy to feel you didn’t fit into that . . . it did involve rugby and things we didn’t represent.’’
The 32-year-old school music teacher praised the actions taken by Wynne to promote inclusivity and openness at the school.
‘‘By having the courage to name it and create a specific group, it says ‘these people do exist and we want to support them outwardly in terms of how we demonstrate that’,’’ Forbes said.