Male Teachers Are Wearing Skirts to School to Support Bullied Students

Male teachers and students across Spain have taken to wearing skirts in solidarity with students who were bullied or punished, and their legs look damn good while doing it!

When 15-year-old Spanish student Mikel Gomez wore a skirt to school last October, he was hoping to challenge gender norms and support women's rights. Instead, he was pulled out of class and brought before a psychologist who grilled him about his gender identity, as he explained in a viral TikTok last year.

Gomez's video sparked a movement where hundreds of boys in the country wore skirts to school in solidarity on November 4. Now, male teachers across Gomez's home country are joining in that solidarity with him by wearing skirts of their own.

Jose Pinas, a gay math teacher, soon started wearing a skirt to school himself. "20 years ago, I suffered persecution and insults for my sexual orientation in the institute where I am now a teacher," he wrote on Twitter. "Many teachers, they looked the other way. I wanted to join in the cause of the student, Mikel, who has been expelled and sent to the psychologist for going to class with a skirt."

Since then, more and more teachers have joined the cause, with two wearing skirts every day of May, and the hashtag #LaRopaNoTieneGenero, which translates to "clothing has no gender," gaining popularity this year, according to newspaper El Pais.

Now another group of students is joining in the protests as well. According to Publico, male students at the Johan Carballeira Institute of Secondary Education have taken to wearing skirts on the fourth day of every month.

"They always tell us about the need to learn Mathematics, History, Language, Lia Menduina Otero," one of the movement's organizers said. "But not about something as important as equality, and not only about gender."

Because of their efforts, the school has established a new class on gender equality in secondary education.

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