I have never faced the challenges of being a minority, female, gay, or transgender. In other words, I'm a straight white male. However, I empathize with those who do face those challenges in part because of one insignificant episode while I was in grade school.
My given name is "Barney" and I preferred to be called by my middle name "David." (names have been changed to protect the innocent here).
There was one teacher, an old man, who refused to call me David. I asked him nicely to address me as David and his response was "Your registration card says 'Barney' so 'Barney' it is!"
I'm embarrassed to admit just how much that affected my relationship with that teacher. My grades suffered as a result, as did my ability to learn from that teacher. Something as simple as how I wanted to be identified and a belligerent teacher who refused to take my preference seriously had an impact. Well, that was about 50 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.
Virginia is being sued because a belligerent teacher refuses to comply with the law that requires teachers to address students by their preferred pronouns. I can relate.
Firing Virginia teacher who misgendered student was the right call (opinion) - CNN