In light of recent protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events, this essay offers a critical examination of the role of gender performance in secondary schools and English lessons through a personal exploration of how I perform gender as a queer English teacher. I show that schools perpetuate a model of gender that is binary and heterosexist; that teachers and students perform gender in complex ways; that reading in English requires queer performances of gender; and that the professional is always personal when it comes to teacher development.