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Meryl Streep recalls LGBT music teachers who taught her acceptance

By Fabio Crispim

During a press event to promote Florence Foster Jenkins, Meryl Streep recalled how her music education came from LGBT individuals.

According to the Advocate, she explains how she would visit her gay music teacher once a week for piano lessons.

“My piano teacher and his lover lived in a little house in Berkeley Heights and I would go once a week to have my piano lesson.”

She says that as a young girl, she found their house to be “magical” and stated that her mother, though she never discussed the teacher’s sexuality, impressed acceptance onto her.

“My mother, who was born in 1915, never said ‘the boys are gay’, or that there was anything that she disapproved of. It was just that this is a different life.”

Then, later in life, Streep had a transgender teacher who transitioned during the summer.

“My music teacher in sixth grade was named Paul Grossman. And the next year he came back, and he was Paula.”

“It was very unusual. He came back to school, he had three kids and stayed married, but he was himself, and he led the chorus.”

Meryl Streep plays Florence Foster Jenkins in the film of the same name, in cinemas now.

You can read the full interview with Streep over at the Advocate.

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