This paper examines accounts from lesbian, gay and bisexual teachers, in autobiographical writing and qualitative studies. It uses these accounts to trace productive similarities between discourses relating to pedagogy and to sexuality in English-speaking countries from the 1970s onwards. Alongside these similarities runs a fundamental tension, between the disempowerment of LGB individuals and the traditional authority of the teacher. LGB teachers' accounts, negotiating this tension, move as a result in opposed directions. While many accounts explore knowledge, authority and speech, they disagree as to their meaning and the implications or their teaching practice. This disagreement becomes particularly sharp in three areas: coming out in the classroom, claiming authority as a teacher (and as a lesbian, gay or bisexual individual), and handling homophobic and biphobic statements from students.