A Catholic school vice-principal who came out as gay after more than 20 years says she is hoping her story helps LGBTQ educators and students feel safer in the school system.

Joan Grundy, who is retiring from St. Mary’s High School in Kitchener, Ont. on Friday, said she came out to herself two decades ago, at age 33. She only shared her sexuality with close friends and her parents.

Now, she’s sharing it with the world in her autobiography “A Deepening Life,” which is being released later this month. Grundy devotes a chapter in the book to her being gay.

At 54, Grundy decided it was time to come out of the closet.

“I’d been peeking out of it for quite a while, and it was good to kick that darn door open, right off its hinges,” Grundy said.

The soon-to-be retiree says a lot of people don’t understand that it takes a while to “come out to yourself.”

However, she said her position in the Catholic board made her even more apprehensive of taking such a big step.

Homosexual desire is deemed acceptable by the Catholic church, but it says sexual relations must be between a man and a woman only.

“I probably would have been a little bit more vocal earlier, it’s safe to say, had I not been in the Catholic board,” Grundy told CTV’s Canada AM Friday morning.

Grundy also worried about her job when a gay friend who had married his partner was promptly fired from his job in Catholic school at another board.

Grundy said some colleagues weren’t surprised when she came out.

“It really didn’t surprise me that people put two and two together, but what’s important for me is that I needed to be able to name it, and feel safe in naming it and be more honest,” she said.

Now, Grundy, who has been counselling LGBTQ youth for most of her teaching career, is hoping to pave the way for other educators so they don’t have to wait as long.

She also wants to see LGBTQ students to feel less “invisible” and vulnerable in schools, whether they’re in public or religious school systems.

“A lot of times their world isn’t reflected in their schools,” Grundy said. “Most of the songs that are played around the PA are (about) heretosexual relationships, the posters that they see in their hallways have heterosexual couples beckoning them to the next school dance.”

Grundy said she plans to keep working in some capacity.

“I like to think I still have something to offer,” she said.