A teacher in Kentucky found himself unemployed after coming out as bisexual.

Nicholas Breiner started teaching chorus at McNabb Middle School in Montgomery County three years ago. After a decade in the closet, he came out in an Instagram post earlier this year, in order to provide at-risk LGBT students with some much needed queer visibility.

“For years, it was my opinion that my sexual orientation was my business and nobody else’s," Breiner told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "But when your children are in danger, you must re-evaluate. When a child is ready to take their own life because they love differently than those around them, you must prioritize their safety over your own privacy."

Breiner says he has personally intervened in several suicidal cases over the last several months, and that a "vast majority" of them involved LGBT students.

"It’s impossible to know," he said, "but the chance that the knowledge that I am bisexual could save one child ... is more important than over a decade of living in the closet. So the need to protect my kids finally gave me the strength to publicly be who I have always been."

After coming out, Breiner was called in for a meeting with his school principal and superintendent. They asked about his sexual orientation and the Instagram post, and Breiner says he was cautioned, "We live in a small town."

Soon after, he learned that his teaching contract hadn't been renewed for the 2017-2018 school year.

Breiner was given no official reason for the decision, and administrators maintain it had nothing to do with his sexuality or his post. (Breiner's Instagram account is now private.)

“The employment decision relating to his non-renewal was not in part, or in whole, because of his sexual orientation," Montgomery County Superintendent Matthew Thompson told the Herald-Leader. "However, I am unable to answer specific questions about the non-renewal due to confidentiality.”

Some members of the community aren't buying that.

On Saturday more than 30 people, including many of Breiner's former students and their parents, showed up at the county courthouse to protest the decision. They carried hand-made signs with rainbows and messages like, "Love always wins" and "Stand with Mr. Breiner."

“I felt it was our job as a community to show our support," said Jessica Dunn, who helped organized the rally.

Megan Johnson, the parent of one of Breiner's former students, said, “We all really feel that it comes down to his sexuality, and that’s a load of crap."