Are being Black and gay problematic in the United States? Are Black gay youth "suffering" with these two intersecting identities? Traditional Eurocentric epistemologies would have one believe that Black males, Black gay males, and gay males (liminal groups) are suffering, rarely acknowledging those successfully navigating through…

Bullying and harassment threatens the safety, learning, and personal growth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) students in many high schools in the United States. Such problems are attributed to a heterosexist school culture that is silent towards LGBTQ students and their concerns, making them an invisible sexual…

Drawing from the author's 5-year, multimethod qualitative study, this article argues that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students in Canadian Catholic schools are not inherently mentally ill, passive victims in need of special Catholic pastoral care; instead, they are activists who strongly resist homophobic oppression in school.…

Hoshen, the Hebrew acronym for "Education & Change", is a nonprofit, nationwide education and information center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Israel. The main educational method Hoshen uses is the personal story told by volunteers. The present study aimed to examine whether this activity,…

This study draws on in-depth interviews in which Jared, a queer trans man and high school arts teacher, grappled with what it means to him to be an activist to explore how his conceptualizations of queer activism have been supported and limited by LGBT-inclusive and queering discourses and to consider other discourses that might better represent…

Classrooms tend to be absolute spaces, places where fluidity is rejected and nearly everything--from people, to ideas, to practices and policies--is viewed and organized through binary logic. Because binary logic is implicitly accepted as the natural order in schools and the structures resulting from it are highly unmalleable, individuals who…

The shift in attention to the "boy crisis" has been fuelled by a spate of popular trade books dealing with raising of boys and the alleged failures and deceptions of feminist educational reforms. This article argues that from a black feminist perspective the "boy crisis" depicted in these texts is a misnomer because no social…

This essay is about the experiences, feelings, and thoughts of a Japanese teacher before and after an article appeared in a nationwide newspaper, "Asahi Shinbun". Here he discusses the reactions of administrators and students as well as his efforts in working with students in writing and producing a play about a lesbian high school…

The author tells how he, as a high school principal in a small rural school, reacted when "Pete," a student in a class of 38, revealed his sexual identity and brought his boyfriend to the senior prom. The author describes how his initial reactions came from an administrative, managerial, "try to keep the lid on" mentality as he feared various…

This article shares the life of Yusuke, a 15 year-old high school student who is coming out and his future. Yusuke has never said that he is a gay person; he could not say that. He believed that there was no one who understood the feelings of gay people. However, he has gradually changed his mind after he started studying at this high school.…

This case study details the events surrounding a gay student's "coming out" in a small, rural high school. Through the eyes and experiences of the student, his teachers, classmates, and community, we hear the story of how the school and community dealt with an issue they had never before actively considered. Through qualitative interviews, the…

This feature is a collection of brief essays recently written by Japanese and Chinese gay youth, followed by commentary from several leading educators and scholars. Akihiko Komiya's "Difficulties Japanese Gay Youth Encounter" provides excerpts from the stories of six gay youth and their everyday lives, based on their letters in…

This qualitative investigation studies the impact of belonging to a high school Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA or Alliance) on the lives of seven students. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted over a two-year time period. The author used voices of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and straight students to relate the experiences unique to each…