Today, members of the various lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities enjoy many of the same rights and privileges as their cis-gender, heterosexual peers. Yet, the lived experiences of many queer-identified teachers in schools remain problematic, uncomfortable, and tension-filled. Given the rise of 'No Promo Homo' laws…

In this response, the authors critically engage bullying, which they understand as an intersectional cultural performance of/for power in relational context. They offer embodied experiences as individuals who survived bullying, performed bullying, bully, and who perpetuated institutionalized through curriculum and policy. Certainly, bullying holds…

This article offers the concept of critical professional praxis as a framework for naming and addressing difference-neutral practices in education (an approach that does not consider the effects of power and privilege associated with social differences in teachers' beliefs, ideas, and actions). Critical professional praxis is using both formal and…

This article is a commentary on a theme issue of "Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation" entitled "Consultation to Increase Educational Access and Improve Conditions for LGBTQ Youth." Writing from the perspective of researchers who have focused on social justice, the authors both provide a critique of the theme…

In this essay, I develop a pedagogical stance called the "free exercise of rhetoric" as a way to approach teaching and student writing at the intersection of LGBT and religious discourses. Through this stance, I work with students' personal commitments and build their rhetorical competence using a process that involves encountering uncommon…

Dartmouth College did not need the round of controversial headlines that were about to come its way nor the cascade that was surely to follow. Only weeks in office as president, Philip Hanlon found his back to the wall. What had happened and so early on his watch? While Hanlon confronted presidential challenges at the very outset of his tenure,…

This article presents an analysis of LGBTQ education history with an Ohio narrative to underscore a point: four decades into the publication of LGBTQ history it remains a critical enterprise--essential to a collective understanding of the past, vulnerable to those who do not approve of its subject(s), and undergoing significant change. The Ohio…

Two literacy leaders acknowledge the challenges of teaching LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues in the classroom. While children come from a variety of family structures, it is necessary to acknowledge that a gay individual was once a child sitting in a classroom. An argument against marginalization and an advocacy for inclusion of…

I spent the first two years of college at a two-year community in southern California. I had very sheltered high school experience, so attending college was exciting for me. In high school, I wasn't involved in extracurricular activities or organizations other than choir, and I didn't share my sexual orientation with others. College, I hoped, was…

Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender-Queer (LGBTQ) representation in composition readers remains limited and is frequently nonexistent. In addition, the LGBTQ-related materials that do find their way into composition readers are often problematic. In this essay I explain why WPAs and composition teachers should be concerned about LGBTQ representation…

Scholars have sought to identify the complexity and multidimensionality of the phenomenon of sexual identity formation since the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 (Bayer, 1981). This article addresses the manner in which the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ]…

The issue of whether to "come out" in class has a poignant history in the literature by gay, lesbian and bisexual educators on this topic. By comparison few heterosexuals have publicly written about whether they explicitly reveal their heterosexuality to students. This paper contributes to the enduring debate about whether to "come out" in class…

While whiteness studies at most institutions aims to expose the persistence of white supremacy to a disbelieving audience, whiteness studies within the College of Ethnic Studies (COES) at San Francisco State University (SFSU) begins with the assumption that racism still exists. The course then traces how whiteness is constructed and fortified to…

Echoing conflicts in society, some observers argue social work education should exclude religious students while others argue social work education should exclude gay students. Instead of perpetuating this conflict, I suggest educators should transcend it and affirm the voices of both religious believers and lesbians and gay men. After noting…

This presentation is premised on a research study that was conducted with a group of secondary teachers. The study examined how teachers grappled with issues surrounding homophobia and heterosexism in their schools. For the purpose of this presentation, some of the findings from this study have been applied to the college campus. Specifically, the…