Drawing from applied performance practice research that examined the experiences of eight queer Desi/South Asian young adults in Toronto, this paper specifically uses micro-encounters to extend the idea that creative methods offer openings that facilitate different kinds of access for different participants. This paper also challenges the…

This empirical research explores the conditions, challenges, and lived experiences of how four diverse Canadian educators transcended heteronormative and gender-normative educational environments to become activist-educators for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer inclusion in their K-12 schools and communities. The co-creation of queer…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have historically, and continue today to encounter barriers to accessing health services. This has been attributed to the well-documented heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia that shape all health and social institutions. In this paper, invitational theory offers insight into the…

This study reports key findings from a research project, which examined the stress and coping mechanisms of several nondominant groups of individuals. The groups were based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and included (a) Aboriginal individuals with diabetes, (b) individuals with disabilities, and (c) gays and lesbians. Our analyses of personal…

This paper considers how three Canadian high-school students--Ryan, Jeremy, and Bruce--engaged in queer critical praxis intended to free lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, and queer (LGBTQ) students from the silence, exclusion, and symbolic and physical violence that heterosexism and homophobia provoke in schools. We, the authors, construct…

The study on which this paper is based examined the experiences of students in order to develop a theoretical and empirically grounded account of the dynamic social forces of inclusion and exclusion experienced by youth in their unique contexts of North American urban schooling. The ethnographic scenes, organized into four "beats,"…

This paper reports on a short-term ethnographic participatory action research project that engaged urban Canadian, street-involved "queer and questioning" youth in a multi-media enabled inquiry into peer housing and support needs. The "Pridehouse Project" (http://www.sfu.ca/pridehouse) was initiated by, and accountable to, a…