Amidst political and educational challenges, LGBTQ+ educators in the Southern United States often conceal their identities. Through the lens of ecological systems theory, we propose that inconsistent pedagogical paradigms create a sense of liminality for these LGBTQ+ stakeholders. This study of four school personnel highlights the silencing of…

One of the most common responses from pre- and in-service teachers related to addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) topics in elementary school is a concern about parents' responses. This article explores these concerns by examining two elementary school teachers' interactions with parents in relation to their…

LGBTIQ children and adolescents experience disproportionate levels of bullying. "Safe Schools," an Australian anti-bullying program, has recently been a site of public debate, with parents and their imagined concerns being central to the debate. This study investigated how parents construct gender, sexuality, and bullying, in relation to…

Researchers have identified challenges for sexual minority individuals in schools; however, attention to lesbian and gay parents' experiences with their children's schools has not been given. We used a qualitative case study involving one identified gay couple and one identified lesbian couple to document their experiences and relationships…

As a form of bias-based harassment, homophobic behavior remains prominent in schools. Yet, little attention has been given to factors that underlie it, aside from bullying and sexual prejudice. Thus, we examined multiple domain general (empathy, perspective-taking, classroom respect norms) and sexual orientation-specific factors (sexual…

The "Exploring Masculinities" (EM) programme was piloted in 22 Irish single-sex boys' post-primary schools during the late 1990s. Following objections from some influential journalists and an organisation representing parents whose sons attended Catholic secondary schools, the Minister for Education and Science put the planned…

This article reflects our experiences of raising boys with gender-variant behaviors and interests. After a long personal and professional journey, living in a society that views children with gender-variant behavior and interests as aberrations that need to be examined, intervened with, or repackaged, we are moved to redirect our attention as…

In recent years, social scientists have identified not just heterosexism and homophobia as social problems, but also heteronormativity--the mundane, everyday ways that heterosexuality is privileged and taken for granted as normal and natural. There is little empirical research, however, on how heterosexuality is reproduced and then normalized for…

This study focused on the experiences of parents of gender-variant children and teens. The goal was to document issues faced by parents of kids with childhood gender-variant behaviors and/or gender-variant identity and to compile their wisdom. Telephone interviews were conducted with 43 parents of 31 youth (all who met the DSM criteria for Gender…

Two years after the legalization of same-sex marriages in the Netherlands, 65% of the Dutch population largely or completely disagrees with the statement "gay marriage should be abolished." This article shows, by way of multinomial logistic regression analysis of survey data, which socializing agents influence one's attitude toward…

What enables one student to persist in the face of adversity while another chooses to quit? To answer this question, I captured the lived experiences of 3 female and 3 male postsecondary students who self-identified as either gay, lesbian, or bisexual, all of whom were successfully completing their undergraduate degrees. Utilizing a life history…

The purpose of this study was to investigate coming out to family and friends and their relationships to shame, internalized heterosexism, lesbian identity, and perceived social support in Chinese lesbians from 2 different cultural settings--Mainland China (N = 244) and Hong Kong (N = 234). Results of structural equation modeling showed that, in…

This paper outlines research that was conducted among students, parents, teachers and senior management teams in six secondary schools in the Greater Dublin area of Ireland. The research involved semi-structured interviews and observations. The findings of this research are significant in that it was the first time any data had been gathered on…

Recent debates regarding same-sex marriage and gay and lesbian adoption highlight the role of schools as sociopolitical institutions. Accordingly, teachers operating within social norms have considerable influence through their interactions with students and their families. Previous research points to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)…

In this paper we examine eight lesbian mothers' experiences and perceptions of their young children's early childhood education. These mothers identified the in/visibility of their lesbian identities and families and the narrow definition of family in early childhood settings as significant issues in their experiences as childcare users. This…