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…

Few educators or philosophers of education would argue that schools' sole purpose is to keep children safe. Yet a particular subset of students in the United States--lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students--are often served by their schools as if their mere safety were a sufficient objective in and of itself.…

This study explores the experiences of homosexual teenagers who are members of the Israeli lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth organization called Israel Gay Youth. Through an interview-based study with members and counselors, this study reveals how although various therapeutic practices take place during the weekly meetings, all…

International higher education research focused on students who claim same-sex identifications in university residential spaces has tended to prioritise the "gay as victim" discourse, often leading to the pathologising of same-sex identification. While there is emerging research seeking to challenge this dimension of scholarship by…

Over the past several decades, the shifting social climate has led to a steady increase in legal rights, social acceptance, and visibility for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. However, there are still marked individual differences in levels of sexual prejudice as well as varying levels of comfort and exposure to the LGBT…

There has been only cursory research into the sociological and psychological aspects of ethnic/racial discrimination among ethnic minority gay and bisexual men, and none that focuses specifically upon British ethnic minority gay men. This article focuses on perceptions of intergroup relations on the gay scene among young British South Asian gay…

Graffiti on the female students' lavatory doors of a higher education institution in Malta, most often describing sexual and romantic desires, demonstrates how students create alternative spaces beyond formal learning environments to acquire knowledge about sex and sexual orientation. This article presents a study of the writings that document the…

Differences in sexual functioning of adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are understudied. In the current study, self-reported sexual behaviours, interests and attitudes of 50 adolescent boys, aged 15-18, with at least average intelligence and diagnosed with ASD, were compared with a matched general population control group…

In this phenomenological study, the authors investigated the experiences of African American counselors-in-training, with roots in the Black church, as they navigated their faith and professional responsibilities to provide affirming services to lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. Findings suggest attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual…

Young people may face conflicting and confusing messages about what it means to respond well in relation to homophobia and transphobia. Consequently, we ask--What might it mean to respond well to homophobia and transphobia? This strategy, inspired by Anika Thiem and Judith Butler, is recognition of the ambivalent conditions which structure…

Essays within this forum grapple with the multilevel ways that anti-LGBT bullying manifests within educational spaces. The essays for this forum provide a clear articulation of the wicked problem of LGBT bullying while also offering clear pedagogical advice for how instructors can change themselves, their institutions, and society to be more…

In this paper, we consider the limited chapter book options with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) characters available for upper elementary readers. While these texts all include one or more LGBT character(s), the overall representations of LGBT people and issues highlight particular normative identities and silence others. We are…

Tensions and contradictions in my personal practice and in the extant research prompted this study of preservice teachers' responses to trans-themed young adult literature. I adopted a self-study methodology to identify and address the shortcomings in my practice of including trans-themed literature in a Literature for Adolescents course. Through…

As research on transgender and gender nonconforming children and youth becomes increasingly prevalent in literary scholarship, educational possibilities arise for teachers of children's and young adult (YA) literature in various classroom settings. This article provides a brief history of literature for children and teens containing queer and…

At present, Australian sex(uality) education curricula aim to equip students with information which facilitates "healthy" sexual choices as they develop. However, this is not neutral information, but rather socially and culturally regulated discourse which encodes a normative binary of sexuality. The largely US-focused sexuality…