Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and questioning students are commonly thought of as vulnerable to bullying and harassment in US schools, although there is hope that school climates are improving for LGBTQQ youth with the implementation of anti-bullying legislation and policies in almost every state. Although these policies address most overt…

Sexual and gender minorities have long quibbled over whether the "LGBT" moniker (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) is inclusive enough. While we celebrate the proliferation of sexual and gender identities, we also believe that this ever-expanding moniker has become an alibi for disavowing institutional violence--particularly in higher…

This paper examines the work of a gay-straight alliance and the ways in which members use elements of queer theory to understand their own and others' identities, both to make sense of their experiences and to support their activist efforts. The analysis identifies queer perspectives on gender and sexual identity as useful tools for supporting…

Teachers want to do their best for every child, but worry about causing offence and often shy away from troublesome issues. The classroom situations and strategies presented here will help teachers negotiate their way through complex situations and bring about constructive change. This book clarifies concepts and value differences and the subtle…

This paper revisits the missing discourse of female desire [Fine, M. 1988. Sexuality, schooling and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. "Harvard Educational Review" 58, no. 1: 29-53] in secondary schools. Instead of echoing previous studies that have documented how female desire is missing, this research starts from the…

Classrooms reflect and contribute to normative sex, gender and sexuality categories in school culture, rules and rituals. Texts, materials, curriculum and the discourse we employ as educators perpetuate the pervasiveness of these categories. This paper explores some of the less visible ways in which sex and gender categories are constructed in US…

To gain an understanding of how abstinence-only-until-marriage school-based sexuality education has been exclusionary, it is important to explore how heteronormativity has been endorsed, played out, and reproduced ever since school-based sexuality education has been offered in the United States. Such an exploration reveals glaring evidence that…

Teachers want to do their best for every child, but worry about causing offence and often shy away from troublesome issues. The classroom situations and strategies presented here will help teachers negotiate their way through complex situations and bring about constructive change. This book clarifies concepts and value differences and the subtle…

In this study, heterosexual students' willingness to remain friends with peers who disclose that they are gay or lesbian and their willingness to attend schools that include gay and lesbian students were examined among two large middle school and high school samples (Sample 1: n = 20,509; 50.7% girls; Sample 2: n = 16,917; 50.2% girls). Boys were…

This retrospective study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore young lesbian and gay (LG) people's experiences of school in relation to their sexuality and their perceptions of how schools could be inclusive for young LG people. Participants were in the age range of 16 to 21 and provided insights into coping strategies,…

Several scholars have lauded gender crossing as one pathway for tearing down hierarchies of gender and sexuality. Central but often under-examined in their discussions is understanding the skill and persistence of childhood gender nonconformists. In examining some of these skills, this article investigates their relationship to specific social…

This essay has two main goals. First, to develop an affirmative critique, in the sense of questioning the dangers and risks of concepts that are not discussed or clarified in research due to a normative imposition when "LGBTQ youth" is taken for granted in psychosocial research. Second, to propose an action-research project that includes…

Sex and pleasure are fundamental aspects of students' lives and school cultures. They are also integral to students' sense of well-being and can determine their propensity to engage or disengage with the desire to love, learn and transform themselves. Taking the fundamental role of pleasure as its starting point, this paper discusses the idea of…

In this article, I draw on poststructuralist work on "citationality" to elucidate an urban high school's student culture and intervention efforts with regard to LGBQ issues. I contend that the language, ideas and practices of LGBQ issues and awareness among students and staff "cite" or draw on broader (and often competing) discourses of normalcy,…