“I’ve Always Wanted a Gay Family Member!”: Straight Ally Girls and Gender Inequality in a High School Gay-Straight Alliance

Abstract

Research on high school Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) focuses on these clubs as safe spaces for students of all sexual and gender orientations to gather, arguing that GSAs are usually associated with less hostile school climates. Less studied are the interactions among students in GSAs and the ways gender and sexuality intersect in this context. This ethnographic study bridges this gap, examining inequality along lines of gender and sexual identity. Findings show that straight girls are given a voice in the GSA, applauded for their support, and immune from critique of their ally work, however, some lesbian, bisexual, and queer-identifying (LBQ) girls are disenchanted with straight girls’ participation. Some LBQ girls remain silent critics of their high school’s GSA, or abandon it completely. This research suggests that within GSAs, the unconditional inclusion of straight allies may be reproducing the very inequalities such groups exist to dismantle.