Walking the Talk: LGBTQ Allies in Australian Secondary Schools.

Mark Vicars,Samara Van Toledo

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2021.611001

Abstract

Sexual culture(s) are an active presence in the shaping of school relations, and LGBTQ issues have long been recognized as a dangerous form of knowledge in school settings. Queer issues in educational domains quickly attract surveillance and have historically often been aggressively prosecuted and silence enforced. This paper examines the intersections of straight allies in promoting an LGBTQ visibility and agency in Australian secondary schools. Drawing on interviews with “straight”-identified secondary students, a narrative methodology was utilized to explore the presence of student allies for making safe schools. Drawing on straight secondary students' responses to LGBTQ issues in their schools, firsthand accounts of intervening in heteronorming school cultures focus on experiences of being an ally to address LGBTQ inclusivity in Australian secondary schools.

Highlights

The problematic nature of social and academic participation in school communities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) youth often involves how stigmatizing relational dynamics become the dominant narrative during the compulsory years of schooling Callingham, 2018
Dyer (1992, p. 161) notes how, “It is within culture that homosexual identities are formed,” and as sexual diversity is increasingly made visible in mainstream popular culture, the presence of LGBTQ identity, it could be argued, is increasingly queering the quotidian
Tillmann-Healy (2001) research into gay and straight friendships and Gorman-Murray’s (2013) study on gay–straight friendships demonstrate the power of proximity and situatedness for enacting attitudinal change and advocating for LGBTQ issues, it would, we suggest, have an effect on how allies position themselves within their existing social networks (Smith, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

The problematic nature of social and academic participation in school communities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) youth often involves how stigmatizing relational dynamics become the dominant narrative during the compulsory years of schooling Callingham, 2018. 161) notes how, “It is within culture that homosexual identities are formed,” and as sexual diversity is increasingly made visible in mainstream popular culture, the presence of LGBTQ identity, it could be argued, is increasingly queering the quotidian. Sexual diversity is introduced with the initially pansexual/gay character of David Rose, who as he goes about his everyday business, represents the normalization of homosexuality in a community that articulates new discursive configurations of embodying a pro-gay straight identity. This re-textualization, we suggest, queers the disciplining spaces of everyday life, but could be read an illustration of “acts of activism. This re-textualization, we suggest, queers the disciplining spaces of everyday life, but could be read an illustration of “acts of activism. . . within ‘everyday’ places” (Hickey-Moody and Haworth, 2009, p. 80)

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion