Homophobic Speech Research Articles

Crossing the Line: Homophobic Speech and Public School Teachers

The chapter examines the legal position of a teacher who publicly disseminates homophobic ideas, specifically identifying himself as a public school teacher. The issue arose in the 2004 British Columbia case of Kempling. The individual there was a guidance counselor as well as a teacher. The authors argue that in such a case the equality and educational rights of students outweigh the speech rights of the teacher and therefore such a teacher is appropriately subject to professional discipline. The students passively implicated in such contexts are both highly impressionable and have no practical alternative to being in the school environment. Gay and lesbian students in particular will feel marginalized by such teacher expression, even when made outside the school context. Teachers on the other hand have alternatives both in terms of where they work and speak and also how they identify when they speak.

Pedagogies of censorship, injury, and masochism: teacher responses to homophobic speech in physical education

I examine how physical education teachers respond to homophobic name‐calling, as revealed in life history interviews with ‘lesbian’, ‘gay’, and ‘heterosexual’ teachers in Canada and the USA. Censoring homophobic name‐calling in schools is discussed as an important, but insufficient, response. Several ‘lesbian’ and ‘gay’ teachers responded with pedagogies of injury; that is, they recalled their personal experiences of homophobic language to teach students not to use words such as ‘fag’, ‘dyke’, and ‘queer’. I examine why some teachers were prepared to risk further personal injury in order to prevent injury to other students. In addition to rational and conscious explanations, I speculate that an unconscious masochistic imperative may also animate this approach to anti‐homophobic education. Ultimately, I ask what is demanded from teachers if this type of anti‐homophobic teaching is animated by what has been called an attachment to subjection.