Strategies Enacted at One U.S. High School to (De)construct the Homonormative Subject

• In Event: Creating Spaces for the Politics of Resistance

Abstract

This paper, based on a 9-month qualitative study at one U.S. high school, focuses on the strategies of policing, resistance, and queering as they relate to homonormativity and bullying in schools. The author conducted the study at a Midwestern high school that is supportive and inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. The author found that the school used strategies of policing, resistance, and queering to combat issues of bullying, which created an inclusive, safe space for LGBTQ students. However, the school only occasionally challenged homonormativity. The author suggests that unless schools challenge homonormativity then larger socio-political inequities will remain rampant in schools and the larger society.

Author

• Nathan Taylor, Robert Morris University