"If I Slip on a Pronoun": Understanding Sexual-Minority Teachers' Decisions Around Self-Disclosure

• In Event: Roundtable Session 42
  In Roundtable Session: LGBTQ Teachers, Faculty, and Professional Development

Abstract

Despite significant gains in equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA) individuals in the United States, schools remain institutions where these individuals are marginalized and/or silenced. Owing to heteronormative assumptions, LGBTQIA teachers, unlike their heterosexual cis-gendered colleagues, must decide if, when, and how to disclose sexual orientations and/or gender histories. This paper, based on interviews with 15 LGBTQIA teachers from diverse geographic regions, shares participants’ perceptions of regulatory discourses around sexuality and gender as they make decisions about “coming out.” Understanding more about these discourses will help teachers (current and future) navigate school settings and may help school personnel to develop policies and climates that are more inclusive of all teachers.

Author

• Laura Bower-Phipps, Southern Connecticut State University