Moving Beyond a Discourse of Safety and Support: LGBTQ Youth as Activists

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: LGBTQ Youth Making and Remaking Their Worlds

Abstract

Previous research examining the experiences of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer) youth in schools suggests that schools are not inclusive places for non-heterosexual and gender queer student’s. This paper examines the activist work of a group of students who planned initiatives to challenge the power relations and heteronorms of their school. These initiatives impacted the environment of the school and made LGBTQ students more visible. This visibility, however, also created tensions as students grappled with their identities and the public space of school. The study employed a critical ethnographic approach in a co-educational, public high school in Auckland, New Zealand.

Author

• Hayley Jane McGlashan, The University of Auckland