Expressions of Marriage Equality Within a Conservative Public School Community: An Instrumental Case Study

• In Event: 47.049 - It's Complicated: Examining LGBT Teacher Identities

Abstract

LGBT, K-12 public-school teachers are a group steeped in a history of employment discrimination, yet now have a vested reason to “out themselves” to their employers. With marriage equality comes Human Resources’ employment benefits for married employees. But a lack of employment protections in states prevalent in the Appalachian region makes access to benefits culturally complicated.

Using an instrumental case study design and a theoretical framework that includes social constructivism and spiral of silence theory, we share our preliminary findings of marriage expressions of LGBT K-12 teachers in Appalachian public schools and influences these teachers feel resulting from behaviors from others in their school community. We discuss implications these findings hold for public-schools, higher education, and public policy.

Authors

• Zachary William Stumbo, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• Lauren Moret, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville