Gender Rows: How Transphobia Is Enacted and Resisted in Catholic Schools of Canada and Australia

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: International Relations Committee Roundtable

Abstract

Determining the depth of discrimination against gender and sexual minority groups in Catholic schools of selected western nations is best undertaken from an international-comparative perspective. The Canadian and Australian researchers compare the cases of Alberta’s “washroom wars,” and a “gender row” over uniform changes in a Catholic girls’ high school in Sydney. Drawing on law, educational policies, and media accounts, we examine how transphobia is enacted and resisted in these contexts. Using critical discourse analysis, we explore the (re)production of discourses about gender and sexuality in relation to Catholic schooling and how policies and practices concerning Canadian and Australian Catholic schools can contradict anti-discrimination laws. We highlight lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) marginalization within Catholic schools.

Authors

• Tonya D. Callaghan, University of Calgary

• Alix Esterhuizen, University of Calgary

• Leanne Higham, La Trobe University

• Michelle Jeffries, Queensland University of Technology