Identifying Tensions: On Emancipation for LGBTQ+ Students in Publicly Funded, Private Religious Schools

• In Event: Private Intervention in Constitutional and Federal Law

Abstract

This literature review illuminates the tensions that arise between the public funding of private religious schools and discrimination against LGBTQ+ students in such institutions. Thirteen articles were identified and analyzed using Queer Legal Theory. The researcher primarily discovered literature on higher education, with implications extending to K-12 schools. The author asserts that a religiously conservative hegemony actively seeks to demean the personhood of LGBTQ+ students in many private religious schools—and thus inflicts actual harm. Moreover, in these schools, LGBTQ+ student identities are often pitted against religious identities—preventing a healthy integration of lived experiences. With an eye toward emancipation, the author calls for greater legal protections for LGBTQ+ students in publicly funded, private religious schools.

Author

• Jonathon E. Sawyer, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author