Poetry and Social Justice in a Safe Place: LGBTQIA+ Latin(x) Youth and the Gay-Straight Alliance

• In Event: Language, Literacy, and Identity: Examining Pedagogical Spaces of Social and Linguistic Justice for Diverse Learners

Abstract

Schools can be oppressive places for LGBTQIA+ students, presenting challenges which are compounded by intersectionality, the interconnectedness or overlapping of social categorizations such as race, socioeconomic classification, and cultural identities, as well as gender and sexual preference. This intersectionality results in multiple layers of discrimination and disadvantage. This paper examines the literacy practices of Latin(x) female students attending a middle school Gay-Straight Alliance in which poetry is used as a form of expression and identity construction.

In addition to upholding systemic racism, research has shown that schools are overwhelmingly heteronormative and often transphobic, with an uneven response to the needs of trans youth, or youth who identify as transgender, gender creative, gender nonconforming, gender complex, or gender fluid (Hatchel, 2018; Johns, 2021; Miller, 2019). The 2021 report completed by the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) on the experiences of LGBTQIA+ students in U.S. schools reflects this observation, exposing the multiple ways these youth are misunderstood, underserved, harassed, and struggling in school.

LGBTQIA+ youth carry with them vulnerabilities that make them more susceptible to suicide ideation and higher levels of anxiety, depression, and truancy than their heterosexual cis-gendered peers (Kosciw et al., 2020; miller, 2015). Some of these students may have no way to process their experiences, since many of the LGBTQIA+ students reported being prohibited from discussing or writing about LGBTQIA+ topics; therefore, they were silenced, and denied their voice in the classroom. This silencing is compounded by the intersectionality of the cultural, socioeconomic, and racial identities within many students in the LGBTQIA+ community.

These statistics are disturbing, hence my practitioner or action-based research study examines the impact of providing LGBTQIA+ Latin(x) youth a safe after-school space, in the form of a GSA club, that affirms their identities, including how their racial identities intersect with their gender identities and sexual preferences. I also consider the role the GSA played in empowering the youth to gain the confidence to use their voices, “to be heard and seen” in their daily school life. More specifically, I explore along with the students inclusive reading and writing practices that afford students the ability to construct and represent their identities and reflect upon issues that are close to them.

Advocating for social justice in schools is critically important for all students. By providing a space where all students in the LGBTQIA+ community can connect with culturally and racial responsive literature, engage in humanizing pedagogies, develop their voice, and construct their identities, my hope is to create a curriculum that promotes social justice. I will share the perspectives and experiences of the students in this proposed presentation, which are valuable as a pathway to inform and change the educational institutions that are under-serving them.

Author

• Elizabeth Gennosa, Hofstra University