Queer and Trans Activism, Resistance, Remedy, and Repair in Tough Times: “We’re Still Fucking Here”

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Movements for equity and justice in K-12 schools have been winning: curricula have changed, policies updated, and supports have emerged to correct historical exclusions and remedy wrongs done to many equity-deserving groups in education. For queer and trans people, the recent past was a time of building and rooting down in schools that have not wanted us there. This symposium comes when our communities are paying a price for success in creating schools where every student can be who they are and thrive. The calls for our erasure are back and being instantiated in laws and policies. This symposium presents four papers that explore forms of advocacy, activism, resistance and repair for queer and trans people in education.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Queer Studies

Chair

• Lance Trevor McCready, University of Toronto - OISE

Papers

• Whose Parents’ Rights?: A Case Study of One District’s Response to an Unsuccessful ‘Parent’s Rights’ Legal Challenge - Mollie McQuillan, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Benjamin Lebovitz, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Engines of Activism: GSA Advisors Sparking Activism, Remedy, and Repair - Liz Meyer, University of Colorado - Boulder; Erin R. Kurtz, University of Colorado - Boulder; Rebecca G. Kaplan, Boulder Valley School District

• Agitating Community and Seeking Clues for Coalition through Trans Radical Love - Page Valentine Regan, Colorado College

• “No (my parents can’t know I’m trans)…for now”: Unpacking an Experimental Strategy for Gender Justice in Canadian schools - Lee Airton, Queen's University - Kingston; Mik Turje, Treeline Counselling

Discussant

• Melinda M. Mangin, Rutgers University