Keeping Queer and Trans Identities (Un)Erased

• In Event: Teaching Democracy Now

Abstract

Since Donald J. Trump took office, his flurry of executive orders have been explicitly designed to dismiss and erase the existence of transgender people and has widened the degree to which queer and trans communities have been targeted—a strong disregard of democratic principles. In light of this context and the increase of legislation across the United States that attempts to dismantle the rights of queer and trans people, the presenter offers social studies teachers pedagogical and curricular interventions to keep them visible, even in those geographic areas where queer and trans visibility might be viewed as particularly difficult. The social studies teachers highlighted in this chapter contend that there are perspectives teachers can take, dispositions that teachers can embody, and specific classroom practices teachers can engage that center on curriculum, all of which will help queer and trans students in schools feel seen. And while enacting these perspectives, dispositions, and classroom practices, social studies teachers will simultaneously be protecting and preserving basic democratic principles like the freedom of expression, political tolerance, and basic equality for all.

Author

• J.B. Mayo, University of Minnesota