Visibly Black, Invisibly Gay? Negotiations of Multiple Stigmas in Black LGBTQ+ Youth High School Narratives

• In Event: 40409 - The Rules Are Meant to Be Broken: Discipline, Punishment, and Resistance in Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

Extant research has demonstrated the importance of engagement in school for student well-being and academic success. Moreover, literature focusing on students of color, students with diverse gender identities, and students with minoritized sexualities suggest myriad ways school officials engage in discrimination. Less studied are how discriminatory interactions among students and other school agents shape student understandings of school belonging and identity. Drawing from 17 in-depth interviews, I use cases of Black LGBTQ+ youth’s high school experiences to articulate how perceptions of discrimination preclude students from school engagement and feelings of belonging. Findings reveal that students who perceive racial differential treatment consistently disengage from the learning environment as a response. Moreover, these students negotiate stigma according to the salience of their multiple marginalized statuses such that they avoid revealing their sexualities for fear of compounding racist experiences. I conclude with these youth's suggestions for making high school a more inclusive space for racially and sexually minoritized students. Findings from this study build on education, race, and gender literature to position Black LGBTQ+ youth as agentic in their navigations of stigma.

Author

• Dalia Mota, University of Notre Dame