Beyond Inclusion: Queering and Trans*Forming Higher Education for the Public Good

• In Event: 65.035 - Higher Education and the Role of Co-Option

Abstract

Problem
The increasing visibility and acknowledgement of lesbian, bisexual, gay, trans* & queer (LGBTQ) students & educators, as well as the expansion of LGBTQ-themed/centered scholarship and activism in higher education, has propelled LGBTQ inclusion work on college campuses in the U.S. The individual rights framework behind LGBTQ inclusion is a flawed one that promotes assimilation into a White heteronormative and cisnormative structure, that distracts and disempowers the collectivist and liberatory potentials of a critical and intersectional queer and trans* politic, and is easily co-opted by institutions to frame themselves as diverse entitites. This paper sets forth the limitations of an individual rights framework and calls for its replacement with a trans*formative analysis that troubles inclusion and sets the stage for collaborative and sustainable movement-building in higher education.

Framework
This theoretical paper utilizes queer theory, transfeminist perspectives, and critical trans politics (Enke, 2012; Koyama, 2001; Renn, 2010; Spade, 2011) to critique current approaches of LGBTQ inclusion work in higher education. These frames collectively call for questioning of the normalized structures and assumptions of our institutions, center the perspectives and voices of those most marginalized (i.e. trans* people, trans*women of color, queer people of color, working class queer people, and so on), and position progress with anti-neoliberal and liberationist aims. This paper also applies CRT’s theory of Interest Convergence (Bell, 1980) in discussing the co-option of successes due in part to queer campus activism by higher education institutions’ administration, human resources departments, and admissions offices to deradicalize, de-race, and sanitize queer progress, positioning it as LG(BTQ) inclusion.

Significance
The recent ruling of the Supreme Court to allow certain businesses, such as Hobby Lobby, to exempt themselves from providing government-mandated health care to all employees on religious grounds, has contributed to two Religiously Affiliated Institutions (RAIs) similarly being allowed exemptions from Title IX obligations on religious grounds - the cases in question both involving the exclusion or expulsion of a trans* student of color from part or all functions of the institutions (Jaschik, 2014). Despite the growing attention to trans* and queer students in higher education, higher education institutions continue to be exclusive domains that include only those that fit into its restrictive structures. This paper will demonstrate the importance of a critical and trans*formative analysis in advancing the matriculation, retention, and success of all LGBTQ students, particularly queer and trans* students of color.

Author

• T.J. Jourian, Loyola University Chicago