LGBTQ Youth and Education

This second edition is essential reading for educators and other school community members who are navigating the increasingly complicated laws and legal rulings related to LGBTQ students, employees, and community members. It combines historical, contemporary, theoretical, and practical information to help educators address exclusionary practices in schools related to gender identity, sexuality, racism, sexism, and other forms of bias that shape student experiences. To enable educators to better understand their obligations to students in relation to policy, staff training, daily school climate, pedagogy, and curriculum, the author has extensively revised this popular text to include updated information on the impact of same-sex marriage legalization and increasing federal recognition of transgender student rights. And because the legal terrain regarding transgender youth has been especially volatile, Mayo provides strategies that educators can use to maintain ethical trans-inclusive teaching, even when local regulations appear to impede transgender inclusivity.

Book Features:

• An examination of the pedagogical, curricular, and policy changes that can improve school experiences for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning) and ally students.
• A new chapter on gender identity and transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive student experiences.
• Current policy and legal information, data, and justification for LGBTQ-equitable and inclusive teaching.

Cris Mayo is professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Studies in Education master’s degree in the Department of Education at the University of Vermont.

“Mayo’s interweaving of research and scholarship, summarized judicial decisions, and real-life experiences from students and staff within the LGBTQIA+ community make for a robust read. The book underscores the gravity of the situation at hand, emphasizing educators’ and administrators’ obligation to implement clear policies and programs in schools to create a positive and safe learning environment for all students, and to support and protect LGBTQIA+ students and staff in particular.”

—Teachers College Record

Praise for the First Edition of LGBTQ Youth and Education—

“Lively, engaging, crackles with wit, and carries readers through weighty matters with clarity.”

—Educational Theory

“An important scholarly contribution that elicits both cognitive and affective explorations with regards to issues of sexuality and gender in education.”

—Teachers College Record

“Now more than ever, K–12 educators need to read this book. In this updated edition, Mayo underscores that even as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning students face exclusionary and even life-threatening treatment inside and outside of schools, they also bring a wealth of resources from which educators and leaders can and must learn. In practical terms, the book will help educators at all levels understand why and how to provide support and advocacy for LGBTQ+ students and create educational environments in which diverse students can thrive.”
—Finn Enke, professor of gender and women's studies, history, LGBTQ studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“Cris Mayo’s LGBTQ Youth and Education: Policies and Practices is a generous book that invites teachers, administrators, and researchers to learn about and from the lives of queer and trans students. Mayo makes complex and sometimes controversial ideas about gender and sexuality accessible for those of us who want to know how to make schools more welcoming places for all students.”
—Jen Gilbert, professor, York University

Contents

Series Foreword James A. Banks ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1
Necessary Tensions 5
Layers of Responsibility and Professional Resources for Nondiscrimination 9
Students’ Rights to Expression, Privacy, and Association 13
Preparing Teachers and Leaders to Be Advocates 16

1.  Background to LGBTQ Movements for Equality With a Focus on K–12-Related Issues 19
Key Definitions, Often in Flux and Contested 22
Opening the Subject of Sexuality and Gender Through Theory, History, and Political Movements 24
Overlapping Histories of LGBTQ Movements 27
Schools and the Histories of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation 34

2.  Thinking Through Biases and Assumptions About LGBTQ People 37
Gender as Process 37
Sexuality, Normalcy, and Intersecting Differences 41
Transphobia in Schools 46
Queer Relationalities 49

3.  Specific School-Related Challenges Facing LGBTQ Students 52
Intersecting Harassments and Biases 53
LGBTQ Youth and the Challenges of Accessing Education 56
Resituating “Bullying” in Sexual Harassment 57
Another Form of “Not” Education: “You Can’t Say Gay” Policies 60
Recognizing Family Diversity: LGBTQ-Headed Households and School Exclusion 62
Living in Families Under Public Debate: Legal and Social Contexts 64

4.  Educatively Addressing LGBTQ Issues 66
Zero Tolerance and Exacerbating Distance 66
Sex and Non-Sex 71
Critical Queer Thinking and Queer Disciplines 73
Religious Tensions 77
Teaching and Learning for Ethical Relations 79

5.  Supporting Student Extracurricular and Creative Efforts to Educate Schools on LGBTQ Issues 83
Gay-Straight Alliances/Gender and Sexuality Alliances and Associations Across Difference 83
Gay-Straight Alliances and the Equal Access Act 86
Attempts to Restrict Gay-Straight Alliances 88
The Day of Silence: Resistance and Reconciliation (Hopefully) 90
LGBTQ Youth and Public Spaces 92

6.  Recognizing and Respecting Transgender Students 95
Learning About Gender 96
Anti-Transgender Rules From the School Board 100
Administrator Refusal of Family and Physician-Supported Affirmation 101
Watching Teachers Debate Transgender Issues 102
Transgender Students’ Resistance and Resourcefulness 104
Intersections and Transgender Theory 107

Conclusion: Unsettled Progress 111

References 113

Index 127

About the Author 137