Heteronormative higher education: Challenging this status quo through LGBTIQ awareness-raising

Abstract

This article focus on the challenges homophobia and transphobia pose to LGBTIQ students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), a historically black peri-urban university located on the margins of Cape Town. Both the geographical location as well as the internal environment of the university give rise to various challenges for LGBTIQ identifying, and particularly gender nonconforming, students around their sexual freedom and self-affirmation. In transcending the vacuum between the challenges faced by these students and the existing human rights discourse on non-normative sexual orientations and gender identities, the Gender Equity Unit, through its student-driven LGBTIQ programme LoudEnuf, its support staff and in collaboration with the student structure GaylaUWC has been educating and sensitising the campus community through its intersectional awareness-raising initiatives. This article focuses on the effectiveness of awareness-raising in creating a welcoming, comfortable, liberating and safe campus for LGBTIQ students to access comprehensive quality education.

A social constructionist approach to resilience for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and/or questioning academics and students in South African universities

“…South African research yielded significant insights into the life-worlds of sexual minority learners in primary and secondary schools relating to experiences of homophobia (Butler et al 2003;Francis 2017aFrancis , 2017bFrancis & Reygan 2016;Kowen & Davis 2006;McArthur 2015;Msibi 2012;Reygan & Francis 2015) and the teaching and learning of themes on gender and sexual diversity (Francis 2017a(Francis , 2017bRichardson 2004Richardson , 2008. Similar studies in higher education contexts have centred on the perceptions of and/or attitudes to homosexual students (De Wet, Rothmann & Simmonds 2016;Johnson 2014;Msibi 2015;Rothmann & Simmonds 2015); prejudice directed at these students on university campuses (Jagessar & Msibi 2015;Matthyse 2017); and the influence of subtle heterosexism or sources of resilience associated with gay male academics and students (Rothmann 2016(Rothmann , 2017. Jagessar and Msibi's (2015) work provides an insider's perspective of LGB 3 students' experiences of homophobia in university residences in KwaZulu-Natal.…”

“…Matthyse (2017) contends that, regardless of the inclusion of sexual orientation as one focal point in the 1997 White Paper on Higher Education, around which safer campus contexts needed to be created, the current White Paper for Post-school Education and Training (2014) has remained '…silent about the homophobia and transphobia which plagues South Africa and its institutions of higher learning' which recalls Balfour's (2016) and Msibi's (2013) argument that the transformational foci in higher education mainly emphasise the importance of race and sex, to the exclusion of or conflation with sexual orientation as it relates to calls for 'equality' (Matthyse 2017;Tucker 2010).…”

“…Aligned with this argument, recent studies on the process underline the necessity to consider the heterogeneity in people's experiences in terms of their resilience, particularly with regard to intersectionality across different cultures (Grace 2015;Matthyse 2017;Ungar 2004aUngar , 2004bUngar , 2011. Grace (2015:27), ascribing to this view, defines resilience as '…a multidimensional, non-linear, and fluid construct, [a] process…about capacity building, successful adaptation, and sustained competence in the face of stressors and risk taking; it involves building assets and mobilizing strategies to enhance signs of thriving' in individuals' everyday lives.…”

“…Much of the focus on homosexuality in a South African context emphasises the dualism between Constitutional protection of supposed sexual minorities and the actual experiences of acceptance (at best) and homophobia (at worst) in civil society (Bhana 2012;De Vos 2015;Wells & Polders 2006). This disjuncture is mainly associated with the supposed 'un-African' label assigned to the secular import of the medicalised category of homosexuality (Francis & Brown 2017), the prevailing centrality of patriarchy and heteronormativity in South Africa (Matthyse 2017) and the denial associated with the presence of gender and sexually diverse individuals in institutions (such as schools and universities) (Francis 2017a(Francis , 2017b. Heteronormativity as such may influence access to resources and interactions by sexual minorities (Kitzinger 2005), an arrangement favouring the construction and reinforcement of a heterosexual and/or homosexual binary logic, whereby '…institutionalised normative heterosexuality regulates those kept within its boundaries as well as marginalising and sanctioning those outside them' (Jackson 2006:105).…”

Lesbian gay bisexual transgender and intersex (LGBTI) students are scrambling for access to healthcare services in the campus healthcare system: Perceptions of key informants

“…Historically, LGBTI individuals in South Africa, experienced discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity and generally were excluded from social life (Arndt and De Bruin 2006;Matthyse 2017). Consequently, research conducted at universities to normalise sexual orientation and gender identity would have been extremely difficult because homosexuality was a criminal offence under the apartheid regime.…”