Queer religious youth in faith and community schools

Abstract

Queer youth are positioned as 'at risk', and queer youth in religious settings and communities are seen as especially vulnerable due to the anti-LGBT sentiment assumed to inhere there. Governmental funding has recently been directed towards challenging homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in English faith schools specifically, as the political discourse of 'British values' comes increasingly to include an ostensible commitment to LGBT rights. It is in this context that we present qualitative research with queer religious youth who attended both faith and community schools in England. The lived experience of queer religious youth in faith schools is much more multi-faceted than is commonly represented-this was also the case for pupils in (non-faith) community schools. Rather than locating the problem within religion, attention needs to be paid to the heteronormativity and gender binarism that structures the entire educational experience. Furthermore, in engaging with the experiences of queer youth who are also religious, we explore the ways in which religion can be mobilised as a form of support, and more broadly argue against the tendency to see queer youth exclusively in terms of their queerness.

Educators’ hands are tied: The impact of heteronormative and cisnormative discourses on students in faith-based schools in Australia

“…Second, indirect and implicit heteronormative and cisnormative discourse can also undermine the ability of LGBTQ+ staff to support and affirm LGBTQ+ students. Taylor and Cuthbert (2019, p. 382) similarly identify that the problem in English faith and community schools can be located in ‘heteronormativity and gender binarism that structures the entire educational experience’. Our data involves interviews with educators, so it does not provide a reliable indicator of the extent of homophobia and transphobia experienced by students.…”

Queer liveability: Inclusive church-scenes

“…it meets my needs in terms of sort of prayer and worship, so I'd much rather feel that, be part of that community'. Previously, we have discussed how queer religious youth often spoke positively about their experiences of faith schools (Taylor and Cuthbert, 2018), even when conservative views were expressed regarding non-heterosexualities. We argued that 'religious' is just as much a part of their identity as 'queer', and indeed, for some participants, was more important.…”

Sexuality education and religion: From dialogue to conversation

“…In this sense, the work of teachers is positioned either in tandem with, or in opposition to, the (religious/secular) desires of parents. This research context notwithstanding, several voices have offered perspectives that seek to trouble an oppositional framing of religion and sexuality in education, seeing constructive, nuanced and collaborative engagements within and across religious and secular communities as being both desirable and possible (De Palma & Jennett 2010;Newman et al, 2018;Taylor & Cuthbert, 2019). Some have pointed to the precedence for this kind of work given the ample opportunities some children have had in exploring LGBTQ+ issues in school (Barozzi & Ojeda, 2014;Hackman, 2002).…”

“…Some have pointed to the precedence for this kind of work given the ample opportunities some children have had in exploring LGBTQ+ issues in school (Barozzi & Ojeda, 2014; Hackman, 2002). Others, like Falconer and Taylor (2017) and Taylor and Cuthbert (2019), have attended to the positive role religion has played in supporting LGBTQ+ youth in school contexts, a point also made by Carlile (2020) in her focus on how teachers broaching issues of sexual and gender diversity in school sometimes draw from their own faith traditions, as well as from the religious traditions of their school communities, to empower them in their work. This appeal to theology and religion as a basis for engaging in educational work that is affirming of sexual and gender diversity has echoes in the scholarship of Kamrudin (2018), Nadar and van Klinken (2018), Seedat (2018) and Yip (2018), all of whom have reflected on the possibilities of integrating LGBTQ+ religious perspectives and traditions in the context of higher and adult/community‐based religious education settings.…”