Closets and institutions: Queer teacher exclusion in the Israeli high school system

Abstract

Drawing on an analysis of 12 in-person qualitative interviews with queer, male, Israeli high school teachers, and Israeli queer social and political news stories, this study explores the intersection of queer teachers’ professional and personal sexual identities. The study contends that this intersection is one characterized by exclusion, particularly attributable to institutional homophobia and queer politics situated within the Israeli national regional ground. Utilizing queer and educational discourses regarding teacher identity and institutional homophobia, this article documents and reports on queer teachers’ resistance in the educational system and the navigation of the coming-out process in socio-politically complex Israel.

An overview of coming out research: Introducing a three‐lens typology

“…Thus, many researchers adopted an intersectionality perspective to explore how the intersections of sexuality, gender, and other social categories of difference produce different coming out experiences, while considering various axes of oppression and privilege. The most dominant categories of difference considered in coming out studies in intersection with sexuality and gender (LGBTQ+) are: race and ethnicity (e.g., Adams‐Santos, 2020; Boe et al., 2018; Bowleg et al., 2008; Chazin & Klugman, 2014; Cisneros & Bracho, 2019; Fisher, 2003; Ford, 2017; Garvey et al., 2019; Gattamorta & Quidley‐Rodriguez, 2018; Keene et al., 2021; Leung, 2021; Logie et al., 2015; Mezey, 2008; Radis & Nadan, 2021; Thomsen, 2021; Uppal & Kelly, 2020; Wang, 2021), class (e.g., Barglowski et al., 2018; Lewis, 2012; Mezey, 2008), age (e.g., Lewis, 2012; Wilson et al., 2018), disabilities (e.g., Chazin & Klugman, 2014; Pieri, 2021), religion (e.g., Chazin & Klugman, 2014; Gold & Stewart, 2011; Shurts et al., 2020), professional identities (e.g., El Amoor, 2019; Ford, 2017), national identities (e.g., Bie & Tang, 2016), and polyamory (e.g., Gusmano, 2018).…”