III. Despite our Differences: Coming Out in Conservative Classrooms

Abstract

In 1998, I taught my first undergraduate course as a master's student in sociology at a large, public American university in Alabama. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) faculty, staff and students were largely closeted, in some cases to the extent that others would not socialize with my partner and me for fear of being labelled by association. At the time of writing, Alabama still offers no legal protections to LGBT people. The university did not add LGB people to its antidiscrimination statement until 2007. And, less than a year before I taught the course, a gay man was bludgeoned to death and set on fire in a town about an hour's drive away. There were endless reasons not to come out in the classroom. But, I did.The introductory social science course that I taught -combining sociology, anthropology and geography -offered me some choice of topics to cover. Because of the prevalence of fundamentalist Christianity among our students, many faculty members avoided teaching any topic that could generate faith-based resistance, such as evolution or sexual orientation -both topics that I included on my syllabus.

Lesbian and Queer Women Professors Disclosing in the Classroom

“…More often, theorists have drawn attention to the geographical or historical location of the classroom. For example, K. Liddle (2009) The theme of senior class safety was particularly absent in the preexisting research. When discussing issues regarding sexual orientation in her graduate-level counseling courses, B. J.…”

“…More often, theorists have drawn attention to the geographical or historical location of the classroom. For example, K. Liddle (2009) referred to the homophobia she experienced in the Deep South of the United States, and Johnson (2009) discussed the strain on gay rights in the year 2000 with the U.S. right-wing backlash.…”

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

“…Coming out studies also concentrated on faculty, particularly in the context of the teacher‐student relationship. These studies explored teachers' and university lecturers' decisions and experiences of coming out as LGBTQ+ to their students (e.g., Bliss & Harris, 1998; Dejean, 2007; Ford, 2017; Gray, 2013; Johnson, 2008; Liddle, 2009; Llewellyn & Reynolds, 2021; Neary, 2013; Takatori & Ofuji, 2007), students' reactions and experiences with their educators' coming out (e.g., Clarke, 2016; Hosek & Presley, 2018; Macgillivray, 2008), and whether LGBTQ+ faculty should come out to students at all (e.g., Govender, 2017; Gregory, 2004; Mckenna‐Buchanan et al., 2015; Waldo & Kemp, 1997). According to Khayatt and Iskander (2020), ‘sexuality and the erotic are [still] conceptualized by teachers as hazards in the classroom: gayness threatens to undermine the teachers' authority, to elicit controversy, and risks attracting stares, slurs, or distain’ (p. 9).…”

Japanese Sociology in a Global Network. Internationalization, Disciplinary Development, and Minority Integration in the Road Ahead

“…Sociologists have a unique advantage, for our work deals explicitly with social inequality and gender and sexuality, which offer convenient opportunities to integrate LGBTQ issues into pedagogy. Kathy Liddle (2009) and Karen Harbeck (2014) show how they do so by working the subject of LGBTQ treatment and rights into conversation as well as course material, drawing on empirical data and theoretical perspectives on discrimination, inequality, and sexuality. This strategy creates an “atmosphere of respect where we [can] honestly talk about issues that [are] still controversial … including sexual orientation; increase students' knowledge of empirical research on issues related to sexual orientation” (Liddle, 2009: 191).…”