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Gay-Straight Alliances and Student Activism in Ontario Public Secular and Catholic High Schools
Abstract and Figures
This study provides an in-depth examination of the educative and activist function of GSAs in two public secular and two public Catholic Ontario secondary schools. Queer theory, as elaborated by Foucault (1978), Sedgwick (1990/2008), Butler (1990, 1993a/b/c), Warner (1991), and Britzman (1995), provides a foundation for critiquing the heteronormative underpinnings of schooling, and the trans-informed insights of Namaste (2000), Stryker (2006), Serano (2007/2016, 2013), Malatino (2015), and Connell (2009) offers a lens to scrutinize cisnormative infrastructure, pedagogy, and practice as they pertain to the role and educative function of GSAs in selected Ontario schools. To generate knowledge on the particularities of the four GSAs (Patton, 2002), a multi-sited case study approach was undertaken (Patton, 2002; Stake, 2005). Data were gathered by completing semi-structured interviews with 14 youth and five educators across the school sites, observing and participating in GSA meetings, collecting semi-structured diaries from 13 youth, and analyzing club-related visual materials - all of which were made sense of by employing queer and trans-informed theoretical perspectives. There was a concerted effort to speak with trans and gender diverse GSA members in order to (de)subjugate their embodied knowledges and understandings (Stryker, 2006), authorize their voices (Cook-Sather, 2002, 2006), and document their agency in schooling by way of their club-inspired education and activism (see Elliott, 2015, Schindel, 2005, 2008). Three prominent themes emerged within the data: 1: each GSA was a student-driven democratizing space that enabled youth to explore and circulate anti-hetero/cisnormative discourses (Fraser, 1990); 2) all GSAs served as a proxy in the absence of an ongoing systemic commitment to queer and trans-informed education; and 3) pastoral care and its regulatory moral authority within Catholic education impeded GSA development and functioning (Martino, 2014). The implications of the study are outlined in terms of the need for systemic support for anti-heteronormative and anti-cisnormative education so that the burden and responsibility for this education does not just fall on the shoulders of GSA members and gender and sexual minority youth in particular.
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... For example, the GSA Network (2022) in Oakland, California, states, "GSAs have evolved beyond their traditional role to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools and, have emerged as vehicles for deep social change related to racial, gender, and educational justice" (para 1). The evolution of club functioning to promote (1) anti-oppressive education (e.g., unpacking systemic vulnerabilities; exploring queer and trans content; and sharing stories of Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual [2SLGBTQIA+] resilience and excellence, etc.) and (2) advocacy (e.g., lobbying for gender neutral or all gender washrooms; participating in The National Day of Silence; planning and organizing events for International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia) is well documented in club-related literature (see Conway & Crawford-Fisher, 2007;Currie et al., 2012;Elliott, 2016;Griffin et al., 2004;Kitchen & Bellini, 2013;Lapointe, 2014Lapointe, , 2018Mayberry et al., 2011;Mayo, 2013Mayo, , 2015Mayo, , 2017Miceli, 2005;Russell et al., 2009;Schindel, 2005Schindel, , 2008Stonefish & Lafreniere, 2015;Wegwert, 2014). As such, GSAs have become a significant form of sexuality (and gender) education in North American schools due to their capacity to provide anti-heteronormative and anti-cisnormative pedagogy and programming (e.g., queer and transinformed discussions, activities, and events). ...
... For example, the "brand" name, Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), has been resisted and rejected in several publicly funded non-secular schools in what is colonially known as Canada (see Niblett & Oraa, 2014). As a result, the name, Gay-Straight Alliance, has been embraced by Ontario Catholic school students to resist religiosityexcessive religiousness (Callaghan, 2016) and combat institutionalized homophobia (Niblett & Oraa, 2014; see also Lapointe & Kassen, 2013;Lapointe, 2018). Conversely, the title, Gay-Straight Alliance, has been disavowed by some public secular students who embrace post-gay identity critiques, which problematize the limitations of "gay" to capture diversity within and beyond queer communities (Lapointe, 2016). ...
... Regardless of one's subjectivities or positionalities, what unites members is their desire to co/exist (in braver spaces), persist (despite adversity), and/or resist (taken-for-granted norms). By opening these clubs to cisgender and heterosexual (cishet) folks, GSAs' roles and functions have evolved to include anti-hetero/cisnormative education, awareness, and activist-based activities and goals to further 2SLGBTQIA+ human rights and promote queer and trans understandings within educational contexts (Lipkin, 1999;Griffin et al., 2004;Grace & Wells, 2015;Lapointe, 2014Lapointe, , 2015Lapointe, , 2018Liboro et al., 2015). ...
... For example, the GSA Network (2022) in Oakland, California, states, "GSAs have evolved beyond their traditional role to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools and, have emerged as vehicles for deep social change related to racial, gender, and educational justice" (para 1). The evolution of club functioning to promote (1) anti-oppressive education (e.g., unpacking systemic vulnerabilities; exploring queer and trans content; and sharing stories of Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual [2SLGBTQIA+] resilience and excellence, etc.) and (2) advocacy (e.g., lobbying for gender neutral or all gender washrooms; participating in The National Day of Silence; planning and organizing events for International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia) is well documented in club-related literature (see Conway & Crawford-Fisher, 2007;Currie et al., 2012;Elliott, 2016;Griffin et al., 2004;Kitchen & Bellini, 2013;Lapointe, 2014Lapointe, , 2018Mayberry et al., 2011;Mayo, 2013Mayo, , 2015Mayo, , 2017Miceli, 2005;Russell et al., 2009;Schindel, 2005Schindel, , 2008Stonefish & Lafreniere, 2015;Wegwert, 2014). As such, GSAs have become a significant form of sexuality (and gender) education in North American schools due to their capacity to provide anti-heteronormative and anti-cisnormative pedagogy and programming (e.g., queer and transinformed discussions, activities, and events). ...
... For example, the "brand" name, Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), has been resisted and rejected in several publicly funded non-secular schools in what is colonially known as Canada (see Niblett & Oraa, 2014). As a result, the name, Gay-Straight Alliance, has been embraced by Ontario Catholic school students to resist religiosityexcessive religiousness (Callaghan, 2016) and combat institutionalized homophobia (Niblett & Oraa, 2014; see also Lapointe & Kassen, 2013;Lapointe, 2018). Conversely, the title, Gay-Straight Alliance, has been disavowed by some public secular students who embrace post-gay identity critiques, which problematize the limitations of "gay" to capture diversity within and beyond queer communities (Lapointe, 2016). ...
... Regardless of one's subjectivities or positionalities, what unites members is their desire to co/exist (in braver spaces), persist (despite adversity), and/or resist (taken-for-granted norms). By opening these clubs to cisgender and heterosexual (cishet) folks, GSAs' roles and functions have evolved to include anti-hetero/cisnormative education, awareness, and activist-based activities and goals to further 2SLGBTQIA+ human rights and promote queer and trans understandings within educational contexts (Lipkin, 1999;Griffin et al., 2004;Grace & Wells, 2015;Lapointe, 2014Lapointe, , 2015Lapointe, , 2018Liboro et al., 2015). ...
... In terms of implementing structured GSA programming, it is important to consider the form of functioning of individual GSA clubs. For example, in what ways does the club primarily function: social, support, education, and/or advocacy (see Lapointe, 2018). If a group gravitates towards advocacy (e.g., lobbying for an all gender washroom), structured programming may not fit the needs and desires of group members. ...
This study examines conditions and supports that may enhance the delivery of structured programming with Genders and Sexualities Alliance/Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) members. Drawing on Meyers et al.'s (2012) Quality Implementation Framework, we explore circumstances and factors that may promote the successful implementation of a healthy relationships and positive mental health promotion program for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer/Questioning (LGBT2Q+) youth. Eight educators/school staff and two community youth group workers delivered the program in 2016-2017 and provided feedback on their experiences via a focus group. Thematic analysis was employed to document reoccurring information (i.e., patterns) and determine broad-based themes across participants' insights and experiences (Patton, 2002). The following strategies and supports may help GSA advisors and youth workers plan for the implementation of structured LGBT2Q+ programming: ensure sites are ready and have the means (e.g., resources, knowledgeable and competent staff, etc.) to implement; develop and provide ongoing supports for educators/youth workers (e.g., professional learning communities; regular check-ins, individualized feedback; co-facilitation support); and remain flexible and adjust implementation times and locations to meet the need and desires of youth.
... However, that such educative work falls on GSAs still indicates a problem and a deflection of responsibility away from the system in providing resources and a systemic pedagogic commitment to trans inclusion and gender-expansive education. Lapointe's (2018) research, for example, found that GSAs often served as "a proxy in the absence of an ongoing commitment to queer and trans-informed education" (p. i). ...
Background/Context
The experiences of trans students in all-gender bathrooms are largely underexplored, as is the trans-activism by students to procure these spaces. Additionally, the role of teachers in supporting the creation of these spaces is largely absent from research regarding bathroom spaces.
Purpose
This article elucidates the impact of student-inspired trans-activism that was mobilized through a gender studies educator in an urban school and her class project to foster trans inclusivity that resulted in the creation of two all-gender bathrooms.
Participants
Four participants were involved in this study: a gender studies teacher, and her three students who either contributed to the creation of the all-gender bathrooms or actively used them following their implementation.
Research Design
This qualitative paradigmatic case study took place at one high school (Capital High) and employs thematic and trans-informed theoretical analysis to semi-structured interviews to elucidate the potentialities and limitations of student-led trans-activism and the barriers to bathroom access.
Findings
Emergent from this research is the significance of supportive educators and trans-inclusive education that collectively contribute to the overall trans-inclusive climate. However, pervasive white cistems exposed white male gender entitlement and the forces of cisgenderism at play in the school system, which amounted to the colonization of the all-gender bathrooms at Capital High by the “Basement Boys.”
Conclusion/Recommendations
The findings endorse the need to move beyond bathroom policy reform, and rely on a singular gender facilitative teacher to address the problem of cisgenderism. More gender-expansive commitments beyond one teacher’s classroom are required, such as system-level directives that support integrating trans-affirmative education across the curriculum and resources to foster ongoing professional development in schools.
... Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is currently the subject of contentious sociopolitical debate in Ontario, Canada (Bialystok and Wright 2019;Bialystok 2018). Children in Ontario, as in many other contexts, are often constructed as innocent 1 and incapable of comprehending sexual health information (Dyer 2019;Robinson 2013;Sanche 2018;Van Vliet and Raby 2008), with further work needed to address gender and sexual diversity within Canadian educational settings Davies 2016, 2018;Davies, Vipond, and King 2019;Greensmith and Davies 2017;Lapointe 2018). This is particularly concerning for children with disabilities, who are commonly positioned by dominant developmental norms as significantly more dependent, less-than-autonomous (Goodley, Liddiard, and Runswick-Cole 2018), and outside of normative sexual economies through presumptions of asexuality (Kangaude 2009;Shah 2017). ...
Comprehensive sexuality education is increasingly being employed on a global scale, with controversies arising regarding the content of such education and the rights of children to access sexuality education versus parents' rights to decide the moral education of their children. In this paper, we utilise crip theory and a critical disability studies lens to analyse controversies surrounding parents' rights versus children's rights in the context of comprehensive sexuality education in Ontario, Canada. Using a disability studies perspective, this paper discusses the erasure of disabled children and youth in debates over children's and parents' rights while problematising the liberal humanist and legal frameworks often employed in comprehensive sexuality education and children's rights. As such, we theorise how a more relationally attuned version of both children's rights and comprehensive sexuality education can avoid oppositional politics and the reification of liberal humanist and ableist ideologies.
... Although this strategy appeared promising, Oakley found that it was a lot of work to advise the GSA and facilitate the program in tandem. Despite being more taxing on advisors, offering the program outside of the GSA context may be more appealing to club members who simply want to socialize or engage in informal conversations about school and home life (Lapointe, 2018). ...
This study evaluated the feasibility and fit of a mental health promotion and violence prevention program adapted for LGBTQ+ youth (ages 14-18). The pilot program included 16 30-minute sessions and was implemented in 8 gender and sexuality alliances (GSAs) and one community youth group setting. Extensive feedback was collected from 11 facilitators via session tracking sheets, ongoing email communication, an implementation survey, and a focus group; and from 7 youth who participated in a variety of feedback activities during a 2-day post-program workshop. Results indicated a strong interest in formalized programming, challenges related to its delivery in GSAs, and significant issues with its content. Facilitators and youth advocated for the program to be more affirmative, include youth-centered notions of identities and expressions, be trauma-informed, include a wider range of relationships, and adopt a youth-led approach.
... For example, this event and the student activism spurred support for legislation such as Bill 13, which was not just limited to or confined to a question of sexual minority rights, but expanded to include and address specifically the rights of gender minorities. As research by Lapointe (2018) into GSAs in Ontario has attested, these clubs are equally sites for gender activism, whereby transgender, genderqueer and non-binary students have been playing an active role, in both Catholic and secular public school boards, as manifested by their commitment to educating about gender diversity (see also Schindel, 2008, ...
In this paper, our purpose is to investigate policy informing texts and discourses referencing transgender equality and gender diversity in the Western Australian education system. Drawing on scholarship from transgender, queer and policy studies, we highlight the interplay of progressive and conservative forces affecting the Western Australian education system’s commitment to supporting transgender and gender non-binary students. Based on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) project, the paper constructs a Western Australian case study, which threads together the critical examination of policy informing texts, qualitative interview data and media discourses surrounding public narratives, such as the Safe School Coalition Australia’s attempt to implement a school program, which builds awareness about gender and sexual diversity. Emerging through the material, discursive and spatial elements of locales and networks, our case study has the potential to deepen knowledge regarding the heuristic capacity of employing policyscape as an analytic category. In this vein, we draw attention to the possibilities and challenges for re-conceptualizing gender and providing trans-affirmative school spaces that promote equality.
... For example, this event and the student activism spurred support for legislation such as Bill 13, which was not just limited to or confined to a question of sexual minority rights, but expanded to include and address specifically the rights of gender minorities. As research by Lapointe (2018) into GSAs in Ontario has attested, these clubs are equally sites for gender activism, whereby transgender, genderqueer and non-binary students have been playing an active role, in both Catholic and secular public school boards, as manifested by their commitment to educating about gender diversity (see also Schindel, 2008, who writes about GSAs in the United States as activist sites for educating about 'an expanded spectrum of gender identification ' ,65). ...
In this paper we draw on Mettler’s concept of the policyscape and apply it to an examination of policy-making processes and events as they pertain specifically to an analysis of transgender inclusivity and gender diversity in the Ontario context. We employ Ball’s focus on policy as text and policy ensembles alongside Bailey’s employment of policy dispositifs to map key events that characterize important legislative developments that define the Ontario education policy landscape with regards to addressing gender identity and gender expression as a basis for anti-discrimination. We situate particular events such as the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance or Gender and Sexuality Alliance) and sex education controversies within a broader context of trans activism, which we identify as pointing to quite specific contingencies that characterize the Ontario policyscape. Overall, the paper extends a consideration of the specificities of the Ontario case in Canada to a broader reflection on the utility of the policyscape as a crucial concept for making sense of the relevance of more general characteristics of a spatially-focused trans informed policy analysis.
Background
Within the context of high school student clubs, the acronym “GSA” originally stood for “Gay-Straight Alliance.” It described gay and straight youth working as allies to learn about themselves and each other’s lives and to navigate and address interpersonal and institutional anti-LGBTQ school policies and practices. Today, the acronym is commonly parsed by Gen Z members as “Gender-Sexuality Alliance” to better represent the presence and needs of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students, and their cisgender allies.
Purpose of Study
We inquire how students learn about themselves and others—partially, unevenly, and, at times, uneasily—as they incorporate socially resistant gender and race identity work within their GSA school clubs.
Participants
Participants were cisgender ( n = 10) and transgender and nonbinary ( n = 10), racially diverse high school students in GSAs between 14 and 18 years of age.
Research Design
Our analysis is grounded in critical pragmatism, a methodological integration of critical theory and pragmatism, which stems from reflexive immersion in the research context and use of empirical inquiry as a tool to acknowledge and guide transformation of entrenched anti-trans oppression in schools, noting that racism, among other forms of structural inequality, is built into schools. We analyzed the interview component of a larger mixed-methods research study conducted by the GLSEN Research Institute, which was intended to generate insight about student and advisor experiences of GSAs.
Findings
Our study reveals that while GSAs can be a space for marginalized LGBTQ students to create a collective empowering identity, they can also be a space where some differences may be flattened or left out. We explore how students make visible racial and gender identity groups during GSA activities that are often erased in secondary schools. This implicitly and explicitly entails deploying identity as a challenge to a school’s heteronormative, cisnormative, and white-dominant official curriculum, although the depth or complexity of a GSA’s visibility-based education and critique may be inadequate, given available resources. Our findings demonstrate how GSA students leverage their identity as a goal when mobilizing themselves and their peers to alter a school’s norms and practices.
Conclusions
Gen Z GSA students have begun to reimagine their clubs as if they were built from the ground up, with the needs of transgender students and students of color placed at their center. GSAs remain a critical but underdeveloped resource for learning how to recognize and challenge intersectional forms of interpersonal and institutional marginalization.
Originating in the United States, a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) is an in-school student club whose focus is on making the school a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students and their straight allies by raising awareness about, and hopefully reducing, school-based homophobia. The ongoing struggle for GSAs in Canadian Catholic schools is one example of how clashes continue to be played out between Catholic canonical law and Canadian common law regarding sexual minorities. This paper draws upon Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, and The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction to analyze one particularly influential curricular and policy document entitled Pastoral Guidelines to Assist Students of Same-Sex Orientation from the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops. This paper posits that Catholic doctrine about non-heterosexuality functions as a Foucaultian Panopticon enabling Catholic education leaders to observe and correct the behaviour of non-heterosexual teachers and students that they deem runs counter to the values of the Vatican. This paper argues that successful resistance to the powerful disciplining regime of the Catholic school is possible.
There is an increasing awareness that youth mental health problems and violence are public health concerns that require public health approaches to prevention. Simply put, these are not challenges that we are going to treat or arrest our way out of but rather are more effectively approached through a public health lens for several reasons. The Fourth R is an approach that includes an array of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs designed to develop youth’s healthy relationship skills, promote positive mental health, and prevent violence. This chapter describes the Fourth R, its evidence base, and lessons learned regarding successful school-based program implementation.
LGBT2Q+ youth experience significant oppression in schools and there are few evidence-informed programs to promote well-being. This study describes the experiences of youth who participated in a 17-session structured mental health promotion program through their GSAs. Focus groups were conducted with 15 youth. Results indicated that the program helped youth validate and affirm their identities and expressions. The program also afforded youth structured opportunities to identify and process minority stressors, and develop essential coping strategies to bolster their well-being and manage their toxic relationships.
Scholarship on homosexuality, gay and lesbian identities, history, and culture came to universities too late for most elementary and secondary school educators, leaving them unprepared to deal with these subjects. Moreover, some teacher education faculty still neglect these topics out of moral scruple, fear, or inattention to new research and practice. Yet teacher education and training must incorporate these issues, if only because the plight of homosexual adolescents has become increasingly apparent. Understanding Homosexuality, Changing Schools, written by veteran teacher and university instructor Arthur Lipkin, provides a foundation in gay/lesbian studies and offers models for equity, inclusion, and school reform. It is designed to help teachers, administrators, counselors, and policymakers understand the significance of gay and lesbian issues in education; to aid communication between gay and lesbian students and their families and schools; to facilitate the integration of gay and lesbian families into the school community; and to promote the inclusion of gay and lesbian curricula in a range of disciplines. This book is also designed to promote the healthy development of all students through reducing bigotry, self-hatred, and violence. Bringing together thirteen topics related to homosexuality and education, Understanding Homosexuality, Changing Schools makes the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience part of a democratic multicultural vision.
In his discussion of power, Foucault establishes a new, interpretation that challenges the typical view of power as a possession held by certain people and groups in a society. Foucault argues that it is the set of force relations that constitute a perpetual struggle among people as well as the strategies that people employ as they attempt to control the behavior of others. This differs from previous views of power in that it sees power as existing everywhere and deriving from everywhere. No person holds power. Rather, power is expressed in relationships between people. Related to this view is Foucault's argument that resistance is inextricably linked with power and also exists everywhere. No single point of power or resistance can be found. Each point at where power is exercised also reveals a point of resistance. Power is also intimately connected with discourse because discourse becomes a mechanism of power. Not only is discourse both an instrument and an effect of power, but discourse can serve both to liberate and oppress.
Outside the immediate classroom setting, efforts within other school spaces also can shape school climate, address inequality, and affect student performance. Nevertheless, in this respect there has been little research on school-based extracurricular groups focused on issues of social inclusion and justice. An exception to this lack of focus has been Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), which promote social inclusion and justice for sexual and gender minority youth (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning youth; LGBTQ) through support, socializing, education, and advocacy. As this literature has matured, we detail and provide examples of the following conceptual and methodological recommendations to address emerging research needs for GSAs: (1) Move from a monolithic to contextualized treatment of GSAs, (2) attend to heterogeneity among members, (3) utilize multiple data sources for triangulation, (4) apply a range of methodological approaches to capitalize on strengths of different designs, (5) collect longitudinal data over short-term and extended time periods, and (6) consider GSAs within a broader umbrella of youth settings. Further, we note ways in which these recommendations apply to other student groups organized around specific sociocultural identities. These advances could produce more comprehensive empirically supported models to guide GSAs and similar groups on how to promote resilience among their diverse members and address broader social issues within their schools.
With growing awareness of the negative school experiences of trans students, more schools in North America are working to support such students and create more inclusive educational environments. This paper analyses how 60 educators in British Columbia, Canada talked about the involvement of trans students in decision-making processes at their school. It focuses on a prominent narrative, the ‘student in charge’ narrative, which suggests that educators should follow the lead of the young trans person to best support them. By centering the expertise of trans student, this narrative has the potential to disrupt cisnormativity in schools and traditional understandings of youth as unreliable. However, educators have also to negotiate dominant discourses about undue adult influence, young age, safety and gender fluidity that tend to undermine their initial commitment to young trans people’s self-determination. This paper analyses the effects of these contradictions on how educators respond to demands for recognition by trans students, and discusses the limits of student-led change. It concludes by arguing for more systemic changes that do not require the presence of trans bodies and instead offer possibilities for educational spaces in which all students would experience fewer pressures of gender and sexual conformity.
Conventional approaches to trans inclusion in the women's, gender, and sexuality studies classroom often involve what Diana Courvant has called the “special guest” approach of bringing in trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming folk to represent and authenticate trans experiences, perspectives, and political engagements. This essay argues for the inadequacy of this pedagogical strategy, focusing on its complicity with a neoliberal politics of inclusion that fails to move students to deal with their own deep complicities in upholding understandings of sex and gender that are fundamentally transphobic, as well as its failure prompt pragmatic understanding and address of the maldistribution of life chances for trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming subjects. I offer several alternative strategies aimed at producing more deeply transformative types of trans inclusion in WGSS classrooms. These strategies focus on mapping connections between cis and trans experiences of gendered transformation in order to produce an alternative understanding of gender as process, craft, and becoming.