Beyond Progress and Marginalization : LGBTQ Youth in Educational Contexts

Over time, two competing narratives have emerged to represent the experiences of LGBTQ youth, emphasizing either significant improvement or continued victimization and marginalization. This volume examines those conflicting narratives as they play out in educational settings, both formal and informal. Particular emphasis is placed on LGBTQ youths’ own expressions and representations, revealing the extent to which both oppression and opportunity interact to influence their still-emergent identities. Coming of age at the tail end of the «culture wars», these young people are situated within layers of influence across family, peers, schools, communities, and media. The simultaneous, fluid contexts of opportunity and oppression that LGBTQ youth negotiate are highlighted throughout this book in the youths’ own words, which often reveal a level of epistemological complexity that their elders would be wise to consider.

The Editors: Corrine C. Bertram, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at Shippensburg University. Her research interests include an examination of moral communities and their scope of justice, particularly feminist and women’s organizations, feminist social psychology, qualitative methodologies, and youth participatory educational projects.
M. Sue Crowley is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Binghamton University. Her research interests are focused on adolescent identity formation, impacts of child sexual abuse, and critical pedagogy. Her publications include a book, The Search for Autonomous Intimacy: Sexual Abuse and Young Women’s Identity Development (Lang, 2000), and journal articles in The Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, Journal of Family Issues, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and Women and Therapy, among others.
Sean G. Massey, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Human Development in the College of Community and Public Affairs at Binghamton University. His research interests include sexual prejudice and multidimensional attitudes, the experiences of LGBTQ parents, queer theory in social science, positive beliefs about gay men and lesbians, self and identity in the context of social stigma, and sense of safety and community among LGBTQ people. His research has been published in Journal of Homosexuality, Lesbian and Gay Psychology Review, Journal of GLBT Family Studies, and Journal of Social Issues. He researched and co-authored a newspaper series, «The Voices of Gay Austin», that was awarded Best News/Feature Story by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association in 2001.