1: A Place Where They Can Be Themselves: Issues of LGBTQ+ Students [Reconsidered]

I am a queer educator who uses queer methods (e.g., critical autoethnography) to explore LGBTQ+-inclusivity within K-12 and teacher education as a means of supporting LGBTQ+ students. My worldview of teaching, learning, and researching is prismed through my queer multicultural social justice lens, a critical approach that encourages educators to examine and (de)construct identity and its espoused privileges, thus allowing them, in part, to investigate ways to dismantle heteronormativity, rethink binary systems of identification, and deconstruct socially constructed identities. In this chapter, I reflect on and revise my foundational research and reconsider my approach to LGBTQ+-inclusive education. First, I address three challenges faced by LGBTQ+ students—homophobic and transphobic name calling, delayed social development, and lack of support, and their broad effects. Then, I reflect on and show how queer reform, political reform, school policy, LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula and queer teacher education, may aid in diminishing these problems. Finally, I urge you to join me in creating accepting and safe environments for our LGBTQ+ students by using LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula mastered within a queer multicultural social justice philosophy. In sum, I encourage you to provide LGBTQ+ students a place where they can be themselves.