ReSallying Qids: Resilience of queer youth in school.

Abstract

ReSallying Qids' probed homophobia and heterosexism in school to reveal how Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer-gendered and Queer-sex youth---Qids---were hurt in and by schools and what schools could do to change that. This qualitative study examined; (1) Queer-identity (Q-ID) stressors in the full context of life stress, (2) how Qids dealt with stress, (3) K--12 sites of Q-ID stress, and (4) what schools could do to reflect and celebrate diversity. The study probed new questions yielding interesting responses. Do you remember a time before the closet? and Do you remember entering the closet? Most participants were students still in school. While this created a scarcity of participants, it elicited a credible, contemporary voice concerning Q-gender and Q-sex school experience. Two Lesbians, four Gays, one Fluid, two Bisexuals and one Transsexual took part in a sequence of three narrative-type interviews regarding pain in their lives, things that hurt. While most participants were 13 to 18 years old, one (Transsexual) was 32 and one (Gay male) was eight. Q-ID stressors were more numerous and more intense than other life stressors. Qids applied Q-ID relevant values and strategies in coping with stress. However, of the three protective factor categories of personal characteristics, positive family relations, and external support systems, the later two, if they were present, were unknown and inaccessible to Qids before they left the closet. This absence of supportive people problematized not only Qids' lives but also their being in and coming out of the closet. Adaptations of resilience theory were discussed. Qids saw a need to Feminize, Color, Queer, and diversify schools out of their role of reproducing centers of power. Qids testified that heterodysfunction started early in elementary school where peers policed gender adeptly, even ruthlessly. Qids were often Q-identified and ostracized in or before second or third grade. <italic>ReSallying Qids </italic> discussed first steps for elementary, middle, and high school communities toward a curriculum and life of diversity liberating for all its members.