Greg Knotts
From Here to Diversity: The Social Impact of Lesbian and Gay Issues in Education in Australia and New Zealand was co-published as the “Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Service,” Volume 14, Number 2. The collection asserts that education as a system reinforces and supports discrimination of many kinds — especially that of gay and lesbian youth. The contributions discuss the often overt and covert discriminatory practices found in schools. Education is a system responsible for silencing gay and lesbian voices, gay and lesbian identities, and socially constructing myths, misinformation and pathologizing gay and lesbian youth as the 'other.' The collection seeks to discuss the link between the social construction of gender, sexual identity, and homophobia in high schools. A thorough reading of all the articles leaves you also with the idea, however, that schools have the potential to be a catalyst for change — especially in regard to social definitions of gender and sexual identities.
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