Homophobia, transphobia, young people and the question of responsibility

ABSTRACT

Young people may face conflicting and confusing messages about what it means to respond well in relation to homophobia and transphobia. Consequently, we ask – What might it mean to respond well to homophobia and transphobia? This strategy, inspired by Anika Thiem and Judith Butler, is recognition of the ambivalent conditions which structure attempts to respond well to bullying related to gender and sexuality. Such an approach is counter to educational responses that suggest a remedy in advance of the enactment of perceived bullying. Our paper draws on research conducted by the authors in four such schools, two in Australia and two in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It is a deliberate turn away from focusing on who should be held to account for homophobia and transphobia.

KEYWORDS:

• Homophobia
• transphobia
• responsibility
• relationality
• bullying
• sexuality
• gender

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the reviewers for their thoughtful responses and their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This article draws on data gathered in 2011 and 2012 as part of a research project led by the author entitled Sex Education in Australia and New Zealand: Responding to religious and cultural difference. DP110101173. The authors of this project are Mary Lou Rasmussen and Fida Sanjakdar, Monash University; Kathleen Quinlivan, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; Louisa Allen, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Clive Aspin, Independent researcher, and Annette Bromdal, Deakin University, Australia.

2 This school is in a community that is populated by a lot of new immigrant families. The average income is classified by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as below the Victorian and national averages. In terms of religious diversity, Catholicism is still the largest religious group represented on the census (nearly 40%), followed by Islam (nearly 30%). The community also has significant populations that identify as Eastern Orthodox and Buddhist.

3 It is a co-educational, secondary school in an urban location with a mixed population in terms of socio-economic status with populations of students that identified as Maori, Pasifika and Christian, Anglo and Christian, Muslim and Hindu, as well as students from who identified as having no-religious identification. It is classified as a decile four school (NZ Schools in decile one have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds while schools in decile ten have the highest proportion of students from high socio-economic backgrounds).

4 An inner city Melbourne school that has the largest proportion of students who identified as having no religion. This school is located in a culturally diverse suburb with an average income significantly above state and national averages.

Additional information

Funding

Thanks to the Australian Research Council (ARC) for funding this research on sexuality and secondary schooling as part of its Discovery Program. This was the first time the ARC funded such research in Australia.