‘We’ll be okay together’: navigating challenges as queer university students in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Queer university students face multiple stressors which can contribute to mental health difficulties, including minority stressors unique to their queer identities. However, there is little literature exploring stressors faced by queer individuals in university settings. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore the current challenges and strengths faced by queer university students in Aotearoa New Zealand, in order to contextualise their mental health experiences. Twenty-eight queer students participated across 12 focus groups or interviews. Two queer researchers thematically analysed the data. Three themes were interpreted from the data: ‘That’s not feminine enough’: the impact of societal ideologies on queer students; ‘There’s one rainbow person in the room’: Tokenism, social isolation, and then finding community; and ‘You know what it’s like to not be heard’: The transformation of challenges into strengths. The findings illustrate how queer university students make meaning of their challenges, and the strengths they develop to mitigate these. Educational institutions are highlighted as important sites of systemic change, to reduce minority stressors in students’ lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Qualitative
• LGBT
• heteronormativity
• cisnormativity
• social attitudes
• student
• higher education

Acknowledgements

The authors thank every person who participated in this research as it would not have been feasible without you sharing your deeply personal experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data transcripts to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.