Unsafe Subjects: The Constitution of Young LGBTQ Political Subjects in the Safe School Controversy

Abstract

This article addresses the emergence of children and young people as simultaneously sexual/gender non-normative and political subjects during the 2016 Safe Schools controversy. What appeared as a striking departure from previous controversies around non-normative sexuality was the appearance of young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) people speaking for themselves as political subjects. We are particularly interested in the young transgender subject and the political registers through which these and other young people represented themselves and made claims on citizenship. While they might be historically new political subjects, their vocabulary of harm, vulnerability and safety, and frequent recourse to health discourse, had a somewhat longer history.

We acknowledge the research assistance of Lucy Hackworth and discussions with Michelle Arrow and Leigh Boucher.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP170100502).

Notes

1 Lynne Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In: A National Report on the Sexuality, Health and Well-Being of Same-Sex Attracted Young People (Melbourne: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, 1998); Lynne Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In Again: Six Years On (Melbourne: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, 2005); Lynne Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In 3 (Melbourne: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, 2010).

2 Roz Ward, ‘“I Just Want to Be Myself”: How We Can Challenge Homophobia, Transphobia, and Racism in Australian Schools’, Journal of Intercultural Studies 38, no. 4 (2017): 472.

3 Benjamin Law, Moral Panic 101: Equality, Acceptance and the Safe Schools Scandal (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2017), 40.

4 See for example: Clarissa Carden, ‘“Fiddling with Young Kiddies’ Minds”: Reporting on the Safe Schools Coalition in Australia’, Continuum 33, no. 3 (2019): 297–309; Scott McKinnon, Gordon Wait and Andrew Gorman-Murray, ‘The Safe Schools Program and Young People's Sexed and Gendered Geographies’, Australian Geographer 48, no. 2 (2017): 145–52; Mary Lou Rasmussen and Deana Leahy, ‘Young People, Publics, and Counterpublics in School-Based Education on Gender and Sexuality: An Australian Story’, in Youth Sexualities: Public Feelings and Contemporary Cultural Politics, ed. Susan Talburt (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2018), 61–81; Barrie Shannon and Stephen J. Smith, ‘Dogma before Diversity: The Contradictory Rhetoric of Controversy and Diversity in the Politicisation of Australian Queer Affirming Learning Materials’, Sex Education 17, no. 3 (2017): 242–55; Jay Daniel Thompson, ‘The Country of Sexualised Children: Whiteness, Innocence, and the “Sexualisation of Childhood”’, Journal of Australian Studies 42, no. 3 (2018): 285–96; Jay Daniel Thompson, ‘Haunting Sex: Capitalism as Spectre in the Australian Anti-“Sexualisation of Children” Rhetoric’, Continuum 32, no. 66 (2018): 698–708; Jay Daniel Thompson, ‘Predatory Schools and Student Non-Lives: A Discourse Analysis of the Safe Schools Coalition Australian Controversy’, Sex Education 19, no. 1 (2019): 41–53.

5 Various acronyms describe this group, letters and symbols proliferate, they are contested. We choose ‘LGBTQ’, finding no evidence of intersex (‘I’) voices in the Safe Schools controversy, and use this term interchangeably with ‘queer’. We include all non-normative gender identities under the ‘T’.

6 Verity Burgmann and Jenny Lee, eds, Staining the Wattle: A People's History of Australia since 1788 (Melbourne: McPhee Gribble, 1988), xii.

7 Verity Burgmann, Power and Protest: Movements for Change in Australian Society (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993).

8 Garry Wotherspoon, City of the Plain (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1991).

9 Clive Moore, Sunshine and Rainbows: The Development of Gay and Lesbian Culture in Queensland (Brisbane: Queensland University Press, 2001).

10 Graham Willett, Living Out Loud: A History of Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000).

11 Robert Reynolds, From Camp to Queer: Remaking the Australian Homosexual (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002).

12 Steven Angelides, A History of Bisexuality (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2001).

13 Rebecca Jennings, Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History (Melbourne: Monash University Press, 2015).

14 Barbara Baird, ‘An Australian History of Lesbian Mothers: Two Points of Emergence’, Women's History Review 21, no. 5 (2012): 849–65.

15 Amy Thomas, Hannah McCann and Geraldine Fela, ‘“In This House We Believe in Fairness and Kindness”: Post-Liberation Politics in Australia's Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey’, Sexualities 23, no. 4 (2020): 475–96.

16 Jesse Hooley, ‘Normalising Transgender and Policing Transgression: Anti-Discrimination Law Reform Ten Years On’, Australian Feminist Law Journal 25, no. 1 (2006): 79–98.

17 Noah Riseman, ‘Transgender Inclusion and Australia's Failed Sexuality Discrimination Bill’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 62, no. 2 (2019): 259–77.

18 Ibid., 277.

19 Murray Couch et al., ‘Transgender People and the Amendment of Formal Documentation: Matters of Recognition and Citizenship’, Health Sociology Review 17, no. 3 (2008): 280–9; see also Riseman, 267.

20 Sally Gibson, ‘“The Language of the Right”: Sex Education Debates in South Australia’, Sex Education 7, no. 3 (2007): 241.

21 Steven Angelides, The Fear of Child Sexuality: Young People, Sex and Agency (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 87.

22 Ross Fitzgerald, ‘Censorship in Queensland 1954–83’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 30, no. 3 (1984): 250.

23 Steven Angelides, ‘“The Continuing Homosexual Offensive”: Sex, Education, Gay Rights, and Homosexual Recruitment’, in Homophobia: An Australian History, ed. Shirleene Robinson (Sydney: Federation Press, 2008), 179.

24 Scott McKinnon, ‘Maintaining the School Closet: The Changing Regulation of Homosexuality and the Contested Space of the School in New South Wales, 1978–84’, Australian Geographer 49, no. 1 (2018): 191–2.

25 Willett, 94–6, 164, 228–31, 155, 223–4, 237.

26 Leigh Boucher and Robert Reynolds, ‘Decriminalisation, Apology and Expungement: Sexual Citizenship and the Problem of Public Sex in Victoria’, Australian Historical Studies 49, no. 4 (2018): 457–74.

27 McKinnon, 185.

28 Marion Maddox, God under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2005).

29 Gibson, 243–4.

30 Kerry H. Robinson, ‘In the Name of “Childhood Innocence”: A Discursive Exploration of the Moral Panic Associated with Childhood and Sexuality’, Cultural Studies Review 14, no. 2 (2008): 113–29.

31 McKinnon, 188.

32 Ibid., 11.

33 Ibid., 470.

34 Law, 15.

35 Thompson, ‘Predatory Schools and Student Non-Lives’, 42.

36 Shannon and Smith, 244.

37 Joel Radcliffe, Roz Ward and Micah Scott, Safe Schools Do Better: Supporting Sexual Diversity, Intersex and Gender Diversity in Schools (Melbourne: Safe Schools Coalition Australia, 2013), 2, https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/educators/resources/safe-schools-do-better/ (accessed 14 October 2020).

38 William Louden, Review of Appropriateness and Efficacy of the Safe Schools Coalition Australian Program Resources (Canberra: Australian Government, Department of Education, 2016), 2.

39 Roz Ward, Joel Radcliffe and Micah Scott, Guide to Kick Starting Your Safe School (Melbourne: Safe Schools Coalition Australia, 2015), https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/media/9546/guide-for-kicking-starting-safe-schools_2015.pdf (accessed 14 October 2020).

40 Louden, 2.

41 Barbara Baird, ‘Twenty-First Century LGBTI Activism in Australia: The Limits of Equality’, Australian Historical Studies 49, no. 4 (2018): 484.

42 Law, 21; Safe Schools Coalition Australia, All of Us: Understanding Gender Diversity, Sexual Diversity and Intersex Topics for Years 7 and 8 (2016), https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/media/9299/all-of-us-online-version-may-2016-v3.pdf (accessed 14 October 2020).

43 Law, 19.

44 Karen Middleton, ‘What Happened to Safe Schools’, Saturday Paper, 26 March 2016, www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2016/03/26/what-happened-the-safe-schools-program/14589108003049 (accessed 5 April 2019).

45 Louden, 2.

46 See for example Henrietta Cook, ‘Transgender Students: The Struggle to Fit in at School’, The Age, 17 September 2015, www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/transgender-students-the-struggle-to-fit-in-at-school-20150917-gjojgg.html (accessed 5 March 2019); Allison Worrall, ‘“I Needed Safe Schools”: Hundreds Rally in Melbourne to Support LGBTI Student Program’, The Age, 11 March 2016, www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/i-needed-safe-schools-hundreds-rally-in-melbourne-to-support-lgbti-student-program-20160310-gng2mk.html (accessed 24 April 2019).

47 Erik Ly, ‘I Need Safe Schools’, at the Hands Off Safe Schools Public Rally, Melbourne, 10 March 2016, www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1658281024434492 (accessed 14 October 2020).

48 Ibid.

49 Worrall.

50 Save Safe Schools Rally, Adelaide, 23 March 2016, www.facebook.com/unisarainbowclub/videos/1096866877133682/ (accessed 4 May 2019).

51 Ruth Pearce, Deborah Lynn Steinberg and Igi Moon, ‘Introduction: The Emergence of “Trans”’, Sexualities 22, no. 1–2 (2019): 6.

52 Janine Cohen, ‘Being Me’, Four Corners, 17 November 2014, www.abc.net.au/4corners/being-me/5899244 (accessed 15 May 2019).

53 Ibid.

54 J.R. Latham, ‘Axiomatic: Constituting “Transexuality” and Trans Sexualities in Medicine’, Sexualities 22, no. 1–2 (2019): 13–30.

55 Four Corners, 17 November 2014.

56 Ibid.

57 Pearce et al., 6.

58 Inner City Legal Centre, Transgender Children and Medical Treatment: The Law, www.iclc.org.au/fact-sheets/, undated (accessed 15 May 2019).

59 Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In.

60 Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In Again.

61 Hillier et al., Writing Themselves In 3.

62 S.L. Craig et al., ‘Media: A Catalyst for Resilience in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Youth’, Journal of LGBT Youth 12, no. 3 (2015): 254–75; Tiffany Jones et al., ‘School Experiences of Transgender and Gender Diverse Students in Australia’, Sex Education 16, no. 2 (2016): 156–71.

63 ‘LGBTI Student Abraham's Speech’, at the Hands Off Safe Schools Public Rally, Melbourne, 10 March 2016, www.facebook.com/ineedsafeschools/videos/lgbti-student-abrahams-speech/1657691447826783/?so=permalink&rv=related_videos (accessed 15 April 2019).

64 Riseman; Shirleene Robinson and Alex Greenwich, Yes Yes Yes: Australia's Journey to Marriage Equality (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2018), 22, 87, 243, 261, 270.

65 Carden, 307.

66 Rasmussen and Leahy, 65.

67 Law, 41.

68 Defend Safe Schools Rally, Sydney, 12 March 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4iq7BegxJY (accessed 15 April 2019).

69 Parents of Gender Diverse Children, ‘Thank You to Safe Schools’, 16 March 2016, www.facebook.com/parentsofgenderdiversechildren/videos/562501357265134/UzpfSTQwMzcxMDk2MzAyMzY0OToxMDQyMzg1OTM1ODIyODEy/ (accessed 19 April 2019).

70 Daniel Marshall, ‘Young Gays: Towards a History of Youth, Queer Sexualities and Education in Australia’, The La Trobe Journal 87 (2011): 67.

71 Eric Rofes, ‘Martyr-Target-Victim: Interrogating Narratives of Persecution and Suffering among Queer Youth’, in Youth and Sexualities: Pleasure, Subversion, and Insubordination in and out of Schools, eds Mary Lou Rasmussen, Eric Rofes and Susan Talburt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 41, 56.

72 Mary Lou Rasmussen, ‘Safety and Subversion: The Production of Sexualities and Genders in School Spaces’, in Rasmussen et al., 136.

73 Peter Aggleton, Rob Cover, Deana Leahy, Daniel Marshall and Mary Lou Rasmussen, Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship (London: Routledge, 2019), 8.

74 Daniel Marshall, ‘Historicising Sexualities Education’, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 34, no. 1–2 (2012): 28.

75 Daniel Marshall, ‘Queer Pedagogies Out of Place and Time: Redrawing the Boundaries of Youth, Sexual and Gender Difference, and Education’, Journal of Homosexuality 63, no. 3 (2016): 407.

76 Marshall, ‘Historicising Sexualities Education’, 28.

77 Ibid.

78 Ward quoted in Law, 13.

79 Simon Copeland and Mary Lou Rasmussen, ‘Safe Schools, Marriage Equality and LGBT Youth Suicide’, in Bent Street 1, ed. Tiffany Jones (Melbourne: Clouds of Magellan Press, 2017), 94.

80 Ibid., 91.

81 Q&A, 29 February 2016, www.abc.net.au/qanda/safe-schools-sniping-and-senators/10653398 (accessed 22 April 2019).

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid.

84 Susan Talburt, Eric Rofes and Mary Lou Rasmussen, ‘Introduction: Transforming Discourses of Queer Youth and Educational Practices Surrounding Gender, Sexuality, and Youth’, in Rasmussen et al., 2.

85 Ibid., 3.

86 Q&A, 21 March 2016, www.abc.net.au/qanda/abcc-double-d-and-rioting/10653254 (accessed 22 April 2019).

87 Ibid.

88 Carter Smith, ‘When Politicians Attack the Safe Schools Program, They Are Attacking Innocent Kids’, Huffington Post, 26 March 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com.au/carter-smith/when-politicians-attack-the-safe-schools-program-they-are-attacking-innocent-kids_b_9535778.html?ncid=other_email_o63gt2jcad4&utm_campaign=share_email (accessed 22 April 2019).

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid.

91 Ly.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid.

94 #INeedSafeSchools, www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1659528447643083 (accessed 14 October 2020).

95 Oscar Kapsi Crutchett, Stand up for Safe Schools Coalition Snap Rally, Perth, 21 March 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xZbwRshnXU (accessed 25 April 2019).

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid.

98 Joanne Faulkner, The Importance of Being Innocent: Why We Worry about Children (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Barbara Baird, ‘National Virtue and the “Media Sexualisation of Children” Discourse in Australia’, Sexualities 16, no. 5–6 (2013): 651–64.

99 Kerry H. Robinson, Peter Bansel, Nida Denson, Georgie Ovenden and Cristyn Davies, Growing Up Queer: Issues Facing Young Australians Who Are Gender Variant and Sexuality Diverse (Melbourne: Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, 2014).

100 Carden, 303.

101 Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume 1: An Introduction (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984), 100–2.

102 Crutchett.

103 Latham.

104 Rasmussen and Leahy, 78.