Complicity, trauma, love: an exploration of the experiences of LGBTQIA+ members from physical education spaces

ABSTRACT

The dearth of research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual plus (LGBTQIA+) members within the physical education (PE) community, is of great concern; to some degree members of this community are invisible in the profession. The unfortunate reality is that PE is largely recognised as a heteronormative space with deeply rooted gendered practices that often go unacknowledged. In PE, the high visibility of one’s body, and the value placed on ‘select’ bodies, uncovers and reinforces society’s ‘isms’ such as ‘genderism’ and ‘heterosexism’. The constantly recycled dualistic understanding of these social identities has made PE an ‘exclusive’ space. Drawing on feminism and poststructuralism as our theoretical lens, this scholarly collaboration utilised a collaborative autoethnography from intersectional voices who identify as members of the LGBTQIA + community (a lesbian teacher, bi-sexual teacher educator, transgender student, and an ally), to explore our experiences from the PE space. Data were generated by several qualitative methods, initially from our individual narratives, which then ‘birthed’ poetry and visual artefacts. Our findings highlighted how complicity helps to maintain the heteronormative space, the never-ending nature of trauma, and the love that we experienced in various forms. Moreover, we all expressed a love of PE, even if/when it conflicts with our ‘bodies’. We leave this as an unfinished collaboration filled with hope and love; one that invites you to join us in solidarity to create a safe, welcoming space for every member of our community.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBTQIA+
• heteronormativity
• physical education
• love
• trauma
• complicity
• collaborative autoethnography
• intersectional feminism
• poststructuralism

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful insights and suggestions as we were crafting the paper. We thank you for your dedication and service.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 LGBTQIA+ is an inclusive term used to represent several of the distinct identities and categories of people within the Queer community, including (but not limited to) Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Ally. The plus (+) denotes all other identities that exist within the community.

2 Formerly known as BAMEPE.