“School Shouldn’t Be Something You Have to Survive”: Queer Women’s Experiences with Microaggressions at a Canadian University

ABSTRACT

The authors used an interpretative phenomenological analysis of focus-group data provided by eight research participants to investigate microaggressions that target queer women at an urban Canadian university. Four themes emerged from the data that support and extend prior sexual orientation microaggressions typologies research: (a) facing skepticism as response to sexual orientation, (b) living with surveillance as response to gender presentation, (c) encountering heteronormative assumptions, and (d) experiencing vulnerability. The authors discuss these findings in the context of previous research, outline future research directions, and provide implications for campus life.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual orientation microaggressions
• gender identity microaggressions
• queer women
• subtle discrimination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially funded by the McGill University Office of Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) and supported by the Social Equity and Diversity Education Office at McGill University.