Queer-free majors?: LGBTQ + college students’ accounts of chilly and warm academic disciplines

Abstract

Once enrolled in college, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students may have to navigate heterosexism within higher education. In doing so, they might deem some fields of study as more accepting of queer discussions and queer people than others. This article uses in-depth interview data from 20 queer college students to describe the process by which respondents constructed some majors or disciplines, especially STEM fields, as queer-free and others, especially the social sciences, as queer-friendly. The discussion highlights how the academic tracking of queer students into queer-friendly fields reproduces inequalities both on campus and beyond, such as in later careers. Several policy suggestions for educators and administrators geared at reducing the “chilly” environment for queer students are noted in the conclusion.

Keywords:

• College majors
• LGBTQ
• +
• chilly climate
• educational prestige
• queer-free
• queer-friendly

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Doug Schrock, Helana Darwin, Penny Harvey, Koji Ueno, and members of the Florida State University Sociology Graduate Student Union writing group, as well as the Journal of LGBT Youth editors and anonymous reviewers, for providing insightful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Special thanks to Arria Hauldin for her useful research assistance.

Notes

1 Throughout the paper, I sometimes use queer as a stand-in for the full LGBTQ + acronym. In interviews, some participants used queer interchangeably with more specific sexual identities like bisexual or lesbian. Others spoke of how transness or gender nonconformity was also wrapped up in sexual orientation to construct queerness. The use of queer is an effort to best encompass the totality of my respondents and their identities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

TehQuin D. Forbes

TehQuin D. Forbes is a doctoral student in Sociology at Florida State University. He employs qualitatively-driven mixed methods to study how inequalities are reproduced through well-intentioned interactions and practices, especially as it concerns queer people of color. He does so by drawing on social constructionist and intersectionality perspectives. His current work has been published in outlets such as Social Problems and Sociological Perspectives.