Diversity, equity, and inclusion for some but not all: LGBQ Asian American youth experiences at an urban public high school

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a two-year study on the in-school experiences of 10 ethnically and generationally diverse Asian American LGBQ-identified adolescents who attended a racially integrated urban public high school in the Midwest. The conceptual framework draws on Queer of Colour Analysis (QOCA) to situate how heteronormative, heterosexist, and racially exclusionary practices impacted the youth in distinct ways due to the intersections of their gendered and racialized identities. Three major findings are discussed as follows: (a) the participants’ experiences with violence-based encounters at school including the complex reasons for their general reluctance to formally report these incidents, (b) gendered and racialized forms of heterosexism and homophobia, and (c) how the school’s White-dominated Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club because a site of erasure and exclusion. Specifically, their lived realities at school elevate the urgency of issues pertaining to school culture and climate as it relates to their personal safety, security, and well-being. The implications section will reflect on the ways by which K-12 schools could create more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming spaces for racially diverse LGBQ students.

KEYWORDS:

• Asian American LGBQ youth
• Asian American youth
• Queer of Colour Analysis

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge the participants of this study for sharing their experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Endo

Rachel Endo is Founding Dean and a Professor in the School of Education at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her scholarly interests include Asian American education; critical and decolonizing approaches to multicultural education; and immigrant and refugee education. She is the author of The Incarceration of Japanese Americans in the 1940s: Literature for the High School Classroom (2018- The National Council of Teachers of English).