Abstract
Since the early 1990s, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults residing in the United States have witnessed a nearly complete reversal of their social, political and, ultimately, legal identities. LGB and sometimes transgender (T) people have gone from being criminalized, pathologized as “diseased and disordered,” and portrayed as religiously heretical, to increasingly becoming full US citizens. Queers are no longer criminals in most states—but not all.1 Additionally, except as advocated by some religious organizations, queers have been free from the “diseased/disordered” stigma.2 Queers are increasingly mainstream when it comes to popular culture—witness the on-going popularity of Neal Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Caitlyn Jenner, and Janet Mock. Furthermore, avowedly queer theorists have been part of academe for over 20 years. Even today’s US military, long a bastion of violent institutional homophobia, embraces “out” queers—individuals who refuse to hide and/or lie about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity—within its ranks. And in all 50 states, queers can marry their partners and have these legal contracts recognized by both state and the federal governments.3
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Notes
See Catherine A. Lugg and Madelaine Adelman, Sociolegal contexts of LGBTQ issues in education. In G. Wimberly (ed.), LGBT Issues in Education: Advancing a research agenda. ( 43–74 ). ( Washington, DC: AERA, 2015 );
Catherine A. Lugg, “Thinking about Sodomy.” Educational Policy, 20, No. 1 (2006): 35–58.
See Catherine A. Lugg and Malila N. Robinson, Religion, advocacy coalitions and the politics of US public schooling, Educational Policy, 23, No. 1 (2009): 242–266.
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Nancy J. Knauer, Homosexuality as contagion: From the well of loneliness to the boy scouts. Hofstra Law Review, 29 (2000): 401–510.
Cris Mayo, LGBTQ Youth and Education: Policies and practices. ( New York: Teachers College Press, 2014 ), 1.
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Steven Seidman, The Social Construction of Sexuality. ( New York: Norton, 2003 );
William B. Turner, A Genealogy of Queer Theory. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000); and Mayo, 2007.
Lugg, 2003; Darren Lenard Hutchinson. Out yet unseen: A racial critique of Gay and Lesbian Legal Theory and political discourse. Connecticut Law Review, 29 (1997): 561–645;
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Francisco Valdes, Queers, sissies, dykes, and tomboys: Deconstructing the conflation of “sex,” “gender,” and “sexual orientation” in Euro-American law and society. California Law Review, 83 (1995): 3–377;
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John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The making of a homosexual minority in the United States, 1940–1970. ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983 );
David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the federal government. ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004 ).
James Sharpe, History from below. In Peter Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing, 2nd ed. ( University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001 ), 25–42.
William A. Pencak, The Films of Derek Jarman. (New York: McFarland amp; Company, 2002); Lugg, 2006.
Willard Waller, The Sociology of Teaching. ( New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1932 ), 147.
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Edward F. Pajak, Willard Waller’s The Sociology of Teaching reconsidered: What does teaching do to teachers? American Educational Research Journal, 49 (2012): 1182–1213.
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© 2016 Catherine A. Lugg
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Lugg, C.A. (2016). Introduction. In: US Public Schools and the Politics of Queer Erasure. The Cultural and Social Foundations of Education. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137535269_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137535269_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
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