First Class! EPS536

My first class started on August 28 and will end on Oct 16th. The class is EPS 536: Race, Gender, and Sexuality Issues in Education, with Professors Yoon Pak and Denice Hood. So far I am LOVING it and will try to blog as much of my learning as I can!

EPS536 Week 5: LGBTQ+ Students at Community Colleges

This week's readings (bulleted because I cannot figure out how to indent in blogger):

• Taylor, J. L. (2015). Call to Action: Embracing an Inclusive LGBTQ Culture on Community College Campuses. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2015(172), 57-66. doi:10.1002/cc.20163
• Zamani-Gallaher, E. M., & Choudhuri, D. D. (2011). A primer on LGBTQ students at community colleges: Considerations for research and practice. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2011(155), 35-49. doi:10.1002/cc.456
• Zamani-Gallaher, E. M., & Choudhuri, D. D. (2016). Tracing LGBTQ Community College Students’ Experiences. New Directions for Community Colleges,2016(174), 47-63. doi:10.1002/cc.20202

Thoughts:

Since all three readings this week focused on the same population within the same context, namely LGBTQ+ students at community colleges, one thing I found interesting was the timeline. Zamani-Gallaher and Choudhouri (2011) wrote their primer on the topic in 2011; five years later, in their chapter tracing this population’s experiences (Zamani-Gallaher & Choudouri, 2016), it seems that not much has changed! This was both disheartening in the name of social justice in general, and surprising considering the rapid changes in attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community that have swept the nation in recent years. The 2016 chapter makes it clear that although LGBTQ+ individuals have been gaining rights and recognition in the United States in general (for example, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell allowing gays and lesbians to join the military in 2011, and the Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized gay marriage throughout the nation in 2015), this group is still facing significant challenges on community college campuses.

Looking at the timeline more closely is even more disheartening:

• 2011: Zamani-Gallaher & Choudhuri publish the primer 
• 2014: the incident at Central Piedmont Community College described in Taylor (2015) - three years AFTER the primer
• 2015: Taylor’s call to action
• 2016: Zamani-Gallaher & Choudhuri’s chapter on LGBTQ+ community college students, showing that nothing has changed much - five years after the primer and one full year after Taylor’s call to action

In some ways, when I consider the student population that community colleges serve, I think of this group as practical, busy, and focused more on pragmatic, immediate goals than on academic or philosophical questions; in this way, it seems like a population that may be less likely to invest energy in questions that may seem purely hypothetical, such as LGBTQ+ rights. (I say “hypothetical” because LGBTQ+ individuals make up a small percentage of the population as a whole, and also because so many of them still do not feel comfortable allowing others to know that they identify as LGBTQ+, so their perceived prevalence is even lower; thus, I am sure there are many Americans who believe that they don’t know any LGBTQ+ individuals, and feel that any issues pertaining to this group do not have any practical application to anyone in their lives). At the same time, though, when I consider the student population that community colleges serve, I think of the myriad ways in which this sector serves underrepresented students, as highlighted in Zamani-Gallaher and Choudhuri (2016); they cite “first-generation, female, low-income, racially/ethnically diverse students, single parents, and students with disabilities” (p. 47). In this way, it seems that community colleges face an even higher mandate to ensure that students from minority groups and students from marginalized groups receive adequate support at their campuses!

Thoughts on a Reading: LGBTQ Culture on Community College Campuses

Call to Action: Embracing an Inclusive LGBTQ Culture on Community College Campuses
Jason L. Taylor
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES • DOI: 10.1002/cc
Pp. 57-66

“It is also important to recognize that heterosexism is not always intentional and can manifest itself in our innocuous everyday actions, behaviors, and assumptions.” (p. 59)
Somehow I feel that this statement would not elicit the same visceral resistance that the statement “ It is also important to recognize that racism is not always intentional and can manifest itself in our innocuous everyday actions, behaviors, and assumptions” does. Certainly there is fervent resistance to equal rights for LGBTQ+ individuals, arguably much stronger than resistance to equal rights for people of color, but still somehow I don’t think the statement that heterosexism can be unintentional would get the same knee-jerk reaction that one almost always seems to receive when suggesting that racism can be - and is - perpetrated even by people who are not intentionally racist. Is this because we generally see racists as “bad people,” but it is still acceptable - and even respected - to be a heterosexist in much of our society? Is it because we want to believe that we have moved past racism - but extending equal rights to LGBTQ+ individuals is still a fairly new idea for many people?

“Despite one’s political persuasion on public policies affecting LGBTQ people, the fact remains that the discriminatory effects of policies have a negative impact on LGBTQ people resulting in perceptions of stigma (Pew Research Center, 2013) and adverse health outcomes (Hatzenbuehler, 2010).” (p. 59)
Why is the phrase “despite one’s political persuasion on public policies affecting LGBTQ people” necessary? I feel like it is past time to make a stand and stop treating bigotry as a different point of view with the same validity as something like being for or against sales tax. That might not be the best example, but my point is, being “for” or “against” equal rights for LGBTQ people is a question of preference, it is a choice between something that is inherently morally wrong and something that isn’t. Perhaps this is the author’s point as well - that regardless of your current beliefs, facts are facts and such a position is demonstrably harmful to others. I still would have preferred to see this point made more explicitly, or for the concession to political persuasions not to have been made at all.

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