This was an introductory talk for a conversation circle on LGBTQIA+ inclusion. It includes a state of the field summary of some important themes and key questions as well as a bibliography

1. LGBTQIA+ Teachers, Students
and Active Inclusion in HE
Dr Sam Hirst
Liverpool University

2. Talking Terms
• LGBTQIA+
• Queer
• GRSM
• Not a homogenous identity
• Different needs and concerns (Mizzi, 2019)
• In community as well as external exclusion, particularly asexual, pansexual, bisexual, non-
binary individuals (Lange et al.)
• Disassociation with LGBTQ identities (Lackman and Molley -87% vs. 62%, A is for …)
• Intersection with other identities (Mizzi, 2019; Vaccaro and Newman, 2016; Strayhorn, 2008;
Bardhoshi, 2018; Sotardi, 2021; Weiser, 2018)
• Nation of origin and home culture (Wei and Liu, 2019; Da Silva, 2020; Traeen et al.)
• Religious background (Mavhandu-Mudzusi, 2015)
• Family situation and economic security (Cimian, 2017)

3. Realities for LGBTQ+ staff and students
• A gradual broad change in campus climates (Garvey 2017)
• "the cumulative attitudes, behaviors, and standards of employees and students concerning access for,
inclusion of, and level of respect for individual and group needs, abilities, and potential” (Garvey 2017)
• Impact of societal changes; policy changes; LGBTQ resources; training; safe zones
• Continued Issues
• Heterosexist, cisnormative (and allonormative) structures and materials (Garvey, 2017; Sotardi, 2021)
• ‘Silence LGBTQ voices, tokenize LGBTQ students, or do not inclue LGBTQ-related course content inhibit
LGBTQ student learning an involvement’ (Garvey 2017)
• Harassment and direct discrimination
• Violence (trans students particularly vulnerable – Lange, 2019; Stonewall, 2018; Mizzi. 2019)
• Microaggressions
• Exclusion
• Pressure to self-categorise (Bardoshi, 2018)
• Inability to be authentic (especially in gender presentation); self-silencing
• Effect on well-being (ill-health, maladaptive coping strategies, mental health issues, suicidal ideation –
Traeen, 2009; Sotardi, 2021; Da Silva, 2020; Wei and Liu, 2019; Cimian, 2017)

4. Realities for LGBTQ+ staff and students
Some Stats
2018 Stonewall ‘LGBT in Britain – University Report’
• 42% of students have hidden their identity
• 7% of trans students have been physically attacked
• 36% of trans students and 7% of other queer students received negative comments or actions from staff
• 60% of trans students and 22% of other queer students received negative comments or actions from other
students, rising to 47% of disabled queer students
Ellis (2009)
• ‘Homophobia on campus is endemic’
• 23.4% of students have been victims of homophobic or transphobic abuse
• ‘LGBT students do not particularly perceive a ‘climate of fear’ but actively behave in ways that respond to
such a climate.’
• The majority of discrimination arises from peer interactions
• What we do in class is only the starting point

5. BELONGING
Vacarro and Newman, 2016
Belonging
Strayhorn 2012 - ‘perceived social support on campus, a
feeling or sensation of connectedness, the experience of
mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected,
valued by, and important to the group or others on
campus’
Goodenow 1993 (in Parker) - ‘sense of being accepted,
valued, included and encouraged by others’
Parker 2021 - ‘Positive perceptions of the campus climate
are positively associated with greater levels of sense of
belonging’

6. Building belonging
Garvey, 2017
• Academic training (how prepared they felt academically) [caveat
from Sotardi, 2021 re. trans students]
• Familiarity with LGBTQ+ staff
• Major
• Identification with visual symbols
• Safe spaces for authenticity
Ellis, 2009
• ‘University is often the first time that LGBT youth have encountered
openly LGB or T role models.’
• Safe zones
• Zero-tolerance for homophobia - ‘When it occurs, blatant
homophobia passes without comment. By doing nothing, both staff
and students are complicit in reproducing a homophobic climate and
ensuring the continued marginalisation of LGBT students.’
• ‘Embedding LGBTQ issues in curriculum content’
Sotardi, 2021
• Sense of adjustment
• ‘Strategies to support tolerance or support single days of
visibility may not disrupt deeply ingrained heteronormativity’
Bardoshi, 2018
• Positive support networks
• Enhanced training
• Physical measures like gender inclusive classrooms
Mizzi, 2019
• ‘What seems to be important is some form of queer-inclusive
content, class policy, or pedagogy that signals safety to share
queer identities and insights.’
Linley, 2016
• Relationship with staff

7. Staff – Student Relations (Linley, 2016)
Six ways that students experienced support
Formal Interactions in Class
1. Confronting homophobia
2. Respecting students’ identity and using inclusive language
3. Confronting heterosexist/cisgender discourses in the curriculum
4. During advising appointments through holistic support
Informal interaction in class
5. Visibility on campus (including visual symbols)
6. Participation in on-campus events in support of students

8. Thinking outside the classroom
• Classroom
• Advising
• Lectures
• Curriculum design
• Policies
• Visibility
• Events
• Digital presence of the university (Taylor, 2018)
• Library usage (Weiser, 2018)
• Conferences and other academic activities
• The danger of tokenising events - ‘Spaces that should be inclusive, instead reaffirm the
ownership of the space by welcoming events’ (Weiser, 2018)

9. Avoiding Repressive Tolerance and Fostering
Active Inclusion
• Herbert Marcuse – Repressive Tolerance – 1965
• Stephen Brookfield - 2005
• ‘Repressive tolerance ensures the continuation of the system by allowing just enough challenge to the system to
convince people that they live in a truly open society, while still maintaining the system's structural inequity.’
• ‘When an alternative idea is included alongside a mainstream one, people's prior familiarity with the
mainstream ensures that the alternative, oppositional perspective is seen as an exotic option rather than a
plausible natural center.’
• ‘In the manner of this apparently free expression of views, how ever, certain centrist views are always given
greater credence.’
• ‘Under repressive tolerance, the airing of a radical perspective as one among many possible viewpoints to be
considered in a discussion always works to the detriment of that perspective.’
• Cale and Huber – 2001
• ‘The assignments students completed that were most thoughtful and critical of their own positions of power
were the ones that were completely alone” (2001, 15). In contrast, in group discussions accepting all voices as
equal ‘has in many cases actually helped to silence some of my students, to reinforce the dominance of the
status quo.’ (Cale and Huber, 2001, 16).

10. Questions for Discussion
• How can we support students and teachers to not feel like ‘the only one’?
• How can we foster a sense of belonging (for both staff and students)?
• How can we actively include marginalised voices without calling on students with
marginalised identities to do extra emotional and teaching labour?
• How does an emphasis on visibility fail us when visibility can lead to danger?
What does visibility do when trans people are framed as contemporary subjects
instead of people who have a long history? (Lange)
• How can we build a concern for our students’ safety and an awareness of their
different conditions into our practice?
• What can we do inside and outside the classroom to support an LGBTQ+ inclusive
campus climate?
• How do educational establishments fail to create space for LGBTQ+ staff and
students to explore and grow?

11. Reference List
Bardhoshi, Gerta, et al. "Illuminating the on‐campus experience of LGBTQ students through photovoice." Journal of
College Counseling 21.3 (2018): 194-209.
Brookfield, Stephen. "Undermining the very democracy we seek to create: Discussion practices in adult education and the
dangers of repressive tolerance." Studies in continuing education 27.2 (2005): 101-115.
Brookfield, Stephen. "Reassessing subjectivity, criticality, and inclusivity: Marcuse’s challenge to adult education." Adult
Education Quarterly 52.4 (2002): 265-280.
Cale, G., and C. Huber. "Teaching the oppressor to be silent: Conflicts in the “democratic” classroom." Proceedings of the
21st Annual Alliance/ACE Conference. 2001.
Cimpian, Joseph R. and Herrin, Carolyn D. 2017. “Editors’ Introduction: Introducing a Methodological Research Collection on Pressing
Issues for LGBTQ Students.” Educational Researcher, Vol. 46 No. 9, pp. 495–497 DOI: 10.3102/0013189X17745500
Ellis, Sonja J. “Diversity and Inclusivity at University: A Survey of the Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) Students in
the UK.” Higher Education, vol. 57, no. 6, Springer, 2009, pp. 723–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40269155
Garvey, Jason C., et al. "Generational Perceptions of Campus Climate Among LGBTQ Undergraduates." Journal of College Student
Development, vol. 58 no. 6, 2017, p. 795-817. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/csd.2017.0065.
Kennedy, William Bean. "Integrating personal and social ideologies." Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to
transformative and emancipatory learning (1990): 99-115.
Lange, Alex C., et al. "The State of LGBT and Queer Research in Higher Education Revisited: CurrentAcademic Houses and Future
Possibilities." Journal of College Student Development, vol. 60 no. 5, 2019, p. 511-526. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/csd.2019.0047.

12. Reference List
Linley, Jodi L., et al. "Faculty as sources of support for LGBTQ college students." College Teaching 64.2 (2016): 55-63.
Marcuse, H. 1965. Repressive Tolerance. In Wolff, Morre, Marcuse (Eds), A Critique of Pure Tolerance. Boston: Beacon. 81-123
Mavhandu-Mudzusi, Azwihangwisi Helen, and Peter Thomas Sandy. "Religion-related stigma and discrimination experienced
by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at a South African rural-based university." Culture, Health & Sexuality 17.8
(2015): 1049-1056
Mizzi, Robert C., and Jared Star. "Queer Eye on Inclusion: Understanding Lesbian and Gay Student and Instructor Experiences
of Continuing Education." The Journal of Continuing Higher Education 67.2-3 (2019): 72-82.
Mollet, Amanda L. and Brian R. Lackman. "Asexual Borderlands: Asexual Collegians’ Reflections on Inclusion Under the LGBTQ
Umbrella." Journal of College Student Development, vol. 59 no. 5, 2018, p. 623-628. Project
MUSE, doi:10.1353/csd.2018.0058.
Parker, Eugene T., III. "Campus Climate Perceptions and Sense of Belonging for LGBTQ Students: A Canadian Case
Study." Journal of College Student Development, vol. 62 no. 2, 2021, p. 248-253. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/csd.2021.0019.
Da Silva et al. “From Permanence to Quality of Life: Sexual Orientation and Identity of Gender of Students in a Higher
Education Institution in the Brazilian Northeast”. Bioscience Journal. 36.3 (2020): 1076-82
Sotardi, Valerie A., et al. "Belonging and adjustment for LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ students during the social transition to
university." Journal of Diversity in Higher Education (2021).

13. Reference List
Strayhorn, Terrell. "Sentido de pertenencia: A hierarchical analysis predicting sense of belonging
among Latino college students." Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 7.4 (2008): 301-320.
Taylor, Jason L., Kari J. Dockendorff, and Kyle Inselman. "Decoding the digital campus climate for
prospective LGBTQ+ community colleges students." Community College Journal of Research and
Practice 42.3 (2018): 155-170.
Traeen, Bente, et al. "Sexual orientation and quality of life among university students from Cuba,
Norway, India, and South Africa." Journal of homosexuality 56.5 (2009): 655-669.
Vaccaro, Annemarie and Barbara M. Newman. "Development of a Sense of Belonging for Privileged
and Minoritized Students: An Emergent Model." Journal of College Student Development, vol. 57 no.
8, 2016, p. 925-942. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/csd.2016.0091.
Wei, Chongzheng, and Wenli Liu. "Coming out in Mainland China: A national survey of LGBTQ
students." Journal of LGBT Youth 16.2 (2019): 192-219.
Weiser, S. Gavin, Travis L. Wagner, and Myles Lawter. "Double jeopardy:(Trans) versing higher ed as
queer trans advocates." Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy 15.3 (2018): 323-339.