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Gender and Privilege in a High School Gay-Straight Alliance

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Gender and Privilege in a High School Gay-Straight Alliance A COMPULSORY ALLIANCE: GENDER AND PRIVILEGE IN A HIGH SCHOOL GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE A dissertation presented by Amie Elizabeth Levesque to The Department of Sociology and Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Sociology Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April, 2014 1 A COMPULSORY ALLIANCE: GENDER AND PRIVILEGE IN A HIGH SCHOOL GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE by Amie Elizabeth Levesque ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University April, 2014 2 Abstract This dissertation reflects a 14 month research project utilizing ethnographic field methods, including participant observations and one-on-one interviews with youths at a large urban high school west of the Mississippi River (Park High School). In this project, I explored the experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning (LGBTQQ) youths and their straight identifying allies to uncover the meanings they assign to being a straight ally in a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), a queer friendly space. I discovered three key themes: First, the straight ally is constructed within a context of power and privilege, or what I conceptualize as the compulsory alliance. Both LGBTQQ youths and their straight allies view allies as necessary for the power of the overall club. In terms of the compulsory alliance, like compulsory heterosexuality (Rich 1980), heterosexual allies are rendered largely invisible in the GSA. They are allowed unconditional access to all GSA activities, without understanding the significance of their participation. The second theme I uncovered is a discourse of ally criticism, whereby largely lesbian and queer identifying girls criticized straight ally participation. Some ally critics may value the role of the straight ally as a supporter who brings legitimacy to the group, while others reject the GSA because straight ally participation taints the space as “unsafe.” Finally, I uncovered highly gendered relationships within the GSA. Specifically, straight boys rarely attended meetings, while straight girls and gay boys were vocal participants in the meetings. I argue that the ways in which straight ally girls participated in the GSA contributed to a marginalization of queer-identified girls. My overall findings challenge current practices of GSAs that unconditionally invite straight allies, who embody straight privilege into queer-friendly spaces. Thus, I argue that we need to rethink the ways in which we construct the 3 straight ally, and consider a post-ally discourse where students are allowed and encouraged to create queer-only clubs within schools. 4 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Table of Contents 5 Acknowledgements 8 Chapter One: Introduction 12 Organization of this dissertation 17 A Note on Acronyms 20 Chapter Two: From Elimination to Necessity: Gay Teachers, Adult Allies, and High School GSAs in Historical and Current Contexts 22 The Campaign Against Gay Teachers 23 LGBTQQ Youth and the Emergence of Gay-Straight Alliances 26 The GSA as a ‘Safe Space’ 29 GSAs Under Attack 31 The Inclusion of Straight Allies 35 The Park High School Gay-Straight Alliance 37 Conclusion 42 Chapter Three: Literature Review and Theoretical Frameworks 44 Gender and Heterosexual Privilege 44 Sexualities as Social Constructions 46 Children, Schools, and Sexuality 50 5 Research on GSAs 51 Ally Discourse 51 Situating the Study 55 Chapter Four: Methods: Doing Ethnography in a High School 57 Origins of this Project 58 Methodology 59 Proposing my Research 62 Research Site 68 Participants 70 Ethics 75 Coding Data 78 Following my Data 79 Limitations in Data Gathering 80 Chapter Five: Constructing the Compulsory Ally 82 Who is an Ally in the Park GSA? 84 Constructing the (Straight) Ally 95 “It’s an everyone problem!”: The Compulsory Alliance in the Park GSA 97 The (In)Visible Allies in the Park GSA 108 Discussion 115 Chapter Six: “It’s like a puppy or a trenchcoat…”: Ally critics, Othering, and Sameness in the Park GSA 120 The Ally Critics 123 6 The Meanings of ‘Ally’ for the Straight Ally Critics 131 Straight Allies and the Positioning of LGBTQQ Youths as others 134 Criticizing the Ally Discourse 135 Allies and the Safe Space 139 Discussion: LGBTQQ Allies for Straight People? 141 Chapter Seven: “I’ve always wanted a gay family member!”: Gendered Allies 145 And Alliances in a High School GSA Why Straight Girls Joined the GSA and Straight Boys Didn’t 147 The Unique Case of Holden 152 Gendered Responses to Assault and Harassment: The Cases of Stella and Kate 153 Discussion: LGBTQQ Allies for Straight People? 161 Chapter Eight: Conclusion: Rethinking the Straight Ally 165 Limitations 167 Future Considerations 170 Appendix A 175 Appendix B 177 References 182 7 Acknowledgments Like many who have written dissertations before me, particularly those who embark on the tumultuously rewarding experience of ethnographic research with children, I’ve emerged at the completion of this project with the unconditional love and support of so many inspirational family members, friends, and mentors, for without each of you, I could not have risen to this accomplishment. To all of my academic mentors, you continued to push my thinking in directions I was afraid to go. To Jennifer Karas, my first sociology professor, and the reason I changed majors to move into sociology. You’ve become more than a professor to me, but more importantly, you’ve become a friend, and a mentor—a strong woman whom I admire more than you know. To Audrey Sprenger, I would have never pursued my PhD if not for you. I so deeply admired your views of the world, and of the discipline, and you were an integral part of shaping my dream. To David Shneer, who has been a teacher, a friend, and a mentor to me since I was an undergraduate history major trying to make sense of Trotskyism in America, thank you for always challenging me and believing in me, and most importantly, for always making time for me when I gave you such short notice. To Wini Breines, the reason I chose Northeastern University as my home for graduate school, it was such an honor to work with you. Your brilliance in all you’ve done for feminism and social change will forever inspire me. To CJ Pascoe, it was your first article on Jocks and Gender that resonated more with me than anything I’d read about masculinity and boys, and I’m forever grateful that you gave me the gift of your time when so many others were asking for your attention too. I’ve learned so much from you. To Danny Faber, I can never 8 thank you enough for being there for me, whether it was noon or midnight. You helped guide me through some of my hardest moments in this process, and I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. To Gordana Rabrenovic, thank you for always being a constant and calming source of inspiration. You’ve always made me feel like all will be OK, and I needed that more than you may know. To Hava Gordon, I am so indebted to your constant support, brilliant mind, constructive criticism, and for just believing (at times more than I did), that I would get to this moment. I can never thank you enough for helping me out of the fog of my latest thinking and encouraging me to believe in what I was doing. You’ve given me so much confidence. And finally, to Alan Klein. I remember being so nervous to ask you to chair my committee, because I wanted to be one of the best grad students you’d ever worked with. I may not be, but know that I tried so damn hard. You pushed me to follow my data at times that I felt so hopeless and confused, and after those conversations I was so inspired to keep going. You have such a gift of calming anxiety when I was unable to do it myself, while challenging me to push a little further to get where I needed to be. From you, I’ve gained a tremendous knowledge of ethnography, and I will always take that wisdom with me in any field project. To my closest friends, Amy Hughes, Ali Walton, Emily Williams, and Laura Grassi, your support and encouragement means the world to me. You and your families have become our families, as each of you was there for my children when I couldn’t be. You anticipated my needs before I could even recognize them myself, and that is the greatest gift you could give someone going through this process. I truly enjoyed each of our wine nights when we laughed, cried, and just shared together. Those times and your friendships gave me perspective to see why I was doing this to begin with. Your love and kindness lifted me out of some of my darkest moments in this process, and I am forever indebted to you. 9 To my colleagues in the sociology department at Northeastern, Sean Brown and Leandra Smollin, thank you for being there for me when I needed some guidance through this often confusing process. This project would not be complete if it weren’t for the young people and the teachers who entrusted me with their knowledge, feelings, emotions, and allowed me access to a space that wasn’t my own. Each of you is so incredibly brave and I am so inspired by all you are doing to change the world. To my family, who loves me unconditionally: My grandfather, Bertrand, my aunts Lisa, Diane, Danica, Barbara, Chris, Kristen; my uncles, Gaetan, Richard, David, Roger, Robert; and to my cousins: Kevin, Jason, RJ, Dean, Sonya, Nicole, Katelyn, Jonathan, Evelyn, Brandon, Emily, and Damon, thank you for all of your love and support.
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