LJ Slovin

Since transgender and queer youth defy the dominant gender and sexuality norms that operate in North American schools, they often face challenges regarding their safety and success in formal educational spaces. Although schools are starting to address this issue, they frequently overlook non-binary youth. Non-binary youth, who do not identify as either boys or girls, work especially hard to navigate diverse contexts because their identities resist stable categories of gender (boy/girl) and sexuality (gay/straight). This study seeks to understand the complexity of non-binary youths’ experiences in schools by asking: how do non-binary youth navigate their relationships with teachers, peers, extra-curricular activities, policies, and the curriculum? I aim to move beyond documenting the multiple obstacles students encounter in order to consider what can become possible when schools and teachers welcome youth’s incoherence, ambiguity, and fluidity.