Vicars, Mark ORCID: 0000-0003-0684-2180 and Tartakover, Sarah (2023) Creating Relating Stories: Fragmentating the Social Fabric of Heteronormativity through Critical Media Literacies. International Journal of Critical Media Literacy. pp. 178-196. ISSN 2590-0102

Abstract

The problematics of social and academic participation for LGBTQI+ youth in school communities is often how stigmatising relational dynamics become the dominant narrative influenced by legislation that habitually inscribes absence of inclusivity in educational domains. Lavietes & Ramos (2022) report how in the US ‘670 anti-LGBTQI+ bills have been filed since 2018 skyrocketing from 41 bills in 2018 to 238 bills in 2022. In 2013, the Australian Federal government passed the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status Amendment Act that allows religious schools and organisations to discriminate based on sexual orientation. In 2017, The Safe School’s program which centred around inclusive curriculum practice was shut down and in 2019, the Health Legislation Amendment Bill was passed which does not ban conversion therapy that takes place outside of healthcare domains. In 2020 Education Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill was proposed to prohibit the teaching of gender fluidity in schools and in 2022 a Brisbane school demanded that families sign anti-gay and anti-trans enrolment contracts which branded homosexuality as “sinful, offensive and destructive” and lumped it into the same category as paedophilia and incest (Foster, 2022). This paper draws on a year level 7 project-based located in an urban Australian school in which students were invited to conduct research on an issue they cared about. In 2022 there were several student groups who undertook projects around LGBTQIA+ inclusion. Students co-design in partnership with LGBTQIA+ pre-service teachers co-designed an animation on gender identity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqVLEYeMSV4 In this paper we discuss how the creation of a queered critical literacy/ media product generated pedagogical opportunities to explore queer and trans topics in educational spaces (Vicars & Van Toledo 2021).

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