ABSTRACT
The previous chapter demonstrated how investments in state recognition and legal legitimacy brought new feelings of confidence and created moments of potentiality in schools. I illustrated the dynamics of power in receiving the ‘gift’ of state recognition and collegial affirmation, arguing that gratefulness for such gifts necessitates certain homonormative performances. I also alerted to how new boundaries of legitimacy, established by attachments to legal structures for same-sex relationships, continue to have exclusionary effects. This chapter turns its attention to the ambivalences of cultural legitimacy.
