Introduction

Sexuality in schools has been characterised by its simultaneous presence and absence from view. Those who do not identify as heterosexual or cisgender have been rendered invisible through silence and avoidance or made visible as the targets of policies and approaches that seek to ‘include’, ‘protect’ and create ‘safe’ spaces for wounded LGBT-Q sexualities. Furthermore, liberal societal discourses that forefront the ‘celebration’ of diversity and an imperative to ‘come out’ position LGBT-Q sexualities on a linear temporality of progress that suggests that things will get ‘better’ in the future. Such approaches and discourses largely position LGBT-Q sexualities as ‘other’, leaving what Adrienne Rich (1980) called ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ unmarked and intact. Michael Warner (1993) used the term ‘heteronormativity’ to denote how heterosexuality works pervasively as the ideal basis for all gender relations. In my experience of schooling and my time as a secondlevel teacher in Ireland, I have observed and waded through the workings of heteronormativity. Later in this introduction, I describe in more detail how I am thoroughly enmeshed in the subject matter of this book, but for now, suffice to say that I have not come to this project as a detached observer. This book is not an attempt to throw off the shackles of silence and celebrate a unified LGBT-Q identity. Nor does it seek to prescribe or instruct on how to make life better for those who identify as LGBT-Q. Instead, this book begins from the starting point of the experiences of LGBT-Q teachers as they entered into a legal structure for a same-sex relationship to explore the ways in which schools hinge on, work through and orientate around (hetero)sexuality.