Do Progressive High Schools Facilitate Queer Joy? Written and Illustrated by Stephanie Liu
In the fall, I discussed how internalized homophobia produced complicated feelings about my old middle school’s increasingly progressive attitudes towards queer identities and rising numbers of “out” queer students. I unpacked my slight resentment toward those queer students, who seem to have an easier
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time exploring their queer identities out in the open since they exist in a less oppressive environment. Since writing my fall zine article, I have reexamined my assumptions about how the setting of a progressive school contributes to experiences of queer joy in young students. As a middle and high schooler, my queer joy had little to do with school at first — I didn’t feel like I had any
