Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues in Academic Studies Advisory Committee

Function: To develop plans for making the NCTE annual convention a safe and welcoming place for lesbians and gay men to be out and at ease in their identities; to initiate, sustain, and provide a space for a conversation about the relevance of gendered, sexual and affectional identities to reading and writing lives, to teaching lives, and to the well-being of students; to promote inquiry into issues of sexuality and identity in the teaching of literacy and literature, to encourage the proposal for presentation of such inquiry through public meetings such as the annual convention, and to support individuals in the production of publishable written reports of such inquiry; to move away from post-hoc preparation of sessions toward a program that is selected completely from sessions proposed, by the deadline, through the regular process; and to select excellent proposals for inclusion in the LGBT strand for annual convention.

What major actions or projects have been completed by your group since July 1, 2005?

a. Establishment of a liaison with NCTE to facilitate communication and administrative tasks. Linda Walters was appointed to help facilitate our communication with headquarters and to distribute materials we prepare to the appropriate officers and committees.

b. The establishment of a listserv to provide better communication among GSEA members.

c. Establishment of a web page on . Our goal is to be able to consistently inform our membership and general NCTE membership about LGBT issues through the group’s listserv, newsletter, and web site and provide professional development materials on related issues.

d. Revision of two documents:

• GSEA Mission Statement: “The purpose of this Assembly is to provide a forum for ongoing and sustained discussion among all individuals who share a professional commitment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) students, teachers, issues, and academic materials as they pertain to the teaching of English at all levels of instruction. The Assembly is committed to the inclusion of LGBT issues and texts in English studies and English language arts classrooms, fostering research and scholarship, addressing heterosexism and homophobia in academic and school settings, supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans students and teachers, and broadening cultural diversity through more inclusive understandings of difference. The Assembly disseminates information to its members and sponsors sessions at NCTE each year. Members receive a newsletter. Annual dues are $10 per year ($25 for 3 years.) For information, visit the GSEA Web page at: .”
• Call of Convention Strands. “Please check the LGBT Strand box for proposals pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students and educators along with their families, colleagues, and classrooms.  When selecting LGBT Strand sessions, reviewers look for proposals that address sexual and affectional orientation, gender identity and expression, critical pedagogy, and democratic teaching practices.  Reviewers seek proposals that encourage the creation of safer, more welcoming and inclusive schools and a broad understanding of diversity for all members of the educational community.”

e. Decision to change our name to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Academic Studies Advisory Committee (LGBT Advisory Committee). Members of the Advisory Committee requested that the EC change the Committee’s name as soon as possible to reflect our commitment to welcoming transgender members into the organization, and to addressing trans issues in the national convention and in NCTE publications. The Executive Committee made the change this fall.

What projects, initiatives, or studies are “in progress” at this time?

a. Posting LGBT resources, professional development materials, and bibliographies on our web page.

b. The language subcommittee of the GSEA wishes to be of service to NCTE concerning language, especially terminology, related to LGBT issues. This is not an easy issue because language in LGBT communities has been very fluid. Language has been one way in which LGBT people have been most oppressed as well as one way LGBT people have taken to free themselves from oppression.  Our desire for a name change for our committee is related to these concerns. While considering the question of language, we also wish to emphasize that we are against any form of censorship. Initiatives being undertaken by the subcommittee include working on:

• A document about the memberships’ use of accurate and appropriate language when discussing issues of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.
• An article for the Council Chronicle, and/or creating a kit.
• A draft document for presenters, proposal writers, and NCTE sections and working committees about avoiding heterosexist language and language that is negative about non-normative gender expression and identity.

b. The Advisory Board and GSEA continue to request that, where appropriate, the LGBT strand be able to cosponsor sessions with all other strands.

c. The Advisory Board is reviewing NCTE texts and will make recommendations to include LGBT language and issues where appropriate.

d. To remedy the lack of communication between the LGBT groups in NCTE and CCCC, The Advisory Board is recommending that John Pruitt serve as our liaison with CCCC.

e. Working on the history of LGBT activities within NCTE.

f. Offering to advise publications committees of NCTE on topics for publication and quality of submissions related to LGBT issues.

Strategic Governance: Over the past two years, the NCTE Executive Committee has established outcomes and priorities relating to these key topics in our field: Teacher Quality, Adolescent Literacy, Assessment, Writing, Multimodal Literacy and Technology, Research and Teaching, and English Language Learners. Currently, they are investigating the broad topic of professional development for literacy educators.

Does your group have research findings or suggestions to contribute that are relevant to on-going work on these strategic governance topics?

a. A priority for Teacher Quality should be to educate all teachers about LGBT issues and how they impact everyone associated with schools: students, faculty, administrators, and family members. While several states, such as Massachusetts, require all teachers to have some background in LGBT issues, many states do not. In the coming years the GSEA will be lending its support to organizations doing educational work on these issues in schools, i.e., the Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation (CESO) in Chicago that has initiated the “Pre-Professional Preparation Project,” a research project designed to help Illinois colleges and universities include these issues in teacher preparation programs. The NCTE EC should support these efforts.

b. Professional development for literacy educators should include knowledge of adolescent literature that includes LGBT characters and themes.

c. Research and teaching should include research on working with LGBT themes and students from elementary through high school.

d. We will be working on issues of censorship and self-censorship are important to our members and to LGBT students and teachers of literacy and English language arts.

Paula Ressler, Chair