Complicity, trauma, love: an exploration of the experiences of LGBTQIA+ members from physical education spaces

The dearth of research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual plus (LGBTQIA+) members within the physical education (PE) community, is of great concern; to some degree members of this community are invisible in the profession. The unfortunate reality is that PE is largely recognised as a heteronormative space with deeply rooted gendered practices that often go unacknowledged. In PE, the high visibility of one’s body, and the value placed on ‘select’ bodies, uncovers and reinforces society’s ‘isms’ such as ‘genderism’ and ‘heterosexism’. The constantly recycled dualistic understanding of these social identities has made PE an ‘exclusive’ space. Drawing on feminism and poststructuralism as our theoretical lens, this scholarly collaboration utilised a collaborative autoethnography from intersectional voices who identify as members of the LGBTQIA + community (a lesbian teacher, bi-sexual teacher educator, transgender student, and an ally), to explore our experiences from the PE space. Data were generated by several qualitative methods, initially from our individual narratives, which then ‘birthed’ poetry and visual artefacts. Our findings highlighted how complicity helps to maintain the heteronormative space, the never-ending nature of trauma, and the love that we experienced in various forms. Moreover, we all expressed a love of PE, even if/when it conflicts with our ‘bodies’. We leave this as an unfinished collaboration filled with hope and love; one that invites you to join us in solidarity to create a safe, welcoming space for every member of our community.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sport, Education and Society on 08 Nov 2022, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13573322.2022.2141216.