• [“As a Sort of Blanket Term”: Qualitative Analysis of Queer Sexual Identity Marking]: In what ways is queer sexual identity marking both similar to and distinct from other forms of sexuality marking? 

It is the individual’s conscious and unconscious ways of socially identifying themselves to others as both distinctively unique and socially involved. Just as heterosexuals engage in marking when their sexuality is challenged or suggested to be something other than heterosexual, an act to assert themselves in their self proclaimed gender roled, meanwhile non-heterosexual individuals could either desire to distinguish themselves as being outside the “heterosexual normative” and wish to communicate this to other similarly minded people, they may also be in a position where this is not culturally, politically, or socially accepted behavior and instead seek to hide or diminish those same signals to others.  Heterosexual individuals engage in heterosexual marking when their sexual identity is questioned, challenged, or suggested to be something non-heterosexual meanwhile non-heterosexual’s may engage in marking either to reinforce there sexuality or to mitigate the claims against it. This idea of a binary system is a challenge to modern understanding because people are not limited to a binary scale of seual orientation and we are seeing more and more views and beliefs that further challenge it. Queer as a use for an umbrella term to target all non-cisgender or non-heterosexually indentifying individuals limits others understanding of how wide and varied sexual orientation and identity really is by using an umbrella term to refer to anything not included in teh normative narrative of sexuality. 

• [Queering Curriculum Studies]: What does integrating queerness into curriculum studies mean to you? What will it look like, sound like, feel like in your classroom?[Post-gay, Political, and Pieced Together- Queer Expectations of Straight Allies]: This research suggests that the idea of allyship is not fixed but can vary within a marginalized population, having different meanings for different people. With this in mind, what are teacher implications for allyship?

To me integrating queerness into the curriculum looks like the point at which people have changed on a social level where non-heterosexualities are treated in such a way that they are no different than any other member of society. An individuals sexual orientation should not impact the way they are viewed or treated in any environment and the thought of attaching stigmatized misconceptions towards such any such person is appalling. Sexual identity is just a single part of everyone’s identity regardless of the orientation and people should not feel judged or restricted when it comes to their expression of that identity. Non-cisgender and non-heterosexual people should not be viewed or presented as an “other” just because they challenge the heterosexual normative narrative because this treats them as a foreign concept or identity and creates barriers to social ”Any repopulation of queerness in curriculum studies has to interrogate these logics of White supremacy so that it doesn’t slide into becoming merely the rehabilitation of White, Western lesbian and gay perspectives and bodies.” We need to remember that this is not just approaching the issue of non-heterosexual identities in Western society but about the global situation. When we limit the issue to the Western dominantly white perspective we are creating limitations and further issues for those who identify themselves as non-heterosexual but do not fall within that limited social view. Targeting the social stigma at its source by actively challenging and changing the views of students at a young age and in all cultural environments by showing and teaching them that being non-heterosexual is not a break from normality but another fact of what we perceive as “normal”. A teachers goal is to prepare the students for life after education and this includes making them aware of and educated on the topic of gender identity including non-heterosexual identities by challenging the “straight” normative as being ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ in anyway and instead showing that each is an expression of personal identity. Inequality is unequal regardless of what group of people is being marginalized, treating gender identity as being limited to one “proper” way is the act of denying students and people the opportunity to express themselves in a way that is representative of themselves as individuals. A teacher’s job is to only further a student’s capability of expressing their individualism and provide them those opportunities in a socially supportive manner that they may otherwise not have access to. When we as educators are enforcing limitations rather than presenting opportunities then we are no longer providing for a students growth but instead trying to shape them into a falsely reinforced “ideal” normative that does not accurately reflect them as an individual.