A Special Edition of NYU Metro Center’s Voices in Urban Education (VUE) Focuses on Queer and Trans Youth Resistance Within Oppressive Systems

Posted by Pharoah Cranston on 2023-07-24

Newly minted laws force families with trans children to seek gender reaffirming care in states other than where they reside. Twenty different states across the country “... have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for trans minors …”(Alfonseca, 2023). This contemporary moment finds that queer and trans youth, “... and what they do with their own bodies and lives, are increasingly the focus of politicians’ campaigns, parents’ self-help groups, and pop-culture commentary”(Coston, 2023). The Movement Advancement Project (2023) reports that more than 650 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills have been introduced into statehouses in the United States during the 2022-2023 legislative session. It is this climate of trepidation, anguish, and concern that grievously impacts queer and trans communities across the country, and also precedes the latest edition of Voices in Urban Education (VUE). This contemporary moment finds that queer and trans youth, “... and what they do with their own bodies and lives, are increasingly the focus of politicians’ campaigns, parents’ self-help groups, and pop-culture commentary”(Coston, 2023).

The Movement Advancement Project (2023) reports that more than 650 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills have been introduced into statehouses in the United States during the 2022-2023 legislative session. It is this climate of trepidation, anguish, and concern that grievously impacts queer and trans communities across the country, and also precedes the latest edition of Voices in Urban Education (VUE).

This new, special issue of NYU Metro Center’s open-access journal, Voices in Urban Education (VUE), “... focuses on queer and trans resistance to epistemic, political, and social control and violence within educational systems. The pieces ask us to look back to think forward, are inter- or transgenerational, feature the work/ideas/stories of youth themselves, and are attentive to the intersectional nature of oppression in the United States”(Coston, 2023).

VUE Volume 51, Issue 2 entitled, ACTing UP and Looking Forward: Resistance and Resilience in Queer and Trans Education is now hosted on Janeway – a free, open source publishing platform developed by the Centre for Technology and Publishing at Birkbeck, University of London, to support the goal of the Open Library of Humanities, an open-access publisher.

NYU Metro Center’s Voices in Urban Education (VUE) seeks to cover a wide range of disciplines with a strong emphasis on intersectional, interdisciplinary perspectives aimed at examining successes, problems, and questions in policy, advocacy, as well as teaching and learning practices in urban education.

VUE is a publication that pays particular attention to pieces that highlight the experiences in urban education along the lines of gender, race, sexual identity, dis/ability, language, ethnicity, religion, and indigenous or immigration status. As an open access journal, Voices in Urban Education aims to disseminate important, topical, relevant, and urgent research, thoughts, and commentary to a wide audience.

This edition of VUE intentionally recognizes the astounding resistance and resilience that queer and trans communities demonstrate during this unprecedented time of anti-transgender violence. Finding inspiration in the robust and courageous cadres of queer and trans adults, youth, and their allies, as they resist and organize against both homophobia and transphobia, the editors and authors of Voices in Urban Education purposefully utilize the text to impress upon readers in the importance of not just what equity looks like, but also the importance of hope. A sentiment akin to what Audre Lorde shared with the graduating class of Oberlin College back in 1989, “... I do have hope. To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair—despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless” (Riemer & Brown, n.d.).

This edition of VUE examines the following:

The intersection of music, queer and trans students, and the transdisciplinary potential of maker-education for liberating students in our traditional confines of biopolitical schooling enclosures.

The inherent limitations of reformist cis imagination and resulting education policy and linguistic failures, specifically within a project to create LGBTQ+ inclusive symbol iconicity for students with disabilities that primarily utilize AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) systems.

Trans formative Schools (TfS) and the efficacy of transing education by centering transness in co-constructed student-centered spaces will embolden youth to enlist the tools to read and write power that will lead them to lives dedicated to collective liberation.

Commentary on the queer artist and activist, Keith Haring.

Interview with author Sophia Tonnessen (she/they) compiled by Brynn H. Bryn H. is a trans woman currently in her junior year of high school.

Poem and creative writing by Alexander Doe (he/him).

Poem by Galaxy Kids, a group for young people 4-12 about gender, gender identity, and the various ways humans can connect and be in relationship and/or community.

Queer art educators interrogate the intersections of religion, education, the arts, and LGBTQ identities through an annual performance session called "Big Gay Church" (BGC).

The articles and features shared in this edition of VUE aim to inspire radical change and school transformation. VUE, Volume 51, Issues 2, challenges educators to “... transform your pedagogical approaches, make genuine space and time for queer and trans students to express themselves and gain access to the information they desire, and/or begin to think through what kinds of strategies, policies, and/or programs may be necessary to subvert the systems that continue to censure, exclude, and attempt to eradicate our histories and voices”(Coston, 2023).

This new issue of Voices in Urban Education (VUE), titled ACTing UP and Looking Forward: Resistance and Resilience in Queer and Trans Education is available here.