LGBTQ+ Professionals’ Euphorias! Site-specific Shifts in LGBTQ+ Education Staff’s Happiness & Comfort

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) education professionals have been portrayed negatively in education research literature and can be fired in religious institutions. This chapter investigates 229 LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphorias in their employing education institutions. Almost half of LGBTQ+ staff were euphoric about their identities at school especially if out or in urban/suburban contexts. Many were euphoric often. Institutional Inclusion, Acceptance, and Pride Generativity euphorias dominated. Over two-thirds of staff reported changes to euphorias, including (1) site-specific shifts in Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias depending on the support employment bodies and communities, employment security and safety concerns and (2) a less pronounced slow increase of Community Connection euphoria, especially relative to the disclosure, education, and activist efforts of colleagues. Changes had site-specific or variable qualities.

Key Points

• Under half of LGBTQ+ staff experience education-based euphorias; the likelihood decreased for those who were closeted or in rural settings.

• LGBTQ+ staff euphorias were volatile: experienced often or sometimes; and changing over time for over two-thirds of staff.

• Staffs’ dominant Institutional Inclusion, Acceptance, and Pride Generativity euphorias align with their needs for fidelity across professional and LGBTQ+ identities, pedagogical intimacy and connection.

• LGBTQ+ staffs have site-specific shifts in Institutional Inclusion & Acceptance euphorias across their careers.

• Employment, safety, and rejection concerns can outweigh professionals’ euphoric will.

Introduction

The Headmaster asked me about my partner and family life and inferred a gender by asking ‘what does he do? Your partner?’ I felt that a powerful moment that this school was going to support me because they valued me as a professional for the job and my sexual orientation was a non-event. (Roscoe, Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs on site-specific Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphoria, sparked by his religious employer)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) professionals in education contexts (including principals, school/TAFE/university educators, administrators and others) have been portrayed negatively in historic and contemporary research literature [1, 2]. Used as objects of fear in media and political debates, in some Australian and international jurisdictions they can be legally fired under religious institutions’ anti-discrimination law exemptions [1, 2]. This chapter briefly reviews the literature on LGBTQ+ education professionals to emphasise its deviance lenses. It then considers affirming LGBTQ+ staff experiences in schools—continuing Chaps. 3 and 4’s presentation of LGBTQ+ You data.

Deviating LGBTQ+ Staff in Education Research

Research literature on LGBTQ+ staff and education staff on LGBTQ+ issues includes both quantitative and qualitative studies on teachers’ capacity to affect homophobia [3] and coverage of sexuality or LGBTQ+ issues [4]. There have additionally been historical investigations on their contributions to sexuality education discourses particularly in Australia [2, 5]. Such studies highlighted the historic association of gay identity with potential deviant/paedophilic teacher seductions of students (found in older psychology/psychiatry discourses which falsely construed homosexuals as necessarily mentally ill, infectious predators). Some research emphasises that teachers can:

• be unwilling or under-prepared to engage with LGBTQ+ inclusive syllabi [5,6,7];

• risk being labelled ‘deviant’ for addressing LGBTQ+ issues or being LGBTQ+ [1, 8];

• or find themselves in a precarious employment position where tackling LGBTQ+ issues [6, 9].

Little research specifically explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ education staff. Where it exists this work mainly comes from the United States and the United Kingdom [10, 11]. Australasian literature suggests that gay and lesbian teachers struggle to address homophobia or LGBTQ+ student issues, sometimes expressing concern about employment security [1, 10]. Interviews, surveys, and focus groups showed LGBTQ+ professionals navigate tricky private and professional boundaries and complex identity disclosure terrain. These concerns are compounded by the lack of positive historical representations of themselves LGBTQ+ education professionals can draw on, and being viewed with a suspicion reserved for the criminally deviant [10].

Redressing Professional Euphoria Research Gaps

Positive framings of LGBTQ+ education staff are lacking [1, 8, 12], and studies ignore professionals’ euphorias. This chapter asks:

• 1. How can we characterise typical euphoric (happy or comfortable) experiences of LGBTQ+ education staff, and their influences?

• 2. How do these euphorias typically change over time, and what influences changes?

The following data derive from the 2021–2022 LGBTQ+ You study’s 229 staff surveys (Chap. 3 outlines methodology and methods).

LGBTQ+ You Staff Survey Findings

Existence of Professionals’ Euphorias

Of the 229 LGBTQ+ staff aged 18+yrs who responded to, ‘Have you ever felt happy or comfortable (euphoric) about your LGBTQ+ identity in your school of employment?’, 111 (48.5%) had felt euphoric; 91 (39.7%) had never; and 27 (11.8%) were unsure (Fig. 5.1). Table 5.1 reveals how education professionals’ demographics and euphorias intersected. There were no reliable relationships between professionals’ euphorias and their age, sex assignation, Indigeneity, CALD, dis/ability, gender, sexuality; or education institution state, type or level. Table 5.2 displays the significance of LGBTQ+ professionals’ decreased likelihood of euphoria in rural schools (p < 0.05) or for LGBTQ+ identity concealment (p < 0.001).

Fig. 5.1

Whether LGBTQ+ staff felt euphoric about identity in education

Table 5.1 LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphorias versus demographics

Table 5.2 Relationships between LGBTQ+ education professionals’ euphorias and demographics

Frequency of Professionals’ Euphorias

Professionals who experienced euphorias were asked ‘How often have you felt happy or comfortable (euphoric) about your LGBTQ+ identity in your school of employment?’. Figure 5.2 shows most selected often’ (38.7%) or ‘sometimes’ (36.0%). Fewer selected always (16.2%) or rarely (9%).

Fig. 5.2

LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphoric frequency

LGBTQ+ Professionals’ Euphorias

Staffs were asked: ‘Please tell us a time when you felt particularly euphoric (happy or comfortable) about your LGBTQ+ identity in your workplace’. Leximancer exposed five themes in their 107 write-in responses: students, felt, day, gay and partner (Fig. 5.3).

Fig. 5.3

Leximancer map for LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphoria descriptions (N=107)

‘Students’: Institutional Inclusion Euphoria Dominant for Staff

The largest Leximancer-identified theme for staff euphorias was ‘student’ (130 hits, 100% relationality to all other concepts). It expressed LGBTQ+ staffs’ feelings of happiness and euphoria from institutional efforts at direct inclusion, sometimes directly negating exclusion possibilities (sub-concepts: students, school, staff, support, community, happy, class, work, euphoric). Sometimes institutional inclusion for individuals’ own identities sparked euphoria. For example, Paisleigh (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) said of her WA private primary-school ‘My wife and I work at the same school and all the staff have accepted us with open arms and are very supportive’. Sophia (Bisexual Trans-female, 56–65yrs) explained that in her religious Victorian high-school:

I was outed because a staff member saw my Facebook profile and drew the correct conclusion that I, the male member of staff was this trans woman (…) the leadership class, Principal and a selection of vice principals supported my right to be who I am. They argued on my behalf that the College would stand by the Catholic principles of community, we support each other and diversity. I think you can understand the essences of the euphoric moment there, potentially the outing of me could’ve lead to me losing my job.

Helga (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) experienced euphoria over inclusion efforts at a QLD private religious high-school:

When the school priest included lgbtiq people in prayer. When the class was supportive of diverse students and (…) to know that over time I had contributed to it and that this was a pure expression of support for self through supporting wider (and especially younger) members of the community sharing my identity or similar.

Other LGBTQ+ staff felt euphorias over general inclusion efforts. Larry (Gay Cis-male, 46–55yrs) enjoyed his public NSW high-school’s ‘Wear it Purple Day when you see how many teachers support the wellbeing of LGBTQ community’. Ellison (Bisexual Cis-female, 36–45yrs) said at her Victorian public high school: ‘I feel happy & comfortable with my students & other staff’. Thus for staff, Institutional Inclusion euphoria evident in the ‘students’ theme was the central and dominant euphoria. It had relationships to most euphorias, visible in Leximancer map overlaps with ‘felt’, ‘day’ and ‘gay’ themes (thus Pride Generativity, and Acceptance euphorias as explained following), and a link to ‘partner’ (Category Validation euphorias).

‘Felt’, ‘Gay’ and ‘Partner’: Staffs’ Acceptance Euphoria Underlined Colleagues

Acceptance Euphoria emerged within ‘felt’ (90 hits, 50% relationality), ‘gay’ (25 hits, 20% relationality), and ‘partner’ (13 hits, 18% relationality). ‘Felt’ captured LGBTQ+ and especially transgender staffs’ comfort and safety from acceptance of their identities, or others’ (sub-concepts: felt, comfortable, identity, teacher, people, safe, time, colleagues, talk, accepted, gender, correct, pronouns). Usually stories emphasised colleagues’ acceptance. Delmar (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) emphasised long-term comfort from acceptance with NSW public primary-school colleagues; ‘All colleagues knew of my sexual orientation and it was never an issue for any’. Stephanie’s (Bisexual Cis-female, 36–45yrs) said in her K-12 NSW public school, ‘I have felt comfortable discussing my identity when I have felt safe with colleagues. This took time, building trust and rapport with them’. Conversely, Carolina (Lesbian Cis-female, 26–35yrs) described euphoria one incident type at a SA public primary-school: ‘I think the biggest time I felt comfortable was when I say my partners name, and my colleagues don’t react. It makes me feel accepted for who I am and who I am with’.

Trans staff members often listed off multiple moments they were accepted around their gender. For example, Julianna (Straight Trans-female, 18–25yrs) had euphorias at her public NSW high-school over:

• Being accepted wearing dresses/skirts as a transgender female (no student or colleague has openly questioned it or pointed it out).

• Being known as Ms (and feeling comfortable/safe enough to correct people if they accidentally misgender me).

• Students and colleagues asking (very politely) for my preferred pronouns and apologise if they accidentally misgender me.

• Students treat me respectfully in terms of my gender identity (I still find classroom management challenging, but mostly because I am a first-year teacher more so because of my gender).

Finlay (Questioning Sexuality Non-Binary Person, 26–35yrs) had many euphorias at a public NSW high-school:

I used a Wear it Purple Day celebration to let students and staff know that I was a nonbinary person. I think this was a particularly nerve-racking event but the euphoric moments came in the weeks following this event, overhearing students correct each other who were giving me the prefix Ms/sir. I additionally felt a sense of euphoria during weekly lunchtime sessions with the lunch time GSA I facilitated, observing students feel comfortable to talk about how they are feeling and use their preferred pronouns and/or names in a safe space.

The ‘gay’ theme expressed gay and lesbian staffs’ comfort and safety from social acceptance where their identities, or others’ identities, were expressed openly (sub-concepts: gay, openly, lesbian, able). Casimer (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) felt euphoria in a public SA high-school just ‘being able to be myself and share my life experience being a gay man’. Kadence’s (Lesbian Cis-female, 66+yrs) euphoria triggered at a public NSW primary-school when straight colleagues were ‘supportive of gay and lesbian issues and those friends (straight) provided many happy times’ or when LGBTIQ+ colleagues let her ‘talk naturally with someone without first thinking would they become negative to me if I somehow disclose my lesbianism’. Lance’s (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) euphorias generated over acceptance from and for a public NSW high-school’s students:

conversations about LGBT people from our students also reflect a strong sense of acceptance. I have several openly gay students in my class, and (as far as I can tell), there has been no issues with their peers.

Finally, the overlapping singular ‘partner’ theme depicted acceptance for staff’s same-sex or non-binary lovers. At a public NSW high-school event, Aniya’s (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) euphoria kindled upon being accepted with her partner:

This was also not long after the first Covid-19 lockdown so it felt very special to be able to celebrate in person with everyone. It was one of the times I felt most accepted, even celebrated, in my identity as a lesbian/in a same sex couple.

At a NSW public primary-school, Julissa’s (Bisexual Cis-female, 46–55yrs) Acceptance euphoria initiated over being ‘very open about having a female partner and my family’. At a NSW public high-school Abe’s (Gay Cis-male, 56–65yrs) Acceptance euphoria ignited when ‘comfortable to discuss me and my partner with colleagues’. Euphorias could also spark with normalisation of one’s relationship; for example at a public ACT primary-school Ayden (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) said ‘All staff know my partner and there is no awkwardness. This fact doesn’t hurt my career which is great’. At a SA public primary school Summer (Lesbian Cis-female, 46–55yrs) felt Acceptance euphoria when ‘Colleagues always invite my partner to social events. Accept us as normal and valued’. Paityn (Lesbian Cis-female, 46–55yrs) explained her public NSW primary school produces euphorias around ‘General acceptance by other staff members. It is not something I need to flaunt, and as some staff have met my partner it is not a big deal’. Overall professionals’ Acceptance Euphorias were mostly socially driven, and reliant on institutional facilitations and antecedents, so Institutional Inclusion euphoria could also be evident across ‘felt’, ‘gay’, and ‘partner’ theme comments. Leximancer’s map also displayed this inter-euphoric relationship.

‘Day’: Staffs’ Pride Generativity Euphoria Emphasised Risk-taking

‘Day’ also overlapped with the Institutional Inclusion Euphoria experiences staff described, emphasising how these efforts advanced pride within contexts lacking it (37 hits, 28% relationality). It denoted LGBTQ+ staffs’ happiness from aiding institutional efforts at direct inclusion, usually on one specific day, sometimes directly negating past expectations or norms of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment (sub-concepts: day, year, parents). Typically, this staff euphoria involved their organising role in a Wear it Purple Day or other event. Paislee (Lesbian Cis-female, 26–35yrs) for example felt Pride Generativity euphoria at a NSW public high-school:

When I helped organise and facilitate the school’s first Wear it Purple Day and that it has continued to be celebrated each year since then. Seeing this day embraced by the whole school community has been extremely heart-warming and rewarding.

At a public SA high-school, Barney (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) sparked euphoria by discouraging homophobia: ‘The first time we ran an LGBT day of significance at a small country school with rampant homophobia and a high No vote [on marriage equality]’.

Staff also felt Pride Generativity euphoria over their pride efforts’ impacts. Leilani (Bisexual Cis-female, 36–45yrs) had Pride Generativity euphoria over increasing Wear it Purple Day participation at a NSW public primary-school:

I arrived at school dressed in purple and was so scared that I would be the only one (the year before, I had been too scared to tell anyone about WiP, and had just quietly worn purple myself). Heaps of students wore purple, and many of the parents who dropped them off.

Kyler (Gay Non-Binary Person, 46–55yrs) impacted their SA public high-school which was:

pretty keen to have a non-binary staff member so that non-binary and queer students would experience being normalised… I had year 8s one day and they attempted to mock me for not being clearly gendered (according to their narrow views) so I told them I was non-binary and could see the ideas clicking into place in their head.

Barney (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) felt excited by his impacts in: ‘Being able to teach an LGBT specific history lesson with no flak or push back from students, parents or leadership’. Gavin (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) vicariously enjoyed students’ own pride generation at a Victorian public high-school including when year 12s distributed Wear it Purple badges and ‘All the kids in my class took a badge, led by the boys’. For staff, Institutional Inclusion euphoria in the ‘students’ theme overlapped with Pride Generativity euphoria in the ‘day’ theme, when institutional efforts cumulatively garnered positive real-world change for upcoming generations.

Existence of Changes in Professionals’ Euphorias

Staff experiencing education-based euphorias were asked, ‘Has your sense of euphoria (happiness or comfort) with your LGBTQ+ identity changed over time?’. They were most likely (over two-thirds) to select ‘Yes’ (Fig. 5.4).

Fig. 5.4

LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphoric change

Change-trends for Professionals’ Euphorias

Professionals were questioned: ‘Please describe how your sense of euphoria (comfort or happiness) about your LGBTQ+ identity has changed over time’. Leximancer revealed 7 themes across their 73 responses: school, students, working, parents, community, euphoria, and safe (Fig. 5.5).

Fig. 5.5

Leximancer map for LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphoric change descriptions (N=73)

‘School’ & ‘Community’: LGBTQ+ Staff Have Site-Specific Shifts in Institutional Inclusion & Acceptance Euphorias Across Their Careers

The largest Leximancer-identified theme for how LGBTQ+ staff members’ euphorias changed combined ‘school’ (128 hits, 100% relationality) and ‘community’ (20 hits, 18% relationality). This encapsulated how professionals’ Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias changed depending on the education site they attended and people therein (sub-concepts: school, feel, identity, time, comfortable, started, life, people, gender). Starting out in education as an industry, many professionals who later came out and experienced euphorias, were initially closeted and unhappy. For example, Finlay (Questioning Sexuality Non-Binary Person, 26–35yrs) said in their NSW public high-school ‘It felt a lot safer to remain a cis-gendered teacher at school for a long time’ and they previously believed ‘it would be so hard to experience life as a trans/gender diverse individual at school’.

Juliet (Bisexual Cis-female, 26–35yrs) shared:

When I first realised I was queer, aged 12, I was quite confronted and ashamed by it, as I was very religious and at a single-sex school, so I was worried I would lose all my friends.

Ageing supported euphoric change for SA elementary teacher Carolina (Lesbian Cis-female, 26–35yrs):

When I first started working in the school setting after uni, I felt uncomfortable to tell people that I am in a same sex relationship. I hid my partner’s name and gender. I felt this way particularly working in smaller schools. I wanted colleagues and leadership to judge me on my teaching and professionalism rather than my sexuality. As I’ve gotten older and started to accept who I was more and more, I am more open about my partner and who I am.

New jobs in new schools improved many professionals’ euphoric opportunities across their careers. Aniya (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) finally experienced ongoing Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias at her new site, after past sites’ traumas waned:

My [self and my] wife (then girlfriend) were subject to horrific homophobic bullying (bordering on violence—fireworks thrown at our house) and exclusion when we worked rurally in Western NSW. …As a result of this experience, I suffered long term clinical depression and, when we moved back to Sydney, I hid my identity at my new school, a selective school in the Hills with quite a conservative student body. (…) My new school is the most accepting and supportive workplace I have ever experienced, to the point that I never ever think about my identity or second guess what I should reveal.

Murphie’s (Bisexual Non-Binary Person, 36–45yrs) Acceptance euphoria increased as ‘society has become more accepting’, and ‘bullying I have received from senior executive has lessened’. Eli’s (Lesbian Cis-female, 18–25yrs) new WA public high-school kindled Acceptance euphoria:

As I have gotten to know my co-workers better, I have felt more comfortable sharing information about my identity with them. Knowing that they have this information, I have felt more comfortable not dressing within the guidelines of a particular gender, instead dressing in what I feel comfortable with on a day-to-day basis.

Thus, LGBTQ+ education professionals had contextually contingent euphorias. Site-specific Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias were also related to community connections seen in the ‘students’ theme.

‘Students’ & ‘Euphoria’: Community Connection Euphoria Slowly Increasing for Staff

‘Students’ (92 hits, 54% relationality) and ‘euphoria’ (18 hits, 11% relationality) denoted the slow emergence of Community Connection euphoria for LGBTQ+ staff (sub-concepts: students, teacher, staff, sexuality, openly, gay, talk, accepting, private; and euphoria and happy). Professionals’ euphorias increased when students progressively disclosed LGBTQ+ identities or shared supportive cultures. Baron (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) said his euphorias changed slowly at his NSW public primary-school from: ‘My comfort levels in hearing students talk openly about being gay and going from a negative discussion years ago to more positive ones in recent years’. Lance (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) said, ‘My sense of happiness also increased when I learn of openly gay students in the school, as well as the positive and accepting attitude of the students’.

LGBTQ+ staff Community Connection euphoria is also emerging as more LGBTQ+ colleagues come out. For example, Lance (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) recalled at his NSW public high-school job:

After learning of the relatively high number of gay teachers and executive staff at our school, I have grown to feel much more comfortable with my sexual orientation at work. This is true despite that I do not openly talk about my same-sex relationships.

Xanthe (Bisexual Cis-female, 56–65yrs) recalled developing euphoric relief over increases in LGBTQ+ colleagues at both NSW Uniting church and secular schools; ‘At these places my sexuality was not generally assumed to affect my appropriateness as a teacher of girls’.

Currently teaching at a NSW public primary-school, Ronnie (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) explained how LGBTQ+ staff communities are shifting opportunities for Institutional Inclusion euphoria, not just connection:

some staff are fully out to their students, others aren’t, others talk about their private lives, others don’t, so these experiences also impact on whether LGBT staff feel pressure/stress to be fully out to the community.

For some staff, representing LGBTQ+ community to others increased Community Connection and Pride Generativity euphorias. Cat (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) outlined how this shift evolved across her QLD education system engagements:

When I was younger it was more specific to myself; my euphoric moments of mutual recognition of attraction to another woman and [hers] to me, and our recognition of gendered dynamics in our relationship that pleased us. Now I am older it is more specific to the broader community; there is a euphoria to helping others be happy or to greater political change.

Jaren (Bisexual Non-Binary Person, 26–35yrs) similarly outlined how contributing to others’ Community Connection euphoria across the NSW education system expanded joy:

My euphoria has only grown the more I accepted myself and was able to be my true self in more and more aspects of my life. Now I feel euphoria about the fact that I can be a role model for young queer people and it makes me feel incredible happiness that these students are growing up with a nonbinary teacher and have learnt that queer adults can [be] and are, happy.

Community Connection euphoria somewhat required conditions of safety for LGBTQ+ people, which LGBTQ+ people are increasingly benefiting from and passing on through openness and bravery, with collegial circularity across employment sites.

‘Working’: Employment Concerns Can Outweigh Some LGBTQ+ Staffs’ Will to Euphoria

‘Working’ (49 hits, 39% relationality) illustrated changes around LGBTQ+ staffs’ decisions to privilege complex employment concerns above their euphoric will (sub-concepts: working, partner, homophobic, hide). For some professionals, years spent seeking out their own happiness as out LGBTQ+ people in education settings were set aside alongside pro-active euphoric pursuit within institutional spaces as products of a more radical youth, when new conditions or constraints attendant to new roles or policies arose. Kadence (Lesbian Cis-female, 66+yrs) felt a ‘general feeling of contentment’ when first teaching and regularly disclosing her lesbian identity in more progressive public primary-schools ‘as a young radical teacher’ in the 1970s. She later sacrificed euphorias towards increasing her approachability in a union role and now teaching casually in her 70s:

As I moved to work in more standard settings with some homophobic and anti-progressive types I was cautious about a lot of things. I was also frequently elected as the Union Representative. I wanted staff to feel OK about approaching me. It is easier to be a left-leaning person (which I am) than lesbian.

Similarly, Roscoe (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) felt kneejerk concern about his gendered mannerisms arise during a job interview even after a long period of previous school employment in which he was ‘out’, and commitment to self-expression. Privileging financial opportunity was reflexive:

After 20 years in the public education system I took a change in role and am now managing a department at a private Anglican boys school. My concern about my sexuality creeped in during the interview process and at times I felt I needed to ‘butch up’.

However, the reverse could also be true: staffs who once privileged privacy and security in difficult environments in ways that made some euphorias untenable might find that improvements occurred to their context enabling outness and attendant euphorias. For example, Abdul (Gay Cis-male, 26–35yrs) felt Institutional Inclusion euphoria around changes in Queensland public secondary education policy contexts, which mediated job-security-related euphoria blockers because the change was top-down:

A big change came with the introduction of the Inclusive Education Policy for Ed Qld. This document made my community visible and acknowledged our rights to be a part of the system. When I first started teaching, I had received many homophobic comments and the policies only favoured those in opposite sex relationships. In particular, the transfer policy and being able to move with your partner. Additionally new policies around maternity/paternity leave for Gay Dads has been another great boost to inclusive practice.

Further, Roscoe’s (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) quote from this chapter’s introduction was also Leximancer-identified as typical to this theme. Roscoe describes Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphoria upon realising that his religious principal’s leadership ensured a new period of inclusive and accepting employment around being gay. The will towards experiencing euphorias can be briefly, periodically, or permanently compromised for professionals by the drive to work/have a career, financial concerns, role dynamics and industry or institutional policy contexts. It could thus also be (re)enlivened when these blockers disappeared. Notably the ‘working’ theme links to the ‘safe’ theme; the employment dynamics discussed in relation to Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias particularly could be mediated by not just job security but safety.

‘Parents’: LGBTQ+ Staffs’ Acceptance Euphoria Often Preceded by Rejection Fears

‘Parents’ (23 hits, 16% relationality) captured how LGBTQ+ staff grapple with ‘the spectres of parents’ and others’ anti-LGBTQ+ disapproval both real and imagined, periodically and by site (sub-concepts: parents, colleagues). LGBTQ+ staff can experience Acceptance euphoria in some circumstances and yet this is often preceded and followed by cyclical rejection fears or threats around other parties’ reactions to their identities. Initial doubts upon entering their profession, could return in various cycles or sites over time. For example, Persephone (Lesbian Cis-female, 46–55yrs) commented: ‘I am still at times very cautious and avoid overt disclosures but that is usually confined to specific situations such as when speaking to students, parents or unfamiliar colleagues’. Leilani (Bisexual Cis-female, 36–45yrs) explained:

In 2011 and 2012 I was a beginning teacher and didn’t know how to tell anyone, so I was back in the closet at school, despite having been out for 12 years previously. I didn’t hide my identity in any other area of my life. I was given a temporary contract, and told a couple of colleagues. One was a gay man who had been teaching for over 20 years, but kept his identity hidden. I then got a permanent contract out in a rural town, and went back into the closet. I eventually told my colleagues, but never came out to students despite teaching there for 3 years. I moved back to a larger regional town, and decided to stop hiding. All colleagues knew, but it wasn’t something I would talk about to students. Then I met someone, and when we got engaged, I wore my ring into class. I told students I was getting married to a woman, and although one or two did a big ‘double take’, most were fine. Since then I have found it much easier, although I still find it hard to feel as though I am endlessly coming out to students, parents and colleagues.

Elora (Lesbian Cis-female, 46–55yrs) also reflected on how (Self-)Acceptance euphoria could involve real rejections for religious schools’ teachers:

I began my teaching career in a private Christian school in Sydney. (…) I had to leave that place of employment when I came out as I knew if I chose to stay I would be asked to leave purely because I identified as LGBTQI+. This had nothing to do with my ability to teach. I went overseas for six months and when I returned to Australia I began looking for employment with the DoE. I have secured temporary roles since that time (2018) and have been known as an LGBTQI + teacher wherever I go. However, since being married I have perceived greater acceptance by colleagues, students, and parents.

For LGBTQ+ staff, externally driven Acceptance euphoria could be hit-and-miss; it required gambling. Adalynn (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) this gambling at her WA public primary-school paid, as ‘Staff and parents have got to know us over the years and I think their acceptance has made me accept myself more’. Conversely, Ellis (Bisexual Cis-female, 26–35yrs) had mixed feelings and experiences around acceptance over time. She said of her current QLD public high-school, ‘I have moved away from work to a place where my co-workers are very accepting. The students aren’t always though’. There were overlaps with this ‘parents’ theme and the ‘students’ theme, then, showing professionals’ Community Connection and socially driven Acceptance euphorias were contextually, institutionally, and socially conditional.

‘Safe’: LGBTQ+ Staffs’ Institutional Inclusion & Acceptance Euphoria Increased With Safety

The smallest stand-alone theme ‘safe’ (9 hits, 11% relationality) denoted increased safety increasing staff euphorias. For example, Roscoe (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) felt euphoria about running efforts to increase the safety of his religious high-school and said, ‘I have to say I have felt very blessed … I don’t believe I should hide who I am at home and work.’ Paisley (Lesbian Cis-female, 36–45yrs) felt Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias only when ‘I feel safe and accepted and able to be visible without it being controversial … It has definitely changed since marriage equality—I am confident that the law is on our side’. Adaline (Lesbian Cis-female, 26–35yrs) felt safety had increased at her non-religious independent high-school as well:

I feel comfortable in my workplace with my sexuality and feel more so over time. The interactions I have had regarding my sexuality at school have been a non-event—e.g. someone referring to my partner as a male, being corrected, and just simply apologising without interrogating or being rude. It feels like a safe place.

Ronnie (Gay Cis-male, 36–45yrs) said at his NSW public primary-school his euphoric change ‘depends on which staff are present as sometimes new staff come in and you’re not sure about their opinions on LGBT people, so you always have to be wary at first’. He expanded:

Also, parental community also affects this. There have been homophobic parents in the past who have publicly made comments about staff and staff choices (such as gay teachers who have undergone surrogacy). They are a minority, but these experiences impact on how safe we feel.

The ‘safe’ theme linked to the ‘working’ theme; showing that staff concerns for safety had mediated security, outness, and euphorias over time. Experiences of euphorias for LGBTQ+ staff could hence overall be very fluid, and tenuous. Professionals’ euphoric goals were umpired by site-specific variables of security, anti-LGBTQ+ spectres and safety.

Discussion

Dominant Professional Euphorias

Under half of LGBTQ+ staff experienced euphorias, largely often and sometimes. The ‘overplaying’ and ‘transferring’ of the happiness reward of normative identities onto this non-dominant group; arguably has disruptive potential in Queer and post-structural feminist given cultural politics debates and refuses to protect their identities and bodies in many education sites [13, 14]. This group’s showing pleasure in LGBTQ+ education professional identity as no less authentic than other teachers’, queries normative assumptions about and infantilising restraints on who ‘valid education professionals’ should be and what educational gifts they should offer [15, 16]. Three euphorias were dominant: (1) Institutional Inclusion, (2) Acceptance, and an additional (3) Pride Generativity euphoria specific to adults. Education professionals’ Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphoria were linked to achieving disclosure, acceptance, and fidelity for their LGBTQ+ and professional identities, and collegial and pedagogical connections to others. Thus they related to the identity formation and intimacy foci of Erikson’s Development Stages 5 and 6 [17, 18]—Fig. 5.6. Pride Generativity euphoria linked to participant, colleague and student activism events, reflecting McKinney’s euphoria of social redress [19] with future-orientated emphases, and achievement of Stage 7’s generativity motivation [17, 18]. There was no strong alignment with stages’ foci by age, echoing Butler’s notion of ‘transference’ where norms of identity emphases play out differently on non-traditional identities and bodies in ways that call identity norms themselves into question [16]. However, these data do support theories that social groups are more likely to find happiness accessible broadly enacting motivation ideals [14]. This study reflected past studies showing LGBTQ+ teachers may consider activism and outness ‘employment risks’ [1, 9, 20]. However, these phenomena could enhance LGBTQ+ staffs’ euphorias, especially where socialised and institutionalised pedagogical versions of Gottman et al.’s ‘emotion-coaching philosophy in meta-emotion’ drove teachers’ inter-generativity [21].

Fig. 5.6

Ecological model of psycho-social influences on LGBTQ+ professionals’ education-based euphorias

Site-specific Change-trends

Most (over two-thirds of) LGBTQ+ staff experiencing euphorias reported they changed over time (their Chronosystems). Trends included site-specific shifts in Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias depending on the support of education employers and communities; and shifts in their Microsystems, Exosystems, and Macrosystems. Community Connection euphoria changed in relation to the disclosure, education, and activist efforts. Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias were variable, fluid and tenuous; sometimes site-specific and reliant on inclusion by institutions and colleagues; sometimes slowly increasing; sometimes suddenly or gradually less attainable; peppered with monumentality, retrogression, even circularity. Professionals’ euphorias were impacted by rights debates and votes and other Exo- and Macrosystem changes; reflecting the LGBTQ+ reactivity to cultural politics [13] and policy debates [22, 23]. Rural, regional and remote employment contexts were associated with decreased euphorias and increased rejection, safety and employment security concerns; likely enhanced for those lacking intergenerational wealth (reliant on income for survival)—reflecting TGD literature showing relationships between euphoria and material and socio-cultural contexts [24, 25]. Furthermore, staff LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphoric will itself fluctuates. These conditions reflected Ahmed’s arguments that where identities are devalued happiness becomes culturally and institutionally less available and bodies associated with shaming [13, 14]; some staff indeed reflected Erikson’s isolation and/or stagnation ‘crises’ as LGBTQ+ people for periods in their careers [17]. However, such periods were not uniformly unproductive. Sometimes being euphorically queer was exchanged for career establishment, progress, or role-specific goals like approachability.

Significance & Limitations

The study provided the first and largest scale data collection on LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphorias to date. It underlined that supports encouraged in the broader literature towards reducing LGBTQ+ staff wellbeing concerns, can enhance euphorias. These include: protective employment policies; support for but not requirement of LGBTQ+ staff ‘outness’; LGBTQ+ celebratory events and staff community groups; supporting LGBTQ+ staff partners’ at events [1, 8, 9, 20]. The data emphasised for the first time that institutional and industrial conditions have supportive or restrictive influences on euphoric opportunities; this likely affects other industries. The findings reflected influences on euphorias from the literature including the value of external and social experiences; and oppositional or complex relationships to negative wellbeing [25]—extending these to include site-specific workplace discrimination and repression, and conformity drives.

Conclusions

Euphorias were more common, frequent, and yet volatile and site-specific for LGBTQ+ education staff than other groups examined in schools. Institutional Inclusion, Acceptance and to a lesser extent Pride Generativity euphorias were typically experienced in relationship to specific school support and professionals’ efforts at organising inclusive events and practices, reaching out to, and engaging with staff and students, and activism. This reflected the intimacy and generativity pre-occupations of Erikson’s Stages 6 and 7, though not their age-alignments. Changes to education professionals’ euphorias had elements of progressive more linear growth; monumentality; retrogression and circularity. Professionals’ generative and intimacy motivations can be dulled by fears around employment security, fears of rejection, and issues of safety; making the removal of religious exemptions in anti-discrimination and employment law an absolute imperative for supporting more euphoric LGBTQ+ professionals in education, and likely other sectors. Further protections for LGBTQ+ staff in rural areas (employment guarantees and union support) could enable greater outness and euphoric potential. Chapter 6 investigates parents’ euphorias.