Non-Normative Gender and Sexual Identities in Schools: - Schools Out

AM: Ok, well just before we move on to sort of the next little bit, has anyone got any
final comments about anything that kind of happened at school that you feel we haven’t
covered? [//] No, OK. So the next section then really is about how you think all these
things that we’ve just talked have affected you in the short and the long term. So I wanna
know about any kind of consequences of these experiences. Part [//] mostly on yourself
and your identity, so for example if you were say bullied before you were comfortable
with your own lesbian identity for example how do you think this affected you in any
way, the fact that you were bullied. But also what practical affects, like your academic
achievements, attendance maybe if you were bullied when you were at school, um
friendships, family relationships and also you health, really importantly, like whether,
like well I don’t think there’s any point in saying negative or positive, cos its bound to be
negative isn’t it, negative effects on your physical or mental health, perhaps even sexual
relationship, just your general well-being or lack of really, in the short term and the long
term, so.
T: I like completely like just didn’t go in for any of my exams because I were being
bullied so, so like I I like failed all of them in year 9 so I didn’t have any sets to go into in
year ten.
AM: That would have been your SATS?
T: Yeah and then I had um a maths GCSE like a month ago and it all started up again, me
being the dyke of year ten, Dom wasn’t it anymore, it was me and um a load of stuff
kicked off and um I ended up getting kicked out for a couple of days and [//] like they all
said it were my fault for being gay, I was like…
AM: {the teachers said this?}
T: …yeah, well some of them did but others were like its fine its fine, just leave calm
down and then we had this um, I had to go into a DT for the first day I were back, just so
I didn’t get into trouble and the one person that was really doing my head in calling me
gay was…
V: {was in that DT?}
T: …was in that DT!
V: Oh fuck!
T: Yeah.
V: So you get (inaudible) and then you get in trouble and they give you a DT for three
days [//] excellent!
T: There was like, cos there were a load of tables in the classroom and everything, at one
point the teacher were just looking at me while we were having a big argument, I ended
up jumping over a table, she ended up going to hospital for a while. And um they said,
you shouldn’t hang around with her, I went yeah cos I clearly wanted to be in the same