Journal of LGBT Youth, 7:359–363, 2010
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1936-1653 print / 1936-1661 online
DOI: 10.1080/19361653.2010.518536
Flaunting It for Social Justice
JANNA JACKSON
University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
By examining various movements in education in Flaunt It! Queers
Organizing for Public Education and Justice, Quinn and Meiners
show a systematic and intentional “straightening” of American
public schools. Throughout the book, the authors explore how vari-
ous public and private realms operate to try to silence queer voices,
and they discuss ways to counter this silencing. The book itself is
divided up by the educational movements the authors have worked
against to try to stave off the heteronormativity being perpetuated by
the myths of school choice (Chapter 1), the erasure of social justice
and queers in particular in a private entity that sets standards for
teacher education (Chapter 2), the policies of exclusion of private
schools (Chapter 3), the ways in which the teaching profession has
been raced and gendered (Chapter 4), and the lack of attention to
queer topics in teacher education programs (Chapter 5).
KEYWORDS Activism, social justice, queer theory, public educa-
tion, civil rights
On the back cover of the book Flaunt It! Queers Organizing for Public
Education and Justice by Therese Quinn and Erica Meiners (2009), Annette
Henry states that the authors “encourage us to see no separation between
scholarship and activism” and, indeed, Quinn and Meiners’ book is a work of
activism. By examining various movements in education in one book, they
show a systematic and intentional “straightening” of American public schools.
More importantly, they describe exemplars and difficulties of resisting and
challenging these heteronormative actions. In doing so, the authors give
readers not only the knowledge and impetus to act but also the tools by
which to act.
Received 28 January 2010; revised 29 April 2010; accepted 4 June 2010.
Address correspondence to Janna Jackson, Assistant Professor, Graduate College of Ed-
ucation, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA. E-mail: Janna.Jackson@umb.edu
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