“Racism just isn't an issue anymore”: Preservice teachers' resistances to the intersections of sexuality and race Stephanie Anne Shelton a, * , Meghan E. Barnes b a The University of Alabama, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling Department, 306 Carmichael Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA b The University of Georgia, Language and Literacy Education Department, 315 Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA highlights  We examine race in relation to sexuality.  Participants historicized race and contemporized sexuality.  Participants resisted intersecting race with sexuality.  Intersectionality is essential to teacher education. article info Article history: Received 24 April 2015 Received in revised form 10 December 2015 Accepted 8 January 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Preservice teachers Race Intersectionality LGBTQ abstract Through year-long focus group interviews with members of a secondary English Education cohort this paper considers both 1) participants' understandings of sexuality and race and 2) how participants' understandings of sexuality and race shaped their interactions with one another. Themes established through data analysis suggested that 1) participants maintained positioned racism as an historical issue that contrasted with the contemporaneity of LGBTQ issues; 2) participants resisted intersecting race and sexuality; 3) participants silenced Andy, the only queer student of color, when she argued for the intersectionality of race and sexuality. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction This research's setting is the Southeastern United States, a re- gion that includes those states “South of [the] Mason-Dixon Line and Ohio River, from [the] western Texas border to the Atlantic Ocean” (Library of Congress, n.d.). Historically, the region has been associated with politically and socially conservative policies, including state-supported resistances to racial desegregation and lawmakers' longstanding oppositions to women's rights (Sanabria, 2012; Whitlock, 2010). We will use the terms “South” and “Southern” throughout the paper in reference to this region. The South has a history of resisting LGBTQ legal protections. Nearly all of the states that prohibited same-sex marriages prior to the Supreme Court's historical ruling on marriage equality were in this region (Human Rights Campaign, 2014), and in comparison to the rest of the U.S., no Southern state offers what The Guardian refers to as “maximum protection” for LGBTQ Americans, including equal employment protections and safeties from gender- and sexuality-based harassment inside state-funded schools (Guardian Interactive, 2012). Specifically in Southern schools, the 2012 Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network's (GLSEN) nationwide study determined that “[a]s bad as bullying can be at all schools, it seems to be amplified in the South” (n.p.). Researchers attributed the finding to Southern cultural beliefs, which contribute to a lack of public support and resources for LGBTQ populations (2012). Given this environment, Southern LGBTQ students are especially vulner- able (Whitlock, 2010). In this context, the first author taught a secondary education methods course for pre-service teachers at a Southeastern research-intensive university. During a class discussion on LGBTQ issues in the secondary classroom, a student asked how she might address her mentor teacher's reluctance to address gay-bashing in a socio-politically conservative school. Several other students raised their hands with related questions, consistently stating that * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: stepshel@uga.edu (S.A. Shelton), meghan824@gmail.com (M.E. Barnes). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.01.008 0742-051X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Teaching and Teacher Education 55 (2016) 165e174