“Is he gay? That’s like, all I want to know”: Curiosity, authenticity, and epistemology in a GSA bookclub

Abstract

Abstract Part of a larger yearlong ethnography at a comprehensive, public high school in a Midwestern city in the United States, this article explores a telling case from a bookclub that was part of the school’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance. Approaching curriculum as a question of what knowledges are valued in education, in this article I describe the layers of epistemic practices that youth in the bookclub co-constructed and the consequences of these practices for oppressive values with respect to sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and language. The telling case features youth talking about young adult author Sáenz’s sexuality, his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and whether and how (literary) authors’ identities affect their writing (of literature). My analysis of the case explores epistemological phenomena related to literature, curiosity, authenticity, #OwnVoices, and author–reader relationships, which I consider through critical, especially queer and trans, theoretical perspectives about epistemology, transparency, and opacity. The findings have implications for educators working to disrupt oppressive, anti-LGBTQ+ epistemologies in schools in an effort to encourage humanizing curiosity, promote compassion, and foster joy among and for LGBTQ+ students.