Institutional Silence: Experiences of Australian Lesbian Teachers Working in Catholic High Schools

ABSTRACT This article, based on the author's doctoral research, examines the ways in which some religious schools in New South Wales (NSW), via institutional practices, maintain and perpetuate discrimination in relation to lesbian teachers and lesbian sexualities. These institutional practices, which included threats of dismissal, forced resignations, implicit harassment, monitoring and surveillance, curriculum silences, and censorship, silence lesbian sexualities and impact the teacher's daily operations and freedom of speech. Vicarious witnessing of these forms of punishment (in the Foucauldian sense) further ensures the silencing of lesbian identities. Moreover, statewide anti-discrimination legislation, which excludes some private institutions from compliance in the area of sexuality, serves to reinforce discriminatory practices, and ultimately silenced the various violence perpetuated against many of the participants in this research.