Euphorias: Educators can support LGBTIQ+ joy!

Description

People within marginal gender, sex and sexuality groups are mostly framed within conservative psycho-medical research, or critical empowerment literature. In both literatures their framing has negative aspects either negating their bodies, identities, health, or function; or positioning within discriminatory contexts. Resisting deficit-based framings, this talk discusses studies using the concept ‘euphoria’ to investigate when and why marginal gender, sex and sexuality groups have positive experiences of their variations. A new ecological model of potential influences on the development of euphorias can assist in service applications, everyday lives, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) research. Drawing on embedded psycho-social accounts of affect and development from Bronfenbrenner, Erikson, Ahmed, and Butler; the 2021 LGBTQ+ You surveys pr 2,407 LGBTQ+ people and a Critical Intersex Study with 272 participants, the talk discusses experiences of euphoria in Australian education and health contexts. In education settings LGBTQ+ staff members and out participants were most likely to have euphorias; heterosexuals, parents, and those in religious or rural schools were less likely. Community Connection, Institutional Inclusion, Acceptance and Category Validation euphorias were most common. Change trends included: (1) expansion of Community Connection euphoria through socialisation; (2) gradual building of Acceptance euphoria, (3) site-specific changes in Institutional Inclusion euphoria, (4) sudden shifts in Category Validation euphoria, and (5) influence from euphoria blockers. People with intersex variations reported more Post-diagnosis than Diagnosis euphorias in health contexts; most often Body Positivity and Acceptance euphorias. The studies suggest educators may support LGBTIQ+ joy using institutional, social and educational stimuli.

Period	2024
Event title	Australian Association for Research in Education Conference
Event type	Conference
Conference number	2024
Location	Ryde Sydney, AustraliaShow on map