Transforming spaces of learning: The implementation of a gay-straight alliance in rural maritime community

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of how gay-straight alliances (GSA) can create community amongst queer youth and present an opporunity for transformative change. I conducted five interviews with GSA advisors at a small, maritime school. Participants' accounts reflected the emancipatory pedagogy that emerged from the GSA, as well as reflections on allyship and communion with the oppressed. The findings of this study point to the clear need to have safe spaces in schools and how these queer youth need to be prioritized in instuitional reform. These GSAs act as a small piece of the necessary institutional reform required to disrupt the subject-object relationship between queer youth and their oppressors.