Tiffany Jones

This Open Access book uses the concept of ‘euphoria’ to investigate when, why and how marginal gender, sex and sexuality groups have positive experiences of their diverse variations even within repressive and disordering contexts. Drawing on data from multiple online surveys including a study of 2,407 LGBTQ+ people and a study of 272 people with intersex variations, it names and offers a new ecological framework for understanding participants’ influences on and barriers to euphorias, asserting the subversive possibilities of being euphorically queer, as opposed to euphoric and queer. The author argues that it is the particularities of negative internal, socio-cultural and institutional contexts for a marginal group or groups that contributes towards the possibilities that shape their potential euphoric feelings and experiences. Ultimately, she calls for a more expansive focus in gender and sexuality studies to show the complex effects of dysphoria and repression on the possibilities of pleasure and joy.

This book explores the experiences of LGBTQ+ parented families in school communities and provides a voice for this overlooked group who are becoming an increasingly common form of family diversity in school communities. Approaching the topic from a strength-based psychological perspective, the book presents LGBTQ+ parents’ suggestions for school improvements and supportive structures and provides empirical evidence to inform future LGBTQ+ inclusive educational policy. Research based yet practically focused, it will be a valuable resource for researchers, students and education professionals alike.

Bent Street 5.1 – Soft Borders, Hard Edges, a special edition focusing on the trans and gender diverse community is now available.

Edited by Sam Elkin, Yves Rees and Tiffany Jones, this special midyear 2021 edition includes contributions by:

Bron Richardson, Jordie Slonim, Jamie James, Kait Fenwick, Sav Zwickl, Damien W. Riggs, Carla A. Pfeffer, Ruth Pearce, Sally Hines, Francis Ray White, Ruth Dahl, Samuel Luke Beatty, Tazz Hislop, Adele Aria, Raewyn Connell, Brooke Murray, Lucy Nicholas, Clair Brianz, Purity, Geoff Allshorn, Mel Romero, Bryson Charles, good judy, Stacey Stokes, Teague Leigh, Anastasia Le, Ruq, Alex Lee, Ryan Gustafsson, Blair Archbold, Kathy Mansfield, G. Jae Curmi, Noah Silvereye, Cat Cotsell, Erin Riley, Kai Ash, Kin Francis, Guy James Whitworth, Reid Marginalia, Stevie Lane, Susan Lardner & Jessica Ward, Tiarn, CB Mako, Nat Hollis, Rowan Richardson, Jaxson Wearing, Nate McCarthy, Theo Dunne, Elwin Schok, Maddox Gifford, Sam Elkin, Yves Rees, and Tiffany Jones.

‘… Sam Elkin and Yves Rees from the Spilling the T Collective bring a special trans and gender diverse community focus, with essays, poetry, polemic, memoir, fiction, and imagery that explores and celebrates gender diversity … trans creatives bring an acute understanding of how embodied subjects construct and perform gendered selves – an understanding that, though sometimes born of pain and trauma, and sometimes met in joyful euphoria – creates memorable art … foregrounding nuances often eluding the cis gaze …’

Available now from bookshops and online.

Available via Springer; this book can be read as a report of a national study, or used as a textbook in sociology, education and related courses.

Based on a comparative study from 2018, this book explores four different approaches to education according to 2,500 Australians’ experiences of them, on a range of topics. It shows that whilst the critical approach has strong research-based support across the board, sometimes a liberal, conservative or post-modern approach may have some merit for certain outcomes. This is a book about challenging our biases and calling on ourselves to aim higher for education, than what our own pre-conceived ideas might allow.

What and who is valued in education, and the social roles and identity messages learned, differ wildly from school to school. Education is most impacted by the orientation of education dominant in that context – whether conservative, liberal, critical or post-modern. These terms are often used with little practical data on the real-life schooling they entail. Who learns what in which approach? Who learns best with which approach, on which topic and why? This book provides this previously missing information. It offers holistic, detailed descriptions of conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern approaches to education broadly. It provides statistics and stories from real students on how the four approaches work practically in schools in relation to: age, gender, sexuality, social class, race, news-media, popular culture and technology. Chapters offer background information to the four perspectives, data from student participants, tutorial questions and activities, and suggestions for further reading.

With a times-appropriate cover image from Mel Simpson of Kittenpants studios, and contributions of art, poetry, essay, first-person memoir, interviews, and fiction from:

Peter Waples-Crowe, Tiffany Jones, Sam Elkin, Indiah Money, Jude Munro, Firdhan Aria Wijaya, Steph Amir, Mel Simpson, Jean Taylor, Andrew McNamara, Jodie Hare, Frank Bonnici, Guy James Whitworth, Alison Thorne, Rodney Croome, Ian Seal, Edwina Shaw, Erin Riley, Derek Ho, Gina Ward, James May, Ayman Barbaresco, Blair Archbold, Yannick Thoraval, Baburam Poudel, Yulius Hendri Wijaya, Marcus O’Donnell, Hannah Gillard, Max Hayward, Rob Wallis, Henry von Doussa, Leila Lois, John Bartlett, Mark Anthony Cayanan, Bron Bateman, Cat Cotsell, Jennifer Power, Adele Aria, Michele Saint-Yves, Gemma Rose, Zachary DB Smith, Shivani Preston, Heath John Ramsay, Penn O’Brien, Stephanie Russell, Jan Prior, Andy Murdoch, Suz Mawer, Zachary Pryor, Peter Mitchell, Sharryn Ryan, Charlotte Allingham, Neika Lehman, Isabella Whāwhai Waru, Caleb Thaiday.

Release
Bent Street 4.2 will be Zoom launched at Adelaide Feast – details very soon.

This Technical Brief has been developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to strengthen the routine monitoring of school violence that is based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (SOGIE). It is informed by best practice from large institutional surveys that have been successfully conducted at the international or national level. The Brief provides recommendations on:
• Questions to capture data on the sexual orientation or gender identity of students.
• Questions to capture data on school violence that is specifically based on SOGIE.
The Brief also gives guidance on:
• The challenges in collecting data on school violence based on SOGIE
• Identifying and fulfilling indicators on school violence based on SOGIE
The audience for this Technical Brief is: monitoring and evaluation specialists who manage institutional surveys at the international or national level (including school-based and population-based studies); policy-makers in the education sector; and researchers who investigate school violence, including against young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and students who are perceived as gender non-conforming.

Dr Tiffany Jones, Macquarie University Department of Educational Studies, Australia, conducted a literature review and produced an initial draft. Christophe Cornu and Yongfeng Liu (Section of Health and Education, Division for Inclusion, Peace and Sustainable Development, Education Sector, UNESCO) developed the final version of this paper. Sarah Middleton-Lee edited the document.
Special thanks are due to Manos Antoninis (UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report Team), Laura Kann (formerly with CDC), Lisette Kuyper (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research), Eunice Den Hoedt and Camilo Garcia (formerly UNESCO Section of Health and Education), who reviewed and commented on the initial draft paper; as well as Terryann Clark and Theresa Fleming (University of Auckland, New Zealand), who provided technical inputs.

This information and resource paper provides the context for a suite of materials targeted to a diverse range of people involved in the treatment, care and support of people with intersex variations. The Victorian Government commissioned this paper to support the development and implementation of evidence-based policies, programs and services, and to further understanding of the needs and interests of people with intersex variations in Victoria. This paper has been developed with input from members of an Intersex Expert Advisory Group and other stakeholders who provided advice on a wide range of issues, including research limitations, current clinical practice, and appropriate and respectful terminology.

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services recognises the expertise and experiences of people with intersex variations and their families, and the leading efforts of medical, ethical and legal professions involved in the health care of people with intersex variations in Victoria.
The department would like to thank all of those who contributed their time and expertise to the development of this and related resources and acknowledge the contribution of Australian and Victorian intersex human rights advocates to the development of improved understanding and practice locally and internationally. In particular, the department thanks those involved in the 2016 project overseen by Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria (GLHV), including project leads Associate Professor Tiffany Jones (La Trobe University and the University of New England) and William Leonard (Director GLHV), strategic advisors Anna Brown and Lee Carnie (Human Rights Law Centre) and research assistants Renee Zborowski and Joe Latham. The 2016 project also benefitted from the input of a range of stakeholders, including members of the Department of Health and Human Services 2016–2017 Intersex Expert Advisory Group (IEAG), clinicians, researchers and other health and education experts. Thanks also to participants of the further consultations undertaken in 2017. This information and resource paper, and the suite of related materials, were revised and updated by Jason Rostant Consulting. They benefitted from extensive input from members of the Department of Health and Human Services 2017–2018 IEAG, human rights advocates, members of the Inter-Departmental Project Reference Group, and clinicians. Thanks to all contributors, not all of whom are named, including Ro Allen, Tony Briffa, Dr Meg Brodie, Anna Brown, Paul Byrne-Moroney, Lee Carnie, Andrea Kapteinis, Dr Ruth McNair, Kristiina Siiankoski, Trace Williams, Sarah-Jane Miles, Michele O’Connell and Dr Agli Zavros-Orr.

This expert guide to working with transgender and gender variant youth offers ways to make positive change to service provision for practitioners working with this group. Based on the latest research, the recommendations made by the author are backed up by statistics and data, and refer to first-hand stories and experiences.

Exploring four key areas - mental health, physical health, sexual health and social health - the book sets out exactly what professionals need to know in relation to these areas and how to support trans youth in these circumstances. Providing clarity on a range of topics, this is the perfect overview for practitioners, as well as a useful text for students and researchers.

Vol 3. Cover art by Jamie James.

This edition contains essays, art, research, poetry, stories, installations, graphic stories and more! Themes are of this year (2019) and include Indigenous Queer studies, identity and visibility; religious themes in law, politics and conversion therapy; climate change; Trump; Hong Kong; feminisms; gender transitions; lovers and exes, parents, heroes from Gentleman Jack and Kate McKinnon to Randy Rainbow and Todrick Hall and much more...

Contributors: Peter Waples-Crowe, Tiffany Jones, Stephanie Amir, Mel Simpson, Andrew Farrell, Ashley Sievwright, Bee Cruse, Jamie James, Jodie Hare, Jean Taylor, Hannah Buttsworth, Maude Davey, Ayman Kaake, Stevie Lane, Guy James Whitworth, Ashley Hardcastle, Samuel Luke Beatty, Mandy Henningham, Clare Monagle, Timothy W Jones, Jennifer Power, Alison Thorne, Ryan Storr, Frank Bonnici, Lisa Farrell, Trent Mann, Jason Li, Jake Cruz, Geoff Allshorn, Terry Jaensch, Ashley Williams, Michelle Bishop, Samuel Luke Beatty, Xavier, Anna Leah D. Luna-Raven, Jocelyn Deane, Reese Downing, Stuart Barnes, Adele Tan, Gordon Thompson, Cat Cotsell, Henry von Doussa, Gavriil Aleksandrs, Lionel Wright, Kim Leutwyler, John Bartlett …plus our stunning photography and art models from Nova Gina (cover) to Faustina Agolley and many others!

The Trans Health and Cancer Care Study was conducted in 2018-19 and involved 537 trans and gender diverse (TGD) people from across Australia over the age of 18. Results of the study highlight ongoing challenges faced by TGD persons in Australia in their experiences of gender affirmation, accessing healthcare and their awareness and participation in cancer care. Overall, considerable work across practice, policy and research, remains for Australia to provide equitable experiences in health and cancer care for this community.

Rationale
Global human rights legislation protects all people against discrimination and violence in education, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Homophobic and transphobic violence in schools has been framed by officials as the basis of an international public health crises. UNESCO has particularly targeted homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools in recent years, supporting global and Asia-Pacific research, advocacy and programming. Viet Nam has committed to global and Asia-Pacific efforts to lessen gender-based violence. This includes sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE)-related violence in schools.

Conceptual Framework
SOGIE diversity has been strongly established in the histories of many nations. Recognition of diverse gender expressions has been perhaps more prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region with Samoa’s ‘fa’afafines’ and Thailand’s ‘kathoey’ afforded particular cultural and social roles. Many Asian nations only became less tolerant of diverse SOGIE in their populations after Western influences in the 1800s. SOGIE-related school violence, also called homophobic and transphobic violence, is based on gender stereotypes, roles and norms. It can include verbal, psychosocial, physical and sexual violence.

Literature Review
While diverse legal and cultural contexts around SOGIE have likely impacted data collection on SOGIE-related school violence in Asia-Pacific, research suggests it is highly prevalent. Research shows SOGIE-related school violence – more frequent in schools without policy protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (abbreviated to LGBT in this report as in the broader literature) students – has negative impacts on students’ education and wellbeing. The literature review highlighted some noteworthy work in countries including Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and Thailand, among others. The literature review also underscored a gap in the research and emphasised a strong need for national research on the extent, nature, impacts and supports around SOGIE-related school violence in Viet Nam.

Methodology
Research was conducted on the nature and extent of SOGIE-related school violence in schools in North, Central and South Viet Nam as part of a wider study on school-related gender-based violence. Issues of consent and privacy for participants were carefully considered. Stakeholders were enabled to freely discuss the sensitive topic of SOGIE-related school violence due to the support of Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). The research was aided by a range of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (abbreviated to LGBT in this report as in the broader literature) community organizations, departmental and school contacts, and local and international research experts. The study applied an emancipatory methodology aiming to achieve social justice goals. Mixed methods of in-person and online surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were used to collect data from four distinct groups of participants. These included a general sampling of school students, LGBT students, school staff (including administrators and teachers) and parents.

Findings
Evidence from the 3,698 survey participants, 280 Focus-Group Discussion (FGD) participants and 85 In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with students (including LGBT students), school staff and parents showed many school stakeholders were influenced by constructions of LGBT people as diseased or problematic. LGBT students presented stronger awareness of SOGIE-related school violence than other groups, most particularly verbal violence and its negative long-term effects. SOGIE-related school violence was high in Viet Nam; 71% of LGBT students reported having been physically abused and 72.2% reported having been verbally abused. Some LGBT students revealed that they had experienced situations in which schools staff were perpetrators of violence. LGBT youth experienced clear negative academic and wellbeing outcomes, ranging from lowered grades and school drop-out, to depression and suicidal ideation. Almost a quarter of LGBT students who had experienced violence had also experienced suicidal ideation and 14.9% attempted to engage in self-harm or suicide. Gay, bisexual and gender non-conforming male and male-to-female transgender (GBT) students faced highly significant increases in risk for all kinds of violence compared to lesbian, bisexual and gender non-conforming female and female-to-male transgender (LBT) students. This appeared to be influenced by factors including perpetrator motivations of punishing ‘feminine’ expressions on male bodies, and increased respect for ‘masculine’ expressions on female bodies – within the context of a Confucian culture that broadly privileges masculinity. LGBT students were notably less confident in their schools’ efforts to prevent violence than other students in the FGDs and IDIs. The surveyed LGBT students who had experienced violence were more likely to report that they sought assistance from friends and less likely to seek help from staff than other students who had experienced violence. Research findings suggest an imperative need to raise awareness and capacity of school administrators and teachers with regard to SOGIE-related school violence to empower them to act as agent of change in making schools safer places for LGBT students.

Discussion & Recommendations
Curriculum developers and policy-makers need to actively redress the gaps in the knowledge of all education stakeholder groups on SOGIE and LGBT through clear education resources revision and distinct guidelines. Schools need to roll-out both educational interventions and practical support features (uniform flexibility and unisex toilets) in holistic efforts to create safe and supportive environments for LGBT students. Further studies could trial various SOGIE-related school violence interventions in schools.

Rationale
Global human rights legislation protects all people against discrimination and violence in education, irrespective of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Viet Nam has committed to a range of global conventions to end school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Putting these commitments into practice requires first recognising the fact that schools can be sites of violence, and considering the nature of SRGBV in practice so that it can be prevented and its impacts mediated. This report sits within broader efforts by the Government of Viet Nam and in particular the Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) to recognise, and respond to, SRGBV in schools in Viet Nam. It represents one practical research-based step amongst many in Viet Nam’s response to SRGBV.

Conceptual Framework
A range of sociologists have variously defined school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). In this report, SRGBV is conceptualised as based on gender and sexuality stereotypes, roles and norms. Any learner, irrespective of their sexual orientation or whether they are female, male, transgender or intersex, may be affected. SRGBV is understood in this report to include, for example, physical, verbal,
sexual, social and technology-related violence. SRGBV can occur in a range of settings in and around schools, ranging from in school bathrooms to virtual locations via a range of technology. It can also
occur beyond the boundaries of the school itself.

Literature Review
Despite under-reporting, research literature suggests SRGBV is widespread globally and in the Asia-Pacific region. Research shows SRGBV can have long-term impacts on a child’s education, and mental
and physical wellbeing. The literature review highlighted some noteworthy work in the region, but also showed there was a strong need for national research on the extent, nature, impacts and supports around SRGBV in Viet Nam. Research objectives for the study emerging from the literature included goals of exploring the awareness levels and attitudes of key education stakeholder groups about SRGBV, the nature and scale of SRGBV (including homophobic and transphobic violence), contributing factors, impacts and prevention/support measures in schools.

Methodology
An investigation was undertaken into the nature and extent of SRGBV in schools in North, Central and South Viet Nam. Ethical issues were carefully planned including informed consent and privacy for participants. The commitment and support of MOET was essential to enabling stakeholders to freely discuss the sensitive topic of SRGBV. A range of local and international research experts, departmental and school contacts, and community organizations aided the project. The study applied an emancipatory methodology aiming to achieve social justice goals. Mixed methods of in-person and online surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were used to collect data from four distinct groups of participants. These included general school students, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (abbreviated to LGBT in this report as in the broader literature) students, school staff (including administrators and teachers) and parents.

Findings
Key findings from the evidence provided by the 3,698 survey participants, 280 participants in Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and 85 In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with students, school staff and parents:
• Awareness of SRGBV: There was limited awareness of all stakeholders of SRGBV, with most primarily considering actions that cause physical injury and overlooking other forms such as sexual harassment, or psychosocial violence such as ostracism. Parents and teachers were comparatively more aware of, and concerned about, technology-related violence than students. LGBT students demonstrated stronger awareness of the negative long-term effects of verbal and psychosocial violence than other groups. A portion of both students and parents still accepted teachers’ methods of maintaining discipline in schools through such behaviours as hitting and scolding. Parents were often particularly unaware of school responsibilities to help prevent SRGBV off-campus, while some same-sex attracted and gender non conforming youth did not understand that the discrimination they were experiencing was a form of violence.
• Experience of SRGBV: More than half (51.9%) of all students reported having experienced at least one kind of violent behaviours in the last 6 months. LGBT students (particularly more ‘feminine’ same sex attracted males or gender non-conforming/transgender youth) were at particularly high risk of victimisation and exposure to all kinds of violence – 71% of LGBT students had been physically abused, 72.2% verbally abused. Additionally, male students experienced higher rates of all forms of violence (except for being a target of gossip) than females. Incidents of all forms of SRGBV were more prevalent among lower secondary students than upper secondary students.
• Motivations behind SRGBV: Stereotypes and prejudices (against femininity, gender non-conformity and perceived ‘weakness’) were seen to motivate SRGBV. Parents and teachers also mentioned the physio-psychological characteristics of puberty, hormones and identity-establishment among peers as coming into play. Social marginalisation by wealth status, ethnicity, language, or location (e.g. rural areas) were also mentioned by teachers, administrators and parents, and the possibility of the intersections of perceived difference compounding ostracism.
• Impact of SRGBV: Victims of SRGBV were more likely to experience reduced academic performance and participation, and have symptoms of negative psychological wellbeing including depression, thoughts or attempts of self-harm or suicide. While these negative impacts were found in victimised students of all categories, this was more pronounced among LGBT victims. The hindered learning opportunities often further impacted and isolated the affected students who failed to meet the expectations of both their schools and families.
• Students’ response to SRGBV: Roughly one-third of student victims of SRGBV reported seeking assistance from adults; however a portion also expressed a lack of confidence in adults’ capacity to solve the problem. Student bystanders who witnessed SRGBV most often took three main options, namely: informing school staff, trying to intervene, and doing nothing. The frequency of all three options was relatively similar, although the proportion of LGBT students who would “do nothing” was higher than that of non-LGBT male and female students. Fear was a powerful determinant for inaction; the students who did nothing in response to SRGBV mainly said that they were scared of getting involved, of revenge being taken upon them, or perhaps becoming bullied themselves.
• Prevention programmes and response interventions: There are vast differences between school staff’s and students’ assessments of SRGBV prevention/response mechanisms in school, with 95.4% of the teachers/school administrators and only 14.6% of students affirming measures in place. Some schools had concrete structural measures to prevent violence from occurring, including camera surveillance systems and counselling rooms; however these measures were not widespread,
seemed to be in their early days, and still of limited effect. Limited resources were identified, and their effectiveness limited without holistic plans to address SRGBV.

Discussion & Recommendations
Curriculum developers and policy-makers need to actively redress the gaps in SRGBV knowledge and process skills of all of the different education stakeholders through clear education resources revision and policy development offering distinct guidelines in a number of areas. Schools need to address SRGBV directly through innovative education techniques and engagement with related campaigns on SRGBV and LGBT themes to create safe and supportive learning environments. Staff training, clear regulation codes and processes, specific counselling provisions and uniform code flexibility, and community partnerships are also recommended. Further research may be needed to overcome some of the gaps in this study including representation of more provinces, longitudinal work, and investigation into what works to reform perpetrators and build resilience among groups at high risk of marginalisation.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have historically been marginalised in the Australian education system in multiple ways. A literature review of the field has shown that training of more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers has been a key effort proposed to redress marginalisation, alongside other efforts at making schooling contexts more proactive and inclusive. However, Australian universities’ studies have shown Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education students have higher rates of withdrawal from their teaching programs and there is little information on why or how this can be overcome in a practical sense.

Applying a critical approach, this book is distinctive in that it reports on a study investigating why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students succeed and withdraw from education units/degrees. This is based on the university responsible for the producing the most teachers in Australia, and under the advice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reference groups. It draws on data from a survey, discussion-board blogs and focus groups developed with the aid of local communities.

Its findings offer important insights to university administrators and lecturers in education, schools, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and current/returning students of education on such themes as the diversity of this student group, elements that lead to success and elements impacting withdrawal from education programs for the group. The study approached its participants’ experiences holistically, considering contextual elements such as university curricula, support features, advice conduits, and also experiences of racism and cultural sensitivity on teaching practicums, for example. The study allowed opportunities for students to talk about their diverse cultural groups and to narrate their own stories of success and withdrawal directly, so that they contribute to their co-construction in the book. The result is a book that is informative to its stakeholders, but also genuinely affirming of all contributing participants, which concentrates the focus of future actions on institutions rather than problematizing individuals. The final chapter contains a set of clear research-based recommendations that can be enacted.

This book addresses policy research on homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. It covers quantitative and qualitative research into policy impacts for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex students. It draws on a large-scale Australian study of the impacts of different kinds of policy at the national, state, sector and school level. The study covers over 80 policies, interviews with key policy informants and survey data from 3,134 GLBTIQ students. Since new guidelines were released by UNESCO, homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools has become a key area of interest around the world. There has been much pressure on educational leadership to engage with these issues since the UN released international human rights legislation on sexual orientation and gender identity that have implications for student rights.The book presents statistically significant correlations between specific types of state and school level education policies that explicitly named homophobia/ GLBTIQ student issues, and lowered incidence of homophobic bullying, lowered risk of suicide and self-harm for these students. It includes stories from policy makers on how the policies came to be (through lawsuits, ministerial inquiries and political activism), right through to the stories of students themselves and how they individually felt the impacts of policies or policy lacks. International contexts of homophobic and transphobic bullying are discussed, as well as recent transnational work in this field. The book considers the different types of collaborations that can lead to further policy development, the transferability of the research and some of the benefits and problems with transnational policy adoptions.

This book describes the first national study on female-to-male (FtM) transgender people’s experiences in Australia. This  extensive study fills the current gap in Australian research on the specific experiences and beliefs about transition for contemporary Australian FtM transgender people. Following an overview of current literature on the various aspects of and approaches to transgender issues, this book describes in detail the design, participants and findings of the study. It offers useful statistics and stories related to participants' identities, education, health, sexual and social lives. It ends with recommendations to all those working in the various offices and institutions that FtM transgender people encounter in their everyday life, and represents and invaluable resource for researchers, service providers and gender diverse communities alike.

SAMPLE CHAPTER and other info:
http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/book/978-3-319-13828-2?wt_mc=Alerts.NBA.SpringerAuthors-Feb-1

First book on education policy analysis in a theoretically broad and practical manner
    Represents a new theorisation of the policy field, or ‘new knowledge’’
    Explains existing terms often used in research but poorly defined in the field Includes practical examples, key vocabulary and reflection activities​

Analysis of education policy often follows a particular orientation, such as conservative or neo-liberal. Yet, readers are often left to wonder the true meaning and conceptual framing behind these orientations. Without this knowledge, the policy analysis lacks true rigor, its value is diminished as the results may prove difficult to reproduce.

Understanding Education Policy provides an overarching framework of four key orientations that lie beneath much policy analysis, yet are rarely used with accuracy: conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern. It details each orientation's application to policy making, implementation and overall impact. The book also argues the value of analysing a policy’s orientation to improve the clarity of its analysis and allow broader trends across the education policy field to emerge.

The book offers practical examples, key vocabulary and reflection activities which give equitable, yet critical consideration to all education orientations. This allows readers to see the benefits and disadvantages of each perspective and discover their own biases.

This introduction to education policy analysis offers theoretically broad, highly practical coverage. It is adaptable to many kinds of policy analysis areas and will appeal to a wide range of readers with an interest in education policy, from students conducting specific research to policy makers looking for a deeper way to re-think their work.

Content Level » Research

Keywords » Education policy - conservative - critical and post-modern policy - discourse analysis - discourse analysis and genealogy - education policy analysis - education policy theory - implementation and impact - liberal - neo-liberal policy - new knowledge - policy making - theorisation of policy

Related subjects » Education & Language - Epistemology & Philosophy of Science

Heaven Bent: Australian lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex experiences of faith, religion and spirituality.

Heaven Bent brings together academics, religious leaders, activists, politicians, theologians and everyday people. Exploring a diverse range of spiritual expressions, from Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christian journeys, to Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Pagan and Atheist, this book examines the past, present and future of faith, religion and spirituality and LGBTI people.

Louise Pratt, Luke Gahan, Tiffany Jones, Jacqueline Ingram, Henry von Doussa, Brodie Paparella, Alyena Mohummadally, David Rosenberg, Gina Wilson, Ellen Kessler, Paul N Martin, Brigitte Lewis, Sparkle (Rob Anderson), Shelley Dennison, Victor Marsh, Eric Glare, Sally Goldner, Michael Bernard Kelly, Catherine Politis, Lee Dunbar, Sarah de Rooy, Johnathan Jones, Stephen Blood, Kevin Ekendahl, Gregory Storer, Sharlot Clark, Ronald Blythe, Sharon Whittle, Jason Lydon, Kimberly A Mahaffy, Eric M Rodriguez, David L Shmerler.

This is the third of the Writing Themselves In national reports which have been conducted six years apart since 1998. In 2010, a total of 3134 same sex attracted and gender questioning (SSAGQ) young people participated in Writing Themselves In 3 (WTi3), almost double the number in 2004 and more than four times that of 1998. The participants, who were aged between 14 and 21 years, came from all states and territories of Australia, from remote (2%), rural (18%) and urban(67%) areas and from a range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. There were more young women (57%) than young men (41%) and a smaller group (3%) who were gender questioning (GQ). This research report relates links between homophobic abuse and suicide and self harm for SSAGQ youth, and includes findings on a range of health, wellbeing and education issues.

Introduction: Anti-fascist theories suggest different meanings for anti-LGBTIQ+ rights laws. This paper explores how 2023 increases in US anti-LGBTIQ+ bill attempts can be explained.

Methods: A Critical Discourse Analysis of 1054 US anti-LGBTIQ+ state-level bill submissions from 1 Jan 2018 to 31 December 2023, compared 2023 trends to previous data.

Results: The co-ordinated neofascist mobilisation behind US hyper-productivity and erratic contradictory justifcations of anti-LGBTIQ+bills expanded exponentially, emphasising less resisted campaigns. Initially smaller bills targeted political weak spots: transgender youth in primary schools, bathrooms and politically enabling Republican-governed states. Increasingly bills expanded in number, frequency, size, and punitive reach against LGBTIQ+and other citizens’ rights, in wider contexts (higher education, public and Democrat-governed spaces). By 2023, bill strategies used hypocritical and hypothetical anti-LGBTIQ+logics; replicated federally to thwart democratic and economic structures.

Conclusions: Anti-fascist, Queer and critical socialist theories explained the 2023 bills’ increase as building upon past partisan mobilisation on wedge transgender state election issues; towards neofascist diminishment of increasingly wider-ranging and higher-level US democratic structures, rights protections, and economic functioning. Policy attacks on vulnerable social groups’ rights — particularly trans youth — can signal ‘early stages’ within neo-fascist strong-man state-identity creation supporting democratic structure diminishments.

Policy Implications: Multi-level multi-cultural pluralist democratic institutions and support structures with inter-reinforced rights recognition expansions should be required by and should protect the rights of all citizens.

Conversion practices include a range of efforts that attempt to change or suppress LGBTQA+ individuals’ sexual or gender identity. Formal versions of these practices are occurring less frequently in Western settings, yet informal versions and the ideology underpinning them continue to cause psychological and spiritual harm to people who are subjected to them. As evidence for the harmful nature of conversion practices increases, and some governments and professional bodies are responding with measures that restrict their use, there is a growing need for the mental health sector to be engaged with these issues so that practitioners are appropriately prepared to recognize and support survivors in ways that are effective and affirming of sexual and gender diversity. In this paper, we review the state of the evidence concerning associated harms and their lack of efficacy in changing sexuality or gender identity, and highlight the changing nature of research in this space to focus on the negative impacts of conversion practices on survivors. We then discuss the evidence around mental health practitioners’ knowledge and support capacity for conversion practices survivors. We close by commenting on specific features of therapeutic practices that can guide practitioners as they support survivors through the recovery process.

Following the recent proliferation of anti-discrimination protections supporting LGBTIQ+ youth internationally, backlash periods have ensued. Whilst liberal-progressive rights models theorise ‘backlash’ as an expected consequence of rights recognitions progress, some post-colonial and Queer scholars frame backlash within enduring authoritarian anti-rights tendencies, and question assumptions of progress. To understand backlash more adequately, this paper explores state-level anti-LGBTIQ+ Bills potentially impacting youth proposed in the USA between 2018 and 2022. Critical discourse analysis is used to map the different types, locations, conceptual arrangements and outcomes of 543 anti-LGBTIQ+ rights US state-level proposed Bills. Bill attempts were mainly concentrated in Republican-governed states including Tennessee (48), Missouri (40), Iowa (39), Oklahoma (32) and Texas (32). Overly extended claims concerning girls/women’s, religious, and parental rights were advanced in opposition to LGBTIQ+ youth rights, and as part of wider rights attacks. Bills used anti-rights and pro-rights discourses to mask as ‘backlash’ the rights claims advanced by elite-led anti-rights mobilisations.

Introduction
The United Nations called member states to better support the education rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA +) people in recent years. However, Australian policy debates about schools’ ‘religious freedom’ and exemptions around gender and sexuality discrimination continue.

Methods
This article explores 1293 LGBTIQA + students’ experiences around religious freedom, gender, and sexuality by school type using data from the 2022 ‘Gender and Sexuality Expression in Schools’ survey. To understand correlations for students’ religious vs. non-religious educational institution types, basic descriptive and correlative statistical analyses were undertaken for quantitative data in SPSS and Excel including chi-square tests, alongside Leximancer-supported thematic analyses of qualitative responses.

Results
Attending religious schools was associated with (1) increased anti-LGBTIQA + and religious freedom-restricting policies, messages, and practices; (2) increased sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts (SOGI- ECE) messages and practices; and (3) increased negative consequences and feelings. In religious education sites, professionals — especially teachers/educators — were more likely to spread anti-LGBTIQA + messaging at class/group and school-wide levels especially around ‘sinning’; however, professional codes appeared deterrents for school psychologists. In government schools, students more often unofficially spread anti-LGBTIQA + messaging around ‘brokenness’ or ‘social harmfulness’, mostly one-on-one.

Conclusions
The article shows the value of anti-discrimination laws and professional codes in reducing official problematic practices, for those contexts and professionals they applied to.

Policy Implications
Removal of exemptions for religious education institutions in anti-discrimination laws, revisions of education policies, and clearer protections for LGBTIQA + people in educators’ professional codes are recommended.

Definitions of ‘religious freedom’ around schools’ treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and asexual (LGBTIQA+) students have been regularly debated internationally, with little input from LGBTIQA+ students. Transformative theories of religious freedom around sex, gender and sexuality in education suggest religious freedom cannot counter equality. This study uses data from the 2022 Gender and Sexuality Expression in Schools Survey to explore 1293 Australian LGBTIQA+ students’ relevant experiences and definitions around religious freedom in schools. Basic descriptive and correlative statistical analyses were undertaken for quantitative data in SPSS and Excel including chi square tests; alongside Leximancer-supported thematic analyses and poetic transcription of qualitative responses. LGBTIQA+ students defined ‘religious freedom’ as positive freedoms of religious (non-)memberships and (non-)beliefs, without interpersonal/institutional harm or coercion. They often framed freedom using ‘transformative’ pro-LGBTIQA+ ideals. LGBTIQA+ students were less likely to experience ‘religious freedom’ in religious schools; where policy and educational interventions appear necessary.

Executive Summary

On Conversion Practices
• The submission establishes conversion practices as being grounded in a blend of messages and pseudo-scientific assertions (often labelled as ‘conversion ideology’) that suggest people can and should change or suppress diverse sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. Exposure to elements of this ideology and its component messages and assertions often occurs in early years and increases through-out childhood, adolescence, and/or adulthood, with their communication usually becoming increasingly directive. Indeed, these messages and assertions are most often the core conceptual content addressed in conversion practices themselves. Conversion practices therefore stem from complex formative experiences, and social and institutional dynamics.
• Internalisation of conversion ideology messages, combined with community dynamics and the fear of rejection or shame, complicate participants’ ability to give free informed consent to conversion practices; with ‘consent’ often obtained by deception or misinformation and only given after a substantial period of time absorbing conversion ideology. Conversion practices sometimes do not appear obviously ‘coercive’ in the conventional sense of the word because of the contextual and spiritual nature of key pressures, causing external observers to frequently fail to understand the deeper long-term dynamics present around participants/victims.
• Conversion practices typically occur in religious/ pastoral care, healthcare, human services and disability support provision, education, family and community (including minority culture) settings. The rejection, homophobia and transphobia of such settings create false hope conversion practices will relieve or substantially reduce risk of rejection; instead, they create failure and rejection cycles. In formal service settings, conversion practices also constitute a substantive breach of ethical standards and duty of care.
• Research shows conversion practices involve diffuse perpetrators and often cause substantial long-term harm to participants/victims/survivors that are overwhelmingly psychological rather than other forms of harm such as physical assault. Harms include deep ongoing shame, depression, anxiety, inhibited development of self-concept, poor educational and employment outcomes, suicidality, problems maintaining relationships, sexual functioning issues, and complex trauma – appearing anytime from shortly after exposure to decades later.
• Recent Australian research demonstrates that conversion practices and the dissemination of conversion ideology continue to persist in New South Wales, with significant effort employed by proponents to frame and re-frame conversion practices and ideology in ways that will make them difficult to detect for less informed observers. Australian research and advocacy has been world-leading in its ability to crisply define conversion ideology and practices in ways that provide a clear and reliable lens for under-standing how they work.

On Banning Conversion Practices
• While there remain many survivor/victims and ongoing participants in the community, a substantial volume experience conversion practices from a diverse range of diffuse actors and agents and particularly those they overwhelmingly wish to avoid subjecting to formal punishments. Therefore, a legislative approach that centres offences that require attaching responsibility for harm to a single perpetrator or body corporate in conventional criminal proceedings would not reflect the substantial volume of survivor experiences recorded and analysed in Australian research.
• The NSW ban model should draw on concepts from other legislative interventions including the survivor-led gold standard model adopted by the Victorian and Aotearoa/New Zealand governments and others aiming at symbolic, preventative and inclusive goals. It should aim at transformation and community education across relevant industry sectors and communities including guidance and scenario information to combat a likely range of misinformation and disinformation, and misunderstandings. The ban should centre the role of government in attaining outcomes and avoid approaches that merely view conversion practices as an outworking of discrimination, and any approach that places the burden of attaining jus-tice or legal outcomes on the agency of survivors.
• Having a plan and resourcing for supporting survivors of conversion practices would be a much-needed innovation, and provider and professional training could cover a range of evidence-based ideals.

On the NSW Conversion Practices Ban Questions
• Table 2 of this submission answers the key consultation questions. It addresses the legislative, criminal, regulatory, civil and administrative, and non-legislative aspects of the proposal for NSW ban modelling; emphasising ways of manifesting a recommended transformative approach and offering sample text ideas.

Conclusion: On Drafting a Ban & Ban-Plan
• The submission overall emphasises multiple strong and diverse reasons to continue the progress of the NSW Government’s banning of conversion practices; from the high prevalence of conversion practices to the harms they cause, and the importance of the bi-partisan election promise to stop them.

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 book uses the concept ‘euphoria’ to investigate when, why, and how marginal gender, sex, and sexuality groups have positive experiences of their diverse variations. These positive experiences appear to occur within, and even in part due or at least in relation to, marginal groups’ repressive and disordering contexts and marginalisation itself. This chapter supplies an overview of the different literatures on euphoria. It relates this work to information on dysphoria. It then supplies an outline of the chapters of the book.

Expanding on psychological and individualist frames emphasising transgender and gender diverse (TGD) experiences; this chapter supplies a new ecological model of potential influences on the development of euphorias to assist in service applications, everyday lives, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) research. The model adds culturally embedded psycho-social accounts of affect and development from Bronfenbrenner, Erikson, Ahmed, and Butler. It shows euphorias as potentially influenced by what is privileged in individuals’ developmental stages and systems of social and institutional engagements, policy contexts, and cultural norms over time. The chapter argues for being euphorically queer—using erasure, overplay, and transference of happiness onto non-traditional identities and bodies, towards energising responsiveness to LGBTIQ+ and other othered groups’ needs, and against conforming contentedness which stagnates activisms.

Affirming affective framings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) experiences are needed in education research. Drawing on the 2021 LGBTQ+ You surveys, this chapter explores experiences of euphoria in Australian education institutions among 2407 LGBTQ+ staff, parents, and students participants and how these changed over time. Staff members and out LGBTQ+ participants were more 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) removal or addition of euphoria blockers especially the spectre of parental backlash.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students were a point of policy contention in recent elections and often portrayed as victims. This chapter investigates 1968 LGBTQ+ students experiences of euphoria. Of over a third who had euphoric experiences, most students experienced euphorias sometimes or often. Young, out, and non-binary youth especially experienced euphorias. Community Connection, Acceptance, Category Validation, and Institutional Inclusion euphorias dominated. Change-trends included: (1) increase and intensification of Acceptance euphorias with support; (2) shifts in Category Validation euphorias dependent on identity fit, exposure and bias; (3) more Acceptance euphorias upon dissipation of internalised biases, and (4) heightening and deadening of Acceptance euphoria around specific teachers. Changes to youth euphorias thus had a monumentality; Acceptance and Category validation euphorias were especially reactive.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) education professionals have been portrayed negatively in education research literature and can be fired in religious institutions. This chapter investigates 229 LGBTQ+ professionals’ euphorias in their employing education institutions. Almost half of LGBTQ+ staff were euphoric about their identities at school especially if out or in urban/suburban contexts. Many were euphoric often. Institutional Inclusion, Acceptance, and Pride Generativity euphorias dominated. Over two-thirds of staff reported changes to euphorias, including (1) site-specific shifts in Institutional Inclusion and Acceptance euphorias depending on the support employment bodies and communities, employment security and safety concerns and (2) a less pronounced slow increase of Community Connection euphoria, especially relative to the disclosure, education, and activist efforts of colleagues. Changes had site-specific or variable qualities.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) parents’ rights were openly debated around marriage legislation movements. Religious schools can deny their families services. This chapter investigates 208 LGBTQ+ parents’ euphorias in their children’s schools. Under a third of them were euphoric and mostly always or often; gay or lesbian parents were more likely to experience euphorias and parents with disabilities were less likely. Institutional Inclusion, Category Validation, Pride Generativity, and Community Connection euphorias dominated. Most parents reported no changes to their euphorias. Change-trends included: (1) increased expectation for Institutional Inclusion euphoria; (2) steady growth in (Self-) Acceptance euphoria; (3) relationships and relationship views as a moderating factor; (4) learning and teaching euphorias; and (5) time as an enabling factor. Parent euphorias had stable and revolutionary qualities.

People with intersex variations are mostly framed within conservative psycho-medical research challenging their autonomy, or critical empowerment Intersex Studies literature noting discrimination. Resisting deficit-based framings, this chapter uses the concept ‘euphoria’ to investigate when, why and how 272 Australian online survey participants (aged 16-87yrs) had positive experiences of their intersex variations. Upon diagnosis, under one fifth described what this piece calls Category Validation, Difference Legitimisation, Knowledge Integration, Medical Sense-making or Sudden Hope euphorias. Post-diagnosis euphorias were more common, most often Body Positivity euphoria. Also, Acceptance, Autonomous Control, Relative Gains, or Fitness Edge euphorias emerged. Euphorias had different feelings, stimuli, processes, and impacts. Body Positivity euphoria was most connected and conducive to other euphorias, and has external stimuli which could be invested in further.

This final chapter uses the ecological model of psycho-social development introduced in Chap. 2 to frame what was learned about euphorias for different groups and contexts, and different age-stages and time periods, across the data presented from several different studies in the book. It considers and discusses these findings in relation to existing literature on euphoria, emotion, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ+) people. It clarifies the new information presented across the studies and its value in terms of various disciplines of knowledge. The chapter finally concludes by offering possible applications of this new knowledge in practice for stakeholders. It then also discusses what is not yet known about euphoria and sets new agendas for the uses and study of euphorias.

People with intersex variations are mostly framed within conservative psycho-medical research, or critical empowerment Intersex Studies 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 article uses the concept ‘euphoria’ to investigate when, why and how 272 Australian online survey participants (aged 16-87yrs) had positive experiences of their intersex variations. Upon diagnosis under one fifth described what this piece calls Category Validation, Difference Legitimisation, Knowledge Integration, Medical Sense-making or Sudden Hope euphorias. Post-diagnosis euphorias were more common; most often Body Positivity euphoria. Also, Acceptance, Autonomous Control, Relative Gains or Fitness Edge euphorias emerged. Euphorias had different feelings, stimuli, processes and impacts. Body Positivity euphoria was most connected and conducive to other euphorias, and has external stimuli which could be invested in further.

[Le persone con variazioni intersessuali sono per lo più inquadrate all'interno di psico-medici conservatori ricerca, o letteratura sull'empowerment critico Intersex Studies. In entrambe le letterature loro l'inquadratura ha aspetti negativi che negano i loro corpi, identità, salute o funzione; o posizionamento all'interno di contesti discriminatori. Resistere a inquadrature basate sul deficit, questo articolo utilizza il concetto di "euforia" per indagare quando, perché e come 272 australiano i partecipanti al sondaggio online (di età compresa tra 16 e 87 anni) hanno avuto esperienze positive del loro intersessualità variazioni. Dopo la diagnosi, meno di un quinto ha descritto ciò che questo pezzo chiama Categoria Convalida, legittimazione della differenza, integrazione della conoscenza, creazione di senso medico o Euforie improvvise di speranza. Le euforie post-diagnosi erano più comuni; il più delle volte Corpo Euforia di positività. Inoltre, accettazione, controllo autonomo, guadagni relativi o fitness Sono emerse euforie al limite. Le euforie avevano sentimenti, stimoli, processi e impatti. L'euforia della positività corporea era più connessa e favorevole ad altre euforie, e ha stimoli esterni su cui investire ulteriormente.]

I write this chapter from the position of an Australian Gender and Sexuality Diversity (GSD) academic who regularly visits and collaborates with GSD organisations and individuals in Southern Africa in support of United Nations-supported initiatives and other efforts to promote GSD rights. Southern African nations vary greatly with respect to the legal rights of relevant populations. Comoros and Tanzania still criminalise same-sex sexual practices for both men and women, and eSwatini criminalises these for men only, while six countries protect GSD rights to a substantial degree (most notably South Africa, Mozambique and Seychelles). Overall, the southern part of the continent shows a stronger trend towards non-discriminatory legislation compared to the north, west, east or central regions and has contributed significantly towards regional and global rights recognition in ways assisting Australia (my context). Against this background, this chapter identified a number of Southern African transnational contributions to GSD issues, with a particular focus on education, drawing on the author’s recent research.

Introduction
Teachers need training to provide high-quality sexuality education to adolescents. The recent release of a new Australian health curriculum provides a timely opportunity to examine the experiences of Australian sexuality education teachers since the release of this curriculum.

Methods
Australian teachers who had taught sexuality education since the 2015 release of the national health curriculum (N = 239) participated in this cross-sectional survey between 2017 and 2018. Survey items investigated teaching and training experiences; comfort with, and hours spent teaching, sexuality education; and the topics taught. Analyses included comparative means, correlations, and a standard multiple regression.

Results
Half of the sample taught health while the other half taught seven other subjects. Teachers who had received any training or professional development had higher scores on having had the “right” training (all ps < 0.005) and spent more hours on delivery of sexuality education (p ≤ 0.001); 10–20 h or more of training was more strongly affirmed as useful. Earlier training or professional development increased overall comfort, and comfort was the biggest predictor of increased content delivered (beta = − 0.278, p = 0.001). Training after new curricular requirements only aided comfort around “new material,” specifically, gender and sexual diversity (p = 0.007).

Conclusions
This study confirms that the amount and types of training received, perceived usefulness of that training, comfort delivering various parts of the curriculum, and the time spent in the classroom delivering sexuality education all support the delivery of high-quality sexuality education in schools.

Policy Implications
Results indicate that any Australian teacher could be required to teach sexuality education. Therefore, universities should supply pre-service teacher training in sexuality education across all degree programs. Education leaders should supply early professional development for new sexuality education teachers to enhance overall comfort, and subsequent professional development focused on “new material” or updates.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) encompasses a range of inherited autosomal recessive enzyme conditions that impact steroid hormone production. This lifelong condition has associated health risks for some individuals, including adrenal crisis, and menstruation and fertility issues. Health literacy materials focused on the physical and pharmacological aspects of managing menstruation (i.e., treatment to initiate or maintain menses for those with CAH) are scarce. This article addresses this gap by exploring menses patterns in people with CAH. An integrative literature review searched articles published between 2005 and 2020, and 30 articles met inclusion criteria. Study findings indicated that while menarche seems to occur at an average age for people with CAH, menstruation is commonly disrupted and irregular. Several studies reported individuals achieving regular menses and pregnancy, while others noted individuals consistently showing poor control, irregular menses, and infertility despite ongoing treatment. A few studies reported such individuals as “non-adherent” or worse “non-compliant” with their medication regimens when health outcomes were lower than expected. We emphasize that such fault finding by health service providers around adherence acts as a barrier to communication with people with CAH. We argue that a sustained and coordinated person-centred approach focusing on communication and education across situational, developmental, and organizational transitions, can promote health literacy, foregrounding individuals’ health and bodily autonomy across their life span. Future research needs to address gaps in knowledge translation that supports menstrual education for individuals with CAH. Studies should also address how medication management is assessed and adherence negotiated with individuals with CAH.

KEYWORDS: Adherence, compliance, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, integrative literature review, medication, menstruation

Highlights
•Research shows a globally common range of religion-based LGBTQA + conversion practices.

•Spiritual harms associated with conversion practices have not yet been investigated.

•Coercion in conversion practices was linked to stronger religious trauma responses.

•Complicity in experiences of conversion practices was closely linked to moral injury.

•Attending to spiritual and cultural factors will aid in survivors' recovery.


Abstract
Religion-based LGBTQA + conversion practices frame all people as potential heterosexuals whose gender aligns with their birth sex (in a cisgender binary model of male and female sexes). Deviation from this heterosexual cisgender social identity model is cast as curable ‘sexual brokenness’. However, research shows conversion practices are harmful, and particularly associated with increased experiences of abuse, mental health diagnoses, and suicidality. This paper explores their contribution to the particular harms of moral injury and religious trauma, drawing firstly on the foundational moral injury literature to offer a unique conceptual framework of spiritual harm and moral injury, and secondly on a rare qualitative 2016–2021 study of the spiritual harms reported in semi-structured interviews of 42 survivors of LGBTQA + change and suppression practices in Australia. The paper examines the survivors' support needs around the nature and extent of religious trauma and moral injury, to inform services working towards supporting their recovery from such experiences and their resolution of conflicts deeply bound in their sense of self and belonging. It argues that impairment of conversion survivors' relationships with religious communities, and religious self-concepts, point to the need for additional improvements in pastoral practice.

Keywords
Sexuality; Gender identity; Religion; Conversion therapy; Moral injury; Spiritual health

Welcome to the Intersex and Sexuality Education special issue of Sex Education. It marks an important occasion since this is the first time that an entire issue of an education journal has been devoted to these important concerns. People born with intersex variations have atypical sex characteristics, be these chromosomal, hormonal and/or anatomical in nature (Jones et al. 2016). These variations reveal in perhaps the most corporeal way that the traditional notions of sex characteristics as discussed in mainstream puberty and sexuality education concerning human bodies may be overly simplistic, and contestable on both scientific and social grounds. People with intersex variations have long been categorised and studied in deeply problematic ways, sometimes in violation of their right to self-determination and a life free from torture. Historically, they have mainly framed as having ‘disorders’ and accordingly, studied via small-scale clinical studies using lenses which privilege the assumption that their bodies should be ‘medically corrected’ in infancy without their consent – regardless of medical and personal need (Jones 2018). All over the world, rights organisations and advocates are working to change this situation (Aissga et al. 2017; Carpenter 2016; Free &amp; Equal United Nations for LGBTI Equality 2018; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2015). There are over 40 recognised different intersex variations – Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), for example. However, people with intersex variations are now more often studied or referred to as a group rather than in terms of specific variations. This broad-based grouping together has strengthened rights-based re-framings of intersex variations and related human experience – showing how humans, all of whom have the right to respect and autonomy, have a wide variety of possible bodies and sexual capabilities (Carpenter 2016, 2018; Davis 2015a). Emerging research driven by intersex communities, and informed by sociological or various alternative community-centred perspectives, has denounced enforced interventions as discriminatory (Jones 2018). Anti-discrimination protections for people with intersex variations, and calls for their full inclusion in puberty and sexuality education, are also emerging at the international level through the work of the United Nations (Free &amp; Equal United Nations for LGBTI Equality 2018; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2015; United Nations 2016), activist groups (Aissga et al. 2017), and some government authorities (Malta Ministry for Education and Employment 2015; Victorian Department of Health and Human Services 2018).

ABSTRACT Australian education is delivered through government and independent systems. This article discusses how education policies on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer students in these different sectors have affected school climates. It describes how previously published policy analysis and survey data on Australian gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer students was used to identify the best policies currently in use in Australia. Significant correlations between policies and a variety of well-being and psycho-social outcomes for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer students were uncovered. Ideal policy visions were promoted collaboratively in interstate and international contexts. However, the article cautions against a simplistic view of transnational best-practice adoption.

This literature review examines the needs, policy  and curricula alignments, theories, empirical peer-reviewed research studies and program feedback samples supporting the Story Factory’s work. It looks specifically at four areas.
1. Research and theories aligning with the Theory of
Change underpinning all Story Factory programs;
2. Alignment between Story Factory
programs and national and NSW education
policy and curricular goals;
3. Alignment between Story Factory programs
and research and theories on literacy;
4. Alignment between Story Factory programs
and research and theories on how to develop
critical and creative thinking skills.

Introduction: Multiple jurisdictions are debating responses to United Nations calls for banning attempts at conversion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and asexual (LGBTQA +) peoples' identities to fit religious norms. This paper aimed to examine Australian LGBTQA + youths' experiences and outcomes of religious conversion practices attempting to change or suppress their gender or sexuality. It explored how attending conversion practices related to demographic characteristics and outcomes.

Methods: A 2019 online health and social well-being survey promoted via diverse social media questioned 6412 LGBTQA + Australians aged 14-21 years on their experiences of sexuality or gender change or suppression practices. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to understand relationships between exposure to conversion practices and demographic, socio-behavioural, and health and well-being measures.

Results: Whilst most participants had never attended counselling, group work, programs or interventions aimed at changing their sexuality or gender identity, 4% had attended such conversion practices. Analyses showed associations between engaging with conversion practices and (1) specific demographics (being cisgender male, multi-gender-attracted, unemployed, affiliated to a religion at the personal or household level); (2) social experiences (increased exposure to social rejection, negative remarks and harassment); (3) socio-behavioural outcomes (decreased education, sport and housing opportunities) and (4) negative health and mental health outcomes (including increased suicidality and self-harm).

Conclusions: The paper showed that conversion practices are correlated with poor well-being outcomes, providing arguments for expanding inclusive health and mental health services allowing for affirming religious and non-religious identities for LGBTQA + youth.

Policy Implications: The paper provides evidence supporting bans on conversion practices.

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) encompasses a range of autosomal recessive inherited enzyme deficiencies that impact cortisol biosynthesis pathways. Although reported as a rare and lifelong condition, it holds chronic health risks for individuals that can influence menstruation. The purpose of this environmental scan and integrative literature review was to identify health information pertinent to CAH  and menstruation in order to inform health providers, increase patient education, and promote menstrual wellbeing. Analysis identified that  while information about menses is reported, information about menstrual irregularities and their management in adolescents and women with CAH is uncertain. Furthermore, there is insufficient good quality research and knowledge on CAH and menstruation to inform health providers in their practice with this population. The need for individuals with CAH to access evidence-informed information is constrained by the state of current understanding and limitations in knowledge translation. The importance of having trustworthy and safe spaces in which to ask questions and draw on ethically sound,  language appropriate, and evidence-informed material is paramount in supporting women’s confidence and wellbeing across their lifetime. We encourage the building of stronger relationships between researchers, health providers, support groups and individuals to improve knowledge translation and dissemination regarding CAH and menstruation.

Several large-scale surveys around the world show the most frequently reported mental health diagnoses among people with intersex variations include depression, anxiety and PTSD. Wellbeing risks are also high, with individuals with intersex variations citing suicidal thoughts or attempts across their life-course – specifically on the basis of issues related to having congenital sex variations. The population mostly attributed their wellbeing risks to negative social responses from others, difficulties around having undergone interventions or issues around gender/identity. In the Canadian context, there is a lack of formalized, charitable Canadian wide intersex networks, advocacy groups, universal mental health care approaches, or provincial signposting to services similar to those developed elsewhere. Using a life-cycle lens, a group of international researchers came together in a collaborative Canadian study to explore health care transitions that people with intersex variations might need or desire, at various stages of their life. A key finding highlights that transition phases have the capacity to be especially difficult in the context of mental health. Three themes in the data identified mental health impacts: worthlessness, alienation and self-esteem. However a final theme drew on integrated medicine to celebrate emerging emotional intelligence; a positive experience that had emancipatory benefits across the lifespan.

Objectives
This study sought to explore perspectives of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people of ways to alleviate gender dysphoria in service provision and to develop a framework for application in health and other areas that can be used by researchers and service providers to design study protocols, assess organisations and enhance everyday practice in ways that are sensitive to TGD people’s experiences.

Methods
Data from a national Australian survey on TGD people conducted in 2018–2019 (n = 340) were used to develop a framework for alleviating dysphoria. Participants were asked an open-ended question on ways that body discomfort could be minimised in clinical encounters. Inductive thematic analysis was used to develop themes true to participant sentiment, which formed the basis for the development of a framework.

Results
The sample was overall young, with 60.6% aged 18–24, and a strong representation of gender diverse people (42.6%). The most important theme for participants was the context of the experience, which included the subthemes of the interpersonal qualities of service providers, language and pronouns, and practical aspects. Aspects of systems were also important, with education and awareness being particularly emphasised, followed by inclusive environments. Access to gender affirming medical and surgical procedures was rarely mentioned (2.6%). A minority of participants indicated that there was nothing that could be done to alleviate their gender dysphoria (4.4%).

Conclusions
The study proposes a framework that can help facilitate assessment of a service’s current practices, inform a practitioner’s daily practice and be used by researchers to appropriately design studies. The most important areas to address centre on the context of the immediate experience, which may be influenced through systems-level characteristics.

This chapter explores shifts in thinking around ‘gender’ categories historically that still face intense cultural debate and affect education policy controversies to this day. It next explores how gender relates to differences in educational access or inclusion, and the current dominant approaches to gender in Australian schools. It then considers the issue of school-related gender-based violence and the potential role of educators in mediating its prevalence and impacts, and concludes with effective practice recommendations.

This chapter analyzes a range of responses that have been developed to address problems around respecting the rights of lesbians and gay (LG) people in education.  It outlines the growing global movement in education for LG people since 2010, and also some of the backlash this has garnered. It then describes the key themes of education research on LG issues over the last four decades, showing how the focus has increasingly shifted from problematizing LG people to problematizing the treatment of this group in educational settings. The chapter also examines research on teaching and LG staff, and considers whether it may be naïve to assume that they are the ideal staff members to manage homophobic bullying in schools. This is followed by a consideration of LG students’ experiences of homophobia and violence; and a range of school support features for such students. Following detailed analysis of these four themes, the chapter concludes with recommendations around key ways to support LG people – staff and students – in schools.

Background
There is little research that addresses the needs of trans and gender diverse people with cancer. Emerging evidence shows unique concerns, particularly in relation to gendered cancers such as breast and gynecological.

Objective
The aim of this study was to explore the intersubjective experiences in cancer care of trans and gender-diverse people to inform a microethical approach to improving care for this community.

Methods
Qualitative interviews (n = 12) were conducted with trans and gender-diverse people who had a diagnosis of cancer. Analysis was phenomenologically inspired and used Braun and Clarke’s inductive thematic methods.

Results
The intersubjective experiences revealed that interactions were often characterized by a sense of alienation and invisibility. Six intertwined themes demonstrate the emergence of these feelings for the participants, these included Gender Stereotypes and Assumptions, Negation of Identity, Dismissed Concerns, Invisibility in the System, Alienation in Waiting Rooms and Support Groups, and Uniquely Gendered Bodies and Interactions. Conversely, 1 theme showed how participants could be made to feel connected and recognized—Affirming Experiences.

Conclusions
The unique experiences of trans and gender-diverse people in cancer care shed light on the effect of gender biases and barriers to empathic care. Findings provide professionals with insights that can enhance their clinical practice through informing the ways they provide care to people with diverse genders.

Implications for Practice
Cancer care nurses should be reflecting on their own assumptions related to gender and engaging their patients in genuinely empathic communication.

Since the mid-2000s Russian authorities banned lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) education propaganda domestically. However since at least 2014 Russia promoted both pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT education propaganda memes internationally, with a strong focus on LGBT youth. This article aims to explore Russia’s double-use of LGBT education propaganda. It outlines Soviet, Neo-Soviet and Eurasianist information operations concepts contextualizing Russian propaganda strategies and LGBT ideology for both defense and attack. It reports on a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) study investigating what 3,519 Facebook propaganda memes released by the US House of Representatives in 2018, and related US indictments, reveal about Russian online disinformation tactics. Analysis showed that the memes targeted both progressive and conservative ‘patriot’ groups using oppositional discourses on LGBT youth. Patterns of engagement began with relatively innocuous-looking memes the article names ‘Membership Calls’ and ‘Identity Celebrations’, linked to group pages and data collection forms further snowballing target group numbers. Increasingly, ‘both sides’ were pitched against each other and government(s) in destabilizing ways, through memes the article terms ‘Division Provocations’ and ‘Political Influence Attempts’. The memes reflected both existing and novel Russian information operations concepts and tactics on LGBT people; and exploited opportunities unique to social media to devastate democratic ‘majority rule’ debates.

"Social media provides useful forums for connection, and increased accessibility to large audiences. With evidence of the use of social media for interference in the 2016 US election, and the Australian Federal election just around the corner, what are the risks of foreign interference via social media? Associate Professor Tiffany Jones will present on how cyber operations target the Alt-right and progressive communities such as LGBTIQ+ people via social media applications for divisive ends. Professor Jones will examine some of the evidence and describe key goals, types and patterns of cyber interference and the implications for the upcoming Australian election."

A description of key data on LGBTIQ+ kids in schools and the educational and wellbeing impacts they experience from protective education policies, alongside how we are using this data for work in shaping education policy around the groups' needs at state, national, and international and global levels. Some additional information on some of the early cases from past decades inspiring my dedication to this work and why it is still necessary at this stage even given the need to recognise resilience and other more affirming aspects of LGBTIQ  schooling experience.

Described the use of Qualtrics, Leximancer and Voxal voice change software to gain a range of visual, written, statistical and audio data. This data is used in creative ways to enhance teaching and learning on the sociology of education for both internal and external university students.

Five loose "rules"/ themes can be drawn from the applications more commonly awarded ARC DECRAs and other early career funds. These definitely have exceptions, and my own DECRA award was an exception to each theme. Researchers in gender and sexuality (G&S) can feel they sit outside of the 'ideal'(s) of awards they are applying for; I discuss options of either making your work fit the conventions of successful applications, or working into the exceptions in your applications. As G&S research faces fresh conservative backlash in contemporary media, I especially advocate against scarcity mentalities/ competitiveness (your win = my loss) in G&S research. I argue for embracing the kind of big field and win-win thinking necessary to building a better future for all G&S researchers and more supportive networks that we can all share in and benefit from together.

People with intersex variations were born with  atypical sex characteristics - chromosomes, hormones or anatomy - which challenge the binary sex model. This talk will address the usefulness and problems of applying a Queer Theory lens to understand people with intersex variations. It draws on statistical and narrative data from 272 Australians with intersex variations. It outlines this diverse groups’ experiences of identities, bodies, sexuality, medical treatment and activism. It compares and contrasts some of these experiences to other LGBT groups’ experiences, and argues that it is possible to see both pros and cons to thinking about intersex variations within a Queer lens.

People with intersex variations have almost exclusively been studied in clinical/ medical lenses without collaboration from intersex groups. In 2015, the 'Australians born with Congenital Variations in Sex Characteristics (Intersex/ DSD/ hormonal, chromosomal or other biological variations/conditions)' study was launched to meet research gaps on larger-scale quantitative and qualitative data, using a sociological lens, with  reference group of key intersex community representatives. It aimed to privilege the voices of people with intersex variations on their own experiences and the key issues affecting them in their lives. In total, 272 people with intersex variations participated – the largest ever number in a Southern-Hemisphere-based study. Participants ranged in age from 16-85+, came from all states of Australia and represented over 40 variations. This talk supplies some basic information on how they experienced their variations, health services, mental health, education, employment, social support, sexuality, fertility/ parenting, and how they are represented. Further research needs are highlighted.

By request, the researcher provided the Safe Schools Coalition Australia and Safe Schools Coalition Victoria with a preview of education focussed data from her 2015 online survey of 272 people with intersex variations, and a discussion about working with community reference groups related to the target participants.

This paper discussed the preliminary findings about language preference and wellbeing from an anonymous online survey of 272 people with intersex variations. It aimed to redress the research gap on the perspectives of intersex people on their personal and social experiences of being intersex. This project asked how intersex participants constructed themselves regarding the key constructions available to them (in medical discourses, activism discourses and other arenas) and their own experiences/ preferences, and how different approaches impacted on their wellbeing. The survey data showed that participants far more strongly preferred to use terms related to the word 'intersex' than to 'disorder of sex development/ DSD' when discussing their variation/s.  The data revealed that most participants found out about their intersex variation aged under 18yrs, and some had undergone unnecessary surgical or hormonal treatments during their youth from which they experienced a range of negative impacts. Just over one quarter of participants had engaged in self-harm. Further, almost two thirds had considered suicide and around one fifth had attempted suicide. However, a positive finding of the study was that overall, people with intersex variations felt significantly better about their variations over time. In addition, engaging with people with their variation/s or similar helped improve their wellbeing. The paper ends by encouraging key institutions to provide more referrals to social groups which allow people with intersex variations to meet and share information and affirming approaches. More details on the study available soon in a forthcoming report.

This paper considers the different experiences for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students from rural and urban education contexts. It draws on data from three studies of GLBTIQ students conducted since 2010, including a 2010 online survey of 3,134 GLBTIQ students in which one fifth came from rural areas; a 2012 study of transgender people and a 2013 study of transgender and intersex students. The different studies repeatedly showed that GLBTIQ students from rural and remote towns experienced isolation, social discrimination and a lack of appropriate services and support. They were less likely to feel safe at school, at social occasions and on the internet than their urban peers. Many aspired to leave their rural and regional homes to become the person they wanted to be in an urban environment. The paper concludes by recommending specific training, resources and contacts to improve rural education services for these students.

Both historically and recently the dominant constructions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer students in sexual health education have been as victims. Whether they have been cast as victims of their own "deviance", victims of disease, victims of bullying or victims of schooling systems there has often been a negative association to their objectified identities. However, this paper examines a range of media cases and data from several recent studies which present a different picture. In this frame some GLBTIQ students have (as individuals, couples and groups) been particularly pro-active in promoting their own rights and sexual health interests, and in advocating for better sexuality education in schools. I argue for greater recognition of the times where GLBTIQ students have played the roles of teachers and activists, to contrast with the many victim-based constructions privileged in research literature today.

In Australia education is state-run; the eight states and territories feature both government and independent schooling systems. This paper discusses how research on the varying positions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (GLBTIQ) students within Australian education policy documents in these different sectors was used in advocacy to encourage the adoption of best practices. Specifically, it describes how survey data on the schooling experiences of over 3000 Australian GLBTIQ young people aged 14–21 years was used to identify the best policies and programs currently in use in Australia (in contexts such as the Victorian Government system). Significant correlations between policy and a variety of well-being and psycho-social outcomes for GLBTIQ students, including lowered incidence of homophobic abuse and suicide, were uncovered. Ideal policy visions and programs were outlined and promoted in advocacy in other states (such as WA, NSW and SA) and international contexts (such as South Africa and others). Researcher collaboration across Australia and internationally has promoted useful policy types, but the paper cautions against an overly simplistic view of transnational best-practice adoption.

Discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and otherwise queer (GLBTIQ) students has recently become a key area for global attention in human rights education.  The inclusion of GLBTIQ issues in anti-discrimination efforts in schools has been particularly aided by events held by the United Nations that specifically campaigned against homophobic bullying, speeches by the UN Secretary General framing homophobic bullying as “a public health crisis”, and UNESCO’s recent dissemination of new policy, programming and practice guidance to education sectors around the world. The movement towards protecting GLBTIQ students against bullying and discrimination, and the provision of structural and social supports in schools, has the potential to impact how diverse sexualities and gender identities are understood generally. This paper uses a Critical Discourse Analysis to provide an overview of the history of constructions of GLBTIQ students in education policies and practices around the world, in order to set the context for the approaches promoted in UNESCO’s (re)construction of human rights education today. Four main orientations to GLBTIQ students found both historically and in education sectors around the world today are detailed: conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern orientations. Within each orientation, a number of views on GLBTIQ students are described in relation to the broader discourses on sexuality within which they were formed. The paper argues that the public dissemination of evidence of verbal and physical homophobic abuse in schools, the prevalence of self-harm and suicides associated with homophobic bullying, and the impact of anti-homophobia education policies in reducing such problems has been key to the shift in understanding the position of GLBTIQ students in human rights education in places where anti-homophobia legislation and education policies exist. It gives examples from various countries of how this public dissemination – whether through courts of law, research reports, or media coverage – has been an important catalyst for change. The framing of GLBTIQ students as potential victims of discrimination at school (rather than as deviants, non-existent or biological aberrations for example) is thus argued as central to the promotion of “Anti-discrimination”, “Safe and Supportive Schools” and “Inclusive Education” approaches found in new human rights movements.  While portraying young people as “victims” is certainly not ideal in the long-term, it is nevertheless one key step in “humanising” GLBTIQ students enough to break down social and political barriers to their inclusion in constructions of “human” rights educational provisions.