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Some Challenges Facing Queer Youth Programs in Urban High Schools

Abstract Relatively little is known about the unique challenges facing queer youth programs such as Project 10 and Gay-Straight Alliances, housed in urban high schools where the majority of students are poor, non-White, and/or non-native English speakers. This article begins a conversation about two important issues that the author believes have an impact on queer youth programs in urban schools: racial segregation and the normalization of Whiteness. Data for the article are based on the author's participation in a school-university collaborative action research project at California High School (CHS) between 1996 and 2000. The project's research on participation in extracurricular activities led to the author's independent participant-observation in Project 10, the school's social/support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students. The results of these investigations suggest that the racially segregated social environment of CHS greatly affects the participation of queer students of color in Project 10. Additionally, faculty advisors for this program seemed less aware of the social/support needs of queer youth of color. In conclusion, the author suggests that through collaborative inquiry, students, teachers, and queer youth advocates develop awareness of the relationship between the social context of urban schools and participation in extracurricular activities. He also suggests that faculty advisors and queer youth advocates become more aware of the identities of queer youth of color by diversifying the curriculum and building coalitions with students and teachers who are broadly concerned with the ways multiple forms of oppression make urban schools ineffective and unsafe.