Young, queer, and Catholic: Youth resistance to homophobia in Catholic schools

Drawing from the author's 5-year, multimethod qualitative study, this article argues that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students in Canadian Catholic schools are not inherently mentally ill, passive victims in need of special Catholic pastoral care; instead, they are activists who strongly resist homophobic oppression in school. This article concentrates on three youth activists, whose stories are analyzed through narrative inquiry and are contextualized in the larger study's methodology. The article concludes that antihomophobia education efforts should not overlook potential student leaders in Catholic schools.