497663

research-article2014

ESJ0010.1177/1746197913497663Education, Citizenship and Social JusticeBhana

ecsj

Article

Managing the rights of gays and

lesbians: Reflections from some
South African secondary schools

Education, Citizenship and

Social Justice
2014, Vol. 9(1) 6780
The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1746197913497663
esj.sagepub.com

Deevia Bhana

School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract
Against the backdrop of South Africas policies that guarantee equality on the basis of sexual orientation,
this article documents the ways in which school managers negotiate and contest the rights of gays and
lesbians at school, analysing the implications. It draws on a queer approach which recognizes relations of
heterosexual domination and subordination as well as the material and social realities through which such
relations are produced. Of importance, the study finds that the political emphasis on rights has positive
effects for raising the homosexual agenda at schools. Yet, this is not the only means through which rights
are managed. Discrimination, sexual denial and religious intolerance combined with racialized and cultural
practices point to severe restrictions. Nonetheless, the article provides important insights for educational
management noting the broadening options amid political and policy emphasis on schools responsibilities
for sexual rights.

Keywords
Gays, lesbians, rights, school managers, sexuality, South Africa

Article 9(3) of South Africas Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual
orientation:
No person shall be unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of race, gender sexual orientation

Against the heinous system of apartheid which criminalized homosexuality, South Africa has demonstrated, in contrast to much of Africa, remarkable achievement in sexual inclusivity. As Phillips
(2004) notes, sexuality is integral to citizenship and serves as an important indicator of national
belonging in the country. Such an index of belonging remains contested, however, as the displacement of familiar understandings of gender roles, fundamentally associated with heterosexual hegemony, is often met with protestation. Such protestations have been articulated in extreme forms in the
Corresponding author:
Deevia Bhana, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X03, Ashwood 3605, South Africa.
Email: Bhanad1@ukzn.ac.za

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Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 9(1)

country particularly evident in African1 townships. Four men were convicted in February 2012 to 18
years in prison for the murder of a lesbian in 2006. Explanations for such violence include toxic masculinities made vulnerable by progressive law, the disruption of gender hierarchies, poverty, patriarchy and cultural notions of male heterosexual entitlements (Morrell et al., 2012). This backlash
continues with reports of curative rape of lesbian women, mobilizing the Human Rights Watch (2011)
to urge the state to publicly condemn homophobic violence and institute public education initiatives
to increase awareness of Article 9(3) of the Constitution in all sectors of the society.
Triggered by the violent homophobic turn, research is now emerging making schools both culpable in the spread of homophobia and capable of addressing sexual rights (Msibi, 2012). This
article examines the way schools (principals and heads of departments) manage the rights of gays
and lesbians in ways that could improve the outcomes for sexual equality. It examines how the
rights of gays and lesbians are negotiated against the backdrop of progressive policy and predictable mechanisms of discrimination. It argues that the human rights environment in South Africa
provides important leverage in negotiating a path between the protection of sexual equality and the
shadow of homophobia in/through which social and cultural forces are embedded. The article is
particularly relevant given the absence of detailed work in management and sexual equality in
South African schools. Sexuality research in South African educational research, despite its importance in terms of sexual well-being and sexual rights, remains an area that remains largely unaddressed in research and debate. In relation to homosexuality, this silence is just starting to be
addressed (Msibi, 2012). Developments in the country and Africa more generally have increased
the urgency to ending this silence. It is important to address the common trope which equates
Africa (African schools) with homophobia. A corollary to this is the research evidence which
paints schools in the west as prevalently homophobic (Epstein and Johnson, 1998; Meyer, 2009;
Nixon, 2010). In the United Kingdom, research drawing on queer theory has investigated the processes by which heteronormativity underpins the organizational processes and structures in schools
(Epstein and Johnson, 1998).
In South Africa, despite horrific acts of homophobic violence, a culture of respect towards samesex relations and freedom from discrimination is becoming established with African leaders condemning homophobia. Most notable is South Africas Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
Everyone is an insider, there are no outsiders whatever their beliefs, whatever their colour, gender or
sexuality. (Afrol News, 2004)
We spurn them we shun them because we are all caught up in tacit homophobia and heterosexism
We reject them, treat them as pariahs, push them outside the confines of our church and this must be
the ultimate blasphemy (Tutu, 1996)

Despite these progressive views, the dangers to sexual equality and to democracy in the country
cannot be underestimated. South African schools have much to do in the protection of rights. The
potential, this article argues, exists in relation to one area of school life: school managers. Amid the
policy emphasis on sexual rights, this article provides important insights for how that could be
managed in South African schools.

School management and the rights of gays and lesbians

The word management in educational research and everyday school life is widely used in South
Africa (Bush et al., 2010). While the international literature focuses on leadership (Niesche and
Keddie, 2011), the term management is appropriate for understanding the context with leadership

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and management often used interchangeably in South African research (Bush et al., 2010). The
article focuses on principals and heads of departments as school managers who head up the management of teaching and learning offer leadership and manage the school. Management is not meant to
exclude teachers, learners and parents and is not meant to reproduce hierarchical structures of power.
Rejecting outdated understandings of management that vest power in positions, the article is focused
on heads of departments and principals as a key constituency of school management and their potential to address the rights of gays and lesbians at school. South African research into educational
management and leadership is sparse. This lapse in research on school management has been
stressed by Bush et al. (2010). There is no empirical study that addresses management responsibility
in the advancement of and awareness at school of sexual equality despite emerging evidence which
shows the harmful homophobic practices at school (Butler et al., 2003). In fact, research suggests
that school management in the country is often interested in financial issues and administrative and
human resource issues (Bush and Heystek, 2006). The work of school management is often constrained by historical and structural inequalities as effects of apartheid, stark differences in race and
class schooling contexts, poverty, lack of access to resources and the burden of HIV and AIDS on
school communities tend to limit the possibilities for the development of equitable schooling.
Notwithstanding the structural limitations, schools are obliged to attend to the rights of all learners. As sites of heterosexual enforcement, South African schools have been identified as homophobic. Evidence points to discrimination, verbal and physical abuse by both teachers and learners
with restricted scope to broaden sexual options (Butler and Astbury, 2008; Msibi, 2012):
Subject to the Constitution, laws and national and provincial policies, the HOD [head of department] or
principal of any public school may consider necessary steps for the safeguarding as well as for the
protection of the people therein (Department of Education, 2001)

In South Africa, school laws (South African Schools Act No. 84, 1996) compel heads of departments and principals to intervene to secure the protection of all learners (and teachers). At continual risk in South Africa are learners who identify as gays and lesbians who experience exclusion
and partial agency. Also at risk are teachers and learners who identify within the dominant heterosexual school population who create and act on meanings that are based on predictable forms of
discrimination and repudiation of non-normative sexualities.
Similar to research in the west and faced with renewed emphasis on democratic policies enshrining the rights of gays and lesbians at school, increasing emphasis has been placed on the value of
school managers to embrace homosexuality and address homophobia (Rasmussen et al., 2004;
Harber and Serf, 2006). Both South African and international researches accept the central role of
school management in addressing this caveat (Harber and Serf, 2006; Epstein and Johnson, 1998).
But how do South African school managers respond to this challenge? The practice of fairness and
the development of democratic values and skills are essential markers of successful management
in schools (Harber and Serf, 2006). South African school managers have an important role to play
in democratic transformation of education:
This country requires a new national system for schools which will redress past injustices advance the
democratic transformation of society, combat racism and sexism and all other forms of unfair discrimination
and intolerance, uphold the rights of all learners, parents and educators (South African Schools Act
No. 84, 1996)

But research on democracy and education in South Africa shows failure to consider homosexuality with HIV and AIDS and race often trumping other forms of social inequalities (Harber and
Serf, 2006; Mncube and Harber, 2010). As Harber and Serf (2006) indicate,

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Few issues are as controversial as race, gender and sexuality but, with the exception of AIDS education in
South Africa, insufficient attention is being paid to these areas. On masculinity, homosexuality and
homophobia hardly trivial concerns in a democratic and pluralist society teacher education in both
countries seems to be silent. (pp. 996997)

School managers have been criticized for being ineffectual in advancing democratic education
(Harber and Serf, 2006; Mncube and Harber, 2010), with Chikoko et al. (2011) indicating that
South African schools find it difficult to teach controversial issues such as homosexuality.
Although compelled to address the disturbing trends in relation to sexual orientation, there is no
evidence from school managers and little, if no, intervention, and pervasive silence.

Queering and locating school management

Amid the operational, administration and financial concerns of South African school managers,
this article provides an important counterpoint to the work of school managers by attempting to
investigate how they understand the rights of gays and lesbians at school. It does so by drawing on
an approach involving queer theorizing. This section is not intended to delve into an interrogation
of queer theory and management (Parker, 2002). The main emphasis of queer theory in this study
is the value it holds in uncovering heterosexual discourses and subordination of sexual others
(Butler, 1990; Allen, 2010). Queer theory, as Pinar (2003) notes, shows how power is invested in
heterosexuality involving a strategy of exclusion and repudiation of homosexuality.
There is widespread debate about what is meant by queer theory, but for the purposes of this
study, it is meant to include theorists (Butler, 1990) who have radically problematized and rendered
visible the ways in which heterosexuality is socially constructed within specific social, cultural and
material conditions (Bhana, 2007). While heterosexuality is not a fixed category of meaning, it has
become the social air we breathe as Allen (2010) states involving relations of domination and
subordination.
The real expression of masculinity and femininity, as Butler (1990) notes, is embedded within a
presupposed heterosexuality so that gender is collapsed into a normalized sexuality.
There have been no studies in South Africa that attempt to queer school management perspectives. Despite the policy changes that have effects for the rights of gays and lesbians at school,
heterosexual enforcement remains strong (Msibi, 2012). Such domination interacts with the structures and social processes within the broader context of South Africa, underpinned by patriarchal
and heterosexual male prerogatives and privileges. The current focus on operational matters and
teaching and learning outcomes is insufficient as Harber and Serf (2006) note. Beyond queering of
management is the need to attend to the social and cultural specificities through which school managers respond to the rights of gays and lesbians. Such insights point to the relevance of contextspecific and local understandings of school managers and, combined with queer approaches, may
yield important insights into how heterosexuality is maintained and disrupted.

Methods
Drawing from a larger study examining the climate on homosexuality and homophobia in South
African secondary schools, this article focuses on school managers comprising school principals
(or deputy principals) and heads of departments. A total of 22 participants were drawn from five
secondary schools across two South African provinces of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng
(GT). The larger study utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods and participants included
learners, teachers and parents. This article draws on the data from focus group interview conducted

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with school managers in five diverse school contexts. The main aim of the article is not to understand individual school managers but the discursive heterosexual constructs through which the
rights of gays and lesbians are managed at school as well as the social processes through which
such meaning is made.
Schools were purposefully selected on the basis of accessibility, feasibility and the social
context. Apartheid legacies continue to mark the experience of schooling, and the social contexts reflect the intimate connection with race and class inequalities such that it is largely the
African poor who inhabit rural schools and African township schools (ATS), whereas former
Coloured, Indian and White schools reflect desegregating shifts as parents and learners access
better resourced schools. The teaching and management staff, however, reflect largely the
apartheid definitions. African township schools and African rural schools (ARSs) in this study
comprise only African teachers and learners. In an attempt to diversify the school staff, there
has been a slow movement of teachers spread across the racial divide, although such movement
is slow.
Schools in KZN were located within the greater Durban area and included an ARS, an ATS, a
former Indian school (FIS) and a former White school (FWS). In GT province, the school managers were drawn from a Coloured school. In total, the study comprised three Indian male managers
at FIS, three African male managers at the ATS, three male and two female managers at the ARS,
three male and three female Coloured managers at the former Coloured school (FCS) and one male
and four female White managers at the FWS. Their ages varied between 48 and 60 years. Their
participation was dependent on their willingness to join the interviews and their availability during
school hours. All interviews lasting approximately 90 to 120 minutes were held at the school. A
semi-structured interview schedule was developed which focused on questions regarding how
school managers responded to gays and lesbians. In the analysis, M refers to male, F to female and
the number 1, 2 or 3 refers to the participant. The location is indicated thereafter.
All names used are pseudonyms. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The analysis
attempts to investigate the discursive ways through which heterosexuality was legitimized and
destabilized with potential for transformation. To what extent can school managers disrupt discourses and practices that perpetuate heterosexual normativity? In what follows, the universalizing
effects of heterosexual discourses which damage the rights of gays and lesbians at school are presented first. Next, disruptions to heterosexual normativity are raised in line with a rights-based
political context which increases the potential to manage teaching and learning in the interests of
equality on the basis of sexual orientation. The article concludes with some recommendation in
queering schooling management in South Africa.

Regulating rights: sexual silence and denial

Consistent with international research, South African researchers have found that schools are
viewed as places of sexual innocence, and despite the mandatory requirement that schools deal
head-on with sexuality, teachers find it especially difficult to address sex and children (Morrell,
2003; Renold, 2005; DePalma and Atkinson, 2006; Bhana, 2007). The rights of gays and lesbians
are regulated within the overall strategy of silence. Silencing works to uphold particular discourses
and to make others illegitimate (Epstein and Johnson, 1998). School managers upheld the discourse that split the mind and body, where schools were regarded as sexually free and sanitized
areas of learning:
M2 (FIS): The schools laws will not allow any form of sexuality, between boys and girls or boys and boys
we dont allow that

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F1 (FWS): At the school level we, we actually dont want to see any evidence of any relationships between
kids, whether it is same sex or whether it is opposite sex so the same rules, the same rules apply so
basically you know, if we see two girls holding hands or if it was two guys holding hands or a girl and a
guy holding hands, we would say the same thing to them
M1 (FWS): display of affection between boys and girls in public it doesnt look good, kids in their
school uniform because really for us its very important that the schools image in the community is upheld
o, we, we just dont want that to be out in, in the public, you know, and people driving past the school,
therere our kids hugging and kissing and hanging onto each other, our parents dont want that sort of behaviour.

Sexual silence and sexual denial work as an overall strategy to produce sexuality as an illegitimate and shameful pattern in schools. All forms of sexuality were targeted as offensive and relegated to the domain of taboo and inappropriate childhood conduct, reproduced through schools
laws and regulations. Overall, sexual agency and sexual rights of young people were constrained
and limited, but it was homosexuality that was made powerful through the production and reproduction of sexual hierarchies:
M1 (ATS): I do not believe that people of the same sex can be involved in sexual intercourse
M2 (ATS): I totally disagree with homosexuality. This is going teach our kids something which is very
strange to us I totally disagree.

As DePalma and Atkinson (2006) note, sexual acts are often associated with identities. It is
homosexuality, however, that is made hyper-visible in terms of sex acts and repudiated and constructed as imperfect:
F1 (FWS): I want everything to be perfect for me it must be like the fairytale you get married
I imagine like my boys will grow up and then theyll find a girl and then theyll get married
F2 (FWS): I wouldnt feel comfortable with being homosexual We come from those families
where weve all just got married and stayed married

The rights of gays and lesbians are situated and regulated through heterosexist discourses and
the idealized notion of heterosexual marriage and norms. Heterosexuality is the unmarked category
of normality, while homosexuality is associated with sexual desires, excess and discomfort.
Homosexuality is associated with deviancy and denied. Tensions exist between the legal formalism
of rights and heterosexuality legitimation which buttress the claims to sexual equality. The following discussion at the FIS has reference:
M1 (FIS): I havent experienced anybody who is homosexual [at school], probably there are. Probably
they are still in the process, in the closet. I didnt see any in this school.
M2 (FIS): I think we got so much of heterosexuality here we dont need homosexuality here really. I
cant remember in this school, any incidences of homosexuality that were brought to the office
homosexuality is way above 18 years and over
M1 (FIS): fortunately we have never had a case
M3 (FIS): We havent really gone into that because we havent been experiencing any problems you know
coming across people that are homosexual in any way so

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M1 (FIS): as a result we dont have a fixed policy on homosexuality as we have never been confronted
with that as a challenge

Schools are not sexually silent spaces, but highly charged sexual sites where education for heterosexual privilege is normalized. All forms of sexuality, it was argued earlier, are not allowed by
the school. The contradiction, however, is that while all forms of sexuality are made illegitimate in
the school, it is heterosexuality that is present in its absence: we got so much of heterosexuality
here we dont need homosexuality here really. The managers above state that they have no
fixed policy to deal with homophobia as homosexuality was fortunately not a challenge. It was
absent, closeted and yet present by its absence. While homosexuality is denied an existence in the
school, there is reference to being hidden and silenced as people, it is claimed, are in the closet
without any recognition of the sexual inequalities that make such closeting a strategy in schools
(Butler and Astbury, 2008). The subordinated construction of sexuality is regarded for those who
are 18 years and over, an age of adult status in South Africa and mainly out of school. The use of
age makes homosexuality an illegitimate expression in schools, although as the managers claim
there was enough heterosexuality in the school. Silencing and denial thus work in complex ways
imbricating age and preventing school managers from putting homosexuality into the schools
policy agenda. The school is thus made to be a seamless heterosexual site. Disavowal is fundamental to the ways in which heterosexuality becomes privileged. As Epstein and Johnson (1998) noted,
schools are heteronormative institutions where heterosexuality is normalized and where homosexuality is tacitly and actively silenced and denied:
F1 (FCS): Thats why I say as long as its not a major issue, it is their situation, they sort it out Im not
saying they are not human beings, Im just saying, dont put it in my face, and expect me to do something
about it, its not what I believe in.

Dont put it in my face is a profound statement through which the unmarked power of heterosexuality is raised against the horror of homosexuality. Homosexuality is not what the manager
above believes in, regarding it as a problem of gays and lesbians to deal with and closing down
school managers ethical and political responsibility at schools. Given such configurations of
power, the management of rights takes place as active exclusion, denial, silencing and disavowal
as fundamental to the operation of heterosexual privilege.

Restricting rights: religion, race and culture

The analysis so far has drawn on queer approaches to uncover the ways in which school managers
privilege heterosexuality and in doing so circumscribe the rights of gays and lesbians through the
construction of a deviant other. Beyond queering, however, is the need to understand local knowledge. South African school managers responses are situated within existing patterns of dominant
Christian principles often combined with African traditions, are complexly connected to culture
and inequalities of race and gender and involve the language of power, inequality and exclusion:
M1 (ATS): In our church because homosexuality is regarded as Sodom that is animalism.

Used as a heuristic tool, the reference to Sodom constructs homosexuality as sinful and deviant
leading to animus, exclusion and feeling of revulsion with the school manager above referring to
the Churchs role in rehabilitation: I believe that somehow the rehabilitation process should take
place. The South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS, 2008) shows a strong link between

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religious denomination and frequency of attendance at religious services to sexual prejudice. The
study found that more disapproving attitudes to homosexuals are likely to be found among the
strongly religious and those belonging to a conservative denomination. The dogma associated
with religious beliefs works to create an environment where sexual rights are restricted. However,
shifts are evident:
M1 (FCS): if you read I think in Romans they choose to live like that some are born like that
some of these things brings some confusion we must accept each other as human beings and people
who have needs, you know, so we must help them.
M2 (FCS): so if the Bible gives us choices then who are we to, to, to condemn these uh, homosexuality
or, you know, lesbianism, you understand?

Rather than conventional Christian beliefs that are dogmatic, interpretation of the Bible is
important. Against the backdrop of changing interpretations in the country and Church leaders like
Archbishop Desmond Tutu providing counter discourses to religious intolerance, the possibilities
to erode dogmatic responses work in the interests of sexual rights. Garca et al. (2009) note that
religious interpretations supporting tolerance as opposed to social exclusion make possible the
respect for the human dignity of individuals:
F1 (FWS): Im Catholic, I come from Ireland, its um, against my religious views but at the same
time my brother is homosexual so I dont judge the person even though in my religious principles
its against my religion, my religious views. So I dont fully understand it, even though my brothers
homosexual , but I accept it, put it that way Ive taught Religious Education for eleven years
I challenged the LO teachers my child could not answer any of those because each of the things
that you asked him to do were against his religion including abortion So I would find it very
difficult.

The school manager above locates the difficulty in translating the acceptance of homosexuality,
despite being Catholic, with teaching and learning. She objects to Life Orientation (LO) in South
Africa where matters around abortion, permitted in South African law, sit in conflict with religious values. The management of LO, she concedes, is difficult because of the imperative in
South African law that legalises abortion and homosexuality. While there is not a static account
of religion and homosexuality with potential to work against religious intolerance evident as this
section has shown, religion does indeed constrain the efforts towards managing rights in compliance with law.
Homosexuality, it was argued, also presented a challenge to gender and cultural relations:
M1 (ARS): Even culturally. our culture, it is not cultural, especially we are speaking as Zulus, most of us
are Zulu and the Xhosa, and we are not used to that particular system, that is why it seems as if we are
discriminating against them In our culture as Zulus, we are expecting a girl to get married to a boy
we call it umakoti (bride) and umkhwenyana (groom). And after that there is a wedding udwendwe
(wedding) and umthimba and people who accompany the bride to her wedding and, which in fact we are
expecting umakoti to get married to umkhwenyana. Thats our culture, its supposed to be.

The attempt to fix culture with heterosexual masculine privilege has historical leanings. As
Hunter (2010) notes in his anthropological study of Zulu men and women in South Africa, women
were, at the turn of the 20th century, expected to demonstrate respect and subservience to men and

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marriage was rooted in male household power and engendered through the practice of bridewealth
(ilobolo). Homosexuality presents a challenge to cultural and male hegemonic patterns of power.
Appealing to the reproductive nature of culture, the school manager here illustrates the conflict
between the heterosexual marriage, referring to umakoti (bride) and umkhwenyana (groom) as
culture and rights. Not only is the question of heterosexual power at stake here but also the
assumed place of men and women in the heterosexual ritual. Gay and lesbian rights challenge male
heterosexual power and womens ability to choose. The deployment of culture to put women in
their subordinate place is part of the partial subjectivity of women in the country and has been open
to contestation (Phillips, 2004):
M1 (ARS): To come again to the point that South Africa is a democratic country, during our days when we
were young people used to hide this, they dont want people to know about this because there are those
cultural beliefs that a man is supposed to get married and pay lobolo (bride price), and have kids.
Nowadays things have changed so that is how things are, people have to express themselves on how they
feel about their, their sexuality and they are free to show their choice.

Noting the fluidity of culture and the ways in which homosexuality was/is very much part of
African life, although hidden, the above testimony provides important counter-argument to the
deterministic power of culture, the assumed hegemony of heterosexual patriarchy and
marriage.
South African school managers provide important examples of how cultural, religious and gender inequalities structure and restrict the rights of gays and lesbians in school and can yield important insights into the racialized and socially variegated school spaces:
M1 (FIS): I think also we must take into account the population group. As much as we dont like to do this
thing, the population group in this school are Indian and African. I think in the African heritage, in their
culture it is taboo terrible, terrible. And Indian people are very conservative they actually if they sort of
venture into that you know they would be very closeted theyre not going to tell their parents about that
at this point
F2(FWS): the black parents want us to be very careful with their girls and that, and Indian ones I
dont think our white parents have any prejudices, I think its more from that traditional, cultural, um, I
might be wrong but that, thats the feeling I get, ja Zulu parents particularly are very, very strict with
their kids, they, they dont allow any any kind of relationship, Ja, any sort of relationship in that environment
the girls have to do this behind their backs

White parents are assumed to be free of prejudice, and Indians and Africans are regarded as
strict with gender, an important aspect of sexual regulation. M1 at the FIS associates homosexuality and African culture as taboo and Indians as conservative with closeting as way to manage samesex sexuality. In search of some static and racist accounts of homosexuality, the school managers
position their responses in relation to South Africas racialized system of apartheid. While the
responses to rights have been articulated against restriction and possibilities, the responses above
serve to fix homophobia with essentialist accounts of race. Mediation of meaning is thus racialized
with Whites being considered to hold no prejudices despite the ample evidence so far in this article
suggesting the ways in which discrimination operates in all school contexts. The distancing mechanisms operate to obviate the need for intervention among particular racial groups and making the
work a race issue. This is dangerous as it feeds into racist rhetoric where Africans are regarded as
the worst people in relation to homophobia.

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Rights: disrupting heterosexual power

The final section of the analysis points to the ways in which the rights discourse disrupts heterosexual hegemony and opportunities, albeit with constraints, to teaching and learning outcomes at
school. South Africas Constitutional framework provides a necessary and significant starting
point through which the rights of gays and lesbians are made visible in the school:
M1 (ATS): It is law and there is nothing you can do, except to bow.

The rights discourse was amplified through reference to the Bill of Rights, the equality clause
and the encompassing ways in which citizenship has been understood in South Africas political
gains. Equality and the law offer an incisive tool way for putting the homosexual agenda in schools
in a positive framing. Anti-discrimination is at the human rights, and dents into the homophobic
school contest are evident:
M1 (FWS): I think the acceptance is definitely there there are some leaders in education where the
schools are led by, by homosexual people um, and I dont think it really is an issue Ive been in that
community for years and its open knowledge that the headmistress is gay and her deputy is gay but the
school is one of the top academic schools in the country. You know, the kids all turn out ok, theres
obviously a couple of homosexual girls there as well but its not something that we dont have in our
school. My daughters best friend, at Woodcrest Boys, is the deputy head boy there, when he was sixteen,
he openly came out and he came out at the school, in a public, hes a very, very intelligent young man and
very well-spoken, hes part of debating team, and all the rest he sings in the youth choir, hes just a
very, very nice boy but um, hes openly gay when he spoke at assembly Hi, Im a faggot, you call
me whatever you want to but this is who I am and then carried on from there, um, and thats the kind of
kid he is, at sixteen, that he could speak to all these jocks at a boys school known for their sport he
is, uh, and he is just an absolutely incredible young man.

The schools sexual landscape impossible under apartheid is shifting. Under new political circumstances, principals, teachers and learners are openly gay in some schools. School cultures can
be enabling of same-sex sexualities even in all-boys institutions where homosexuality and masculinity coalesce in ways that produce harsh environments for subordinated forms of masculinity
(Frosh et al., 2002). The rights culture has permeated schooling making is possible for teachers and
learners to put homosexuality on the agenda despite the recognition of an abusive environment.
Such openness bodes well for gay and lesbian sexualities at school. Schools therefore are not simply sites that unwittingly reject and exclude gays and lesbians. While it is important to acknowledge the limits inherent in the rights of gays and lesbians at school, an effective rights-based
Constitution in South Africa has provided a platform for change and potential for the further development of equality and agency.
The translation from rights to better teaching and learning outcomes was both contested and
adopted:
F2 (FWS): I think our school body of learners is very accepting of people and their differences we, we
had the whole thing about races and racism and so on, and the general agreement is we all choose to be
with who we want to be with but we interact with one another its exactly the same thing with the
sexuality
M1 (FWS): what Im saying is there will be parents who, who probably have very strong viewpoints
and might, you know, be critical of something like that, but as a school I think wed stand firm and say
well, thats the way it is.

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Against the impossibility of school management responses that work towards sexual equality,
this section points to the fundamental ways in which human rights law has been advantageous for
the management of rights. Noted above is the emphasis in South Africa on racial equality and how
that can be replicated in equality expected on the basis of sexual orientation. While the parent body
can offer resistance, it is argued that wed stand firm thats the way it is. However, it is simplistic to assume that the translation of rights will be automatic considering the ways in which
rights are regulated and restricted:
F1 (FWS): I would not promote gay sex more than I would promote other sex to me its a sense of
values and, you know, like we try to teach the kids um, values, in so far as we try to encourage them, as a
Christian I would encourage them not to be involved in sexual relationships from that point of view
I wouldnt like gay relationships to be highlighted as being so much more important than heterosexual
relationships I think it should be a talk about relationships, but not gay relationships.

That sexuality can be debated at school is an important starting point particularly as schools in
South Africa have been found to be resistant to putting sex on the agenda (Morrell, 2003). However,
putting gay relationships on the schools agenda is premised on particular values as noted above
where sexual agency is not scripted for young people and informed by religious beliefs. There was
also a fear that teaching homosexuality was aligned to promoting it:
F3 (FCS): I dont think it should be done at the level of school. I think it will expose our learners to try
it out thats my fear I feel if we make it part of our education its gonna promote
homosexuality, thats my feeling.

The association with homosexuality and hyper-visible sex and the notion of contagion are premised upon the exclusion of homosexuality from the schools agenda and suggest that such fear
based on irrational notions of homosexuality needs attention:
F(2) FCS: If that teacher has strong moral values or religious values, or cultural, whatever that
teacher might not teach that topic adequately in a humane or good way, and then that teacher might
um, come across as biased, prejudiced or whatever, and the kids will pick it up and eventually the kids
learn from the adult about how to treat gays. If that teacher doesnt feel good about gays and the topic,
the children will feel the same, some children will feel the same and then treat the gay person as a nonhuman being.

The emphasis above is placed on the beliefs and philosophies of teachers which impacts on how
to teach and what to teach with some managers stating that the curriculum did not allow for discussions around non-normative sexualities:
M3 (FIS): Are we going to teach them about how to meet somebody of similar sex or are we going to
talk about the nitty gritty you know what the rights and the wrongs and so on we dont have to agree
with it but we have to do it

Conclusion
The formal recognition of equality on the basis of sexual orientation is managed through conflict, challenges and negotiations demonstrating the disproportionate responsibility that school
managers take in ensuring the rights of gays and lesbians at school. Religion, culture, race,
gender and heterosexual privilege work in complex ways to mitigate against the work towards

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Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 9(1)

social justice. Any intervention will stumble without attempts to address other forms of social
inequalities in a broader context. The context has effects for how sexual meanings are created
and produced. South Africas long history of racial and gendered inequalities combined with
cultural practices within the broader context of economic and social inequalities has produced
anxious masculinities culpable in the spread of homophobic violence in the country (Msibi,
2012). There is need at a broader structural level to undo the obstacles that inhibit the development of sexual equality and they include the structural inequalities which continue to stain
South Africas political progress.
However, we should not dismiss the very real progress that has taken shape in schools broadening the acceptance of sexual rights within South Africas human rights framework. Taking a cue
from Epprechts (2012) understanding of homosexuality and progress in Africa, progress in this
study should build on an important finding that school managers, as one of the important school
constituents, can play a key role in developing practices that work to support educational awareness of the rights of gays and lesbians. This can create a socially just ethos for all learners and
teachers and for better teaching and learning outcomes for the gays and lesbians, currently
marginalized.
This progress should build on the recognition that the rights of gays and lesbians in school are
complexly intertwined with sexuality and schooling and where homosexuality is made perversely
hyper-visible, underpinned by the fault lines of social inequalities. The progress should thus build
on the recognition that sexual rights are mediated under specific South African social contexts
highlighting the need for context-specific interventions. The central argument here is that despite
the complexities, school managers are important allies in social transformation. When school managers focus on rights underpinned by the Constitution, and flexibility in interpretation of religion
and culture, they demonstrate the potential for such transformation. Towards realizing the equality
on the basis of sexual orientation, school managers need to disrupt meanings that create and foster
inequalities and work towards sexual equality. As one manager stated, we dont have to agree
but we have to do it. This article begins this work based on we have to do it. The South African
department of education has a clear and unavoidable responsibility to ensure that school managers
do so by providing the support for professional development that includes the work towards sexual
justice. This article has shown that Constitutional provisions in South Africa, while situated and
contested, can be the key determinant in supporting such change.
Funding
This research was supported by the Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA).

Note
1.

Racial categories remain salient in South Africa. Racial discrimination has ended but four racial categories are widely used in the country: African, White, Indian and Coloured. There is evidence of a rising
African middle class but social/racial inequalities persist and reflect the hierarchies created by apartheid
South Africa. Schools were selected purposefully in terms of these hierarchies.

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