Pride or Prejudice: An Examination of Queer Content in Florida High Schools

This thesis explores how queer individuals reflect on the presence—or more often, the absence—of queer content in their high school education. Despite increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ people in popular culture and legal reform, formal educational spaces remain largely heteronormative and cisnormative structured from a heterosexual and cisgender standpoint. Through a critical qualitative approach, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with 13 queer participants who attended high school in Florida in the years between the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 and the passage of Florida’s H.B. 1557 (“Don’t Say Gay” law) in 2022. Using thematic analysis, four key themes were identified: the erasure of queer content in formal curricula; the reliance on informal spaces for self-discovery and learning; the mixed and often confusing environments for queer students; and participants’ speculative reflections on how their experiences might have differed in more inclusive educational environments. These findings reveal the emotional and social consequences of queer exclusion in schools, emphasizing the desire for visibility, representation, and understanding. This research contributes to growing conversations about queer pedagogy, youth identity development, and the politicization of LGBTQ+ lives in education. In a cultural moment marked by renewed legislative attacks on queer content in schools, the study highlights not only what is missing from current education, but also what is still possible.