Education Commons^™

The authors detail an educational ethnography of a university queer cultural center’s role on campus and in the surrounding community. The data include participant observation, in-depth interviews, and artifacts. The authors review lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ally, and questioning (LGBTAQ) issues in higher education, heterosexual attitudes, and queer theory. The findings of barriers to the Center’s mission plus the suicide of a Center student prompted the authors to explore research poetry as a means to express the inexpressible. Furthermore, they illustrate tensions between contemporary queer and gay theories through the telling of a straight tale (traditional research report) and a …

As part of an educational ethnography of a queer cultural center at a western United States university, I explored the center’s cultural importance on the college campus and in its surrounding community. During the course of this study, I used semistructured interviews to inquire about the coming out experiences of four of my participants. Research poetry was used to capture the emotional and poignant words of my gay and lesbian participants.

Through a mini-educational ethnography of a queer cultural center at a midsized, Western U.S. university, I explored the center’s cultural importance on the college campus and in its surrounding community. During the course of this study, one of my gay male participants, an undergraduate student leader of the center, committed suicide. While interviewing several participants (three gay males and one lesbian), I inquired into their feelings about suicide in the gay community in general and into the suicide of the center’s leader in particular. The words of four of my participants are captured in this poem.