2025 ACSA Lead With Pride Summit

The experiences of Queer Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
(BIPOC) have been excluded in Queer Educator research, which often focuses on White Queer educators or omits race as a variable (Boren & McPherson, 2018; Conrad, 2018; Taylor, 2018; Thomas-Durrell, 2020; Toledo & Maher, 2019). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the experiences of Queer BIPOC teachers
in the Southern California P-12 school system. Specifically, (a) what are out Queer BIPOC teachers' experiences (b) how did they make the decision to come out, and (c) what are their experiences with discrimination based on their Queer,
BIPOC, or intersectional identities. The goal of this qualitative study was to give a voice to a historically marginalized group, Queer BIPOC teachers. A total of six participants, five Latino/a/e and one Pacific Islander participated in this study.

Participants represented three school levels, elementary, middle, and high school. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. A total of five domains emerged from the data: (a) Outness on Campus, (b) Coming Out, (c) Mental Health, (d) Supportive Networks, and (e) Unsupportive Networks. Key findings included participants coming out because they wanted to be their authentic selves at work, Queer BIPOC teachers experiencing discrimination at work, and how administrators’ decisions can affect Queer BIPOC teachers’ mental health during
experiences of discrimination.