Speaking the unspeakable in forbidden places: addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in the primary school

The present paper interrogates the ways in which school is produced as a particular bounded place (or collection of places) where sexuality, and particularly non‐heterosexuality, is carefully policed by these boundaries. Drawing upon data generated in primary schools during a nationwide action research project ('No Outsiders'), we focus on three very different school places: the classroom, the staffroom and a school‐based after‐school art club. Our analysis engages with the contingency of place‐making to show that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. The three vignettes analysed offer insights into the critical potential of consciously and persistently working across (apparently) boundaried spaces within and beyond schools. Notes 1. For more information about the 'No Outsiders' project, see www.nooutsiders.sunderland.ac.uk. 2. We also recognise that this notion is raced and classed (Epstein, O'Flynn, and Telford Citation2003; Renold Citation2005). 3. Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act stated that a local authority shall not 'promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship'. It was repealed in 2003 (2000 in Scotland), and it did not actually apply directly to classroom teachers. 4. Slang term indicating disgust. 5. The mother currently lives with this daughter's father.