From sexuality (gender) to gender (sexuality): the aims of anti-homophobia education

The tradition of anti-homophobia education is often characterized by the conflation of gender and sexuality in which oppression arising from gender non-normativity is subsumed within the sexuality-based concepts of homophobia and heterosexism. This paper presents the view that oppression arising from stringent gender normativity should instead be attributed to a gender-based form of oppression: genderism. Through critically interrogating the envisioned aims of anti-homophobia and anti-genderism as gender-based educational projects, it is argued that – given the ways in which gender non-normativity is routinely read as non-heterosexuality – anti-genderism is a more transparent and broadly applicable platform on which to elaborate measures toward safeguarding of all students against hegemonic processes of sexuality and gender normalization, regardless of each student's sexual orientation or gender identity.