I Could Not Speak My Heart: Education and Social Justice for Gay and Lesbian Youth

Jonathan Anuik is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History and
president of the HGSC at the University of Saskatchewan.

Canadian academics and gay activists have been at the forefront of
public campaigns for visibility and awareness of the systemic and
blatant discriminatory practices Canada’s gays and lesbians face. The
contributors reveal these terrains of exclusion and develop strategic
initiatives for improvement through personal reflection, historical and
sociological inquiry, and proposed anti-homophobia initiatives.

The collection is organized into three parts. Part 1, “Hearing the
Voices,” gives readers an opportunity to engage with empirical
observations of childhood and adolescent experiences with queer identity
formation in the church, in the primary and secondary schools, and in
the family. Part 2, “Understanding the Context,” provides a
historical overview of Canadian queer prairie history; researchers
analyze the role of legislation (e.g., the Indian Act), provincial
governments, periodicals and newspapers, and well-known scandals in
informing public opinion about homosexuality and, more specifically,
perceptions of gays and lesbians in the Prairie provinces. The essayists
in Part 3, “Implications for Practice,” discuss anti-homophobia
initiatives in Canadian secondary schools and universities.

The editors reconcile academic approaches to gay and lesbian studies
with non-academic perceptions and commentary. At points, theory leads to
jargon-filled prose, making certain essays difficult to read. An essay
discussing the attitudes of law enforcement toward homophobic crime
would have been useful. And while the anthology is grounded in the
prairie region, no regional studies of Manitoba enter the
presentation—a glaring omission given Manitoba’s long-standing
position as “the gateway to western Canada.”

The readership for I Could Not Speak My Heart is wide; the work will
bring teachers, professors, clergy, and counsellors into the discourses
surrounding oppression and reclamation of gay and lesbian identity.