Books, Brains, and Rainbow Dreams

Books, Brains, and Rainbow Dreams: Why Education Matters for the LGBTQIA+ Community (and Why Socialism Cares Too)

When September hits, it's not just pumpkin spice season - It’s also back-to-school season. For the LGBTQIA+ community, education isn’t just about memorizing the quadratic formula (which, let’s be honest, most of us only remember to impress people at brunch). Education is about survival, visibility, and liberation. And when you throw socialism in the mix? Suddenly, the classroom becomes more than a place of learning-it becomes a training ground for equity and justice.

Why Education Matters for LGBTQIA+ Folks

Education gives queer people more than degrees - it gives us tools to fight oppression, build community, and imagine better futures. According to GLSEN’s 2021 National School Climate Survey, 76% of LGBTQIA+ students reported being verbally harassed at school. Yet, in schools with inclusive curricula, students were less likely to feel unsafe and more likely to plan for higher education. In other words: representation in the syllabus can literally change lives.

Beyond safety, education opens doors. LGBTQIA+ people are still more likely to face workplace discrimination, so higher education often becomes a buffer against systemic inequities. The more we learn, the more we can push back against narratives that erase us - or worse, criminalize us.

The Socialist Angle

Socialism argues that education shouldn’t be a luxury for the privileged - it should be a right. For queer students, this is particularly vital. Rising tuition, book costs, and student loan debt hit marginalized communities hardest. Black LGBTQIA+ students for example, often juggle the triple whammy of racism, homophobia, and class barriers. A socialist approach says: education shouldn’t come with a $100k price tag and a side of discrimination.

Free and equitable education means that a trans student in Alabama has the same shot at success as a gay student in New York City. It means queer students don’t have to choose between paying rent and buying textbooks. It means access to libraries where our stories aren’t banned, but celebrated.

Knowledge as Liberation

Audre Lorde once said: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” But she also reminds us that learning new tools - our own tools - is essential. Education provides queer folks with language, history and theory to name our struggles and build alternatives. From bell hooks’ work on teaching as a practice of freedom to Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the link between knowledge and liberation is undeniable.

For LGBQTIA+ people, education isn’t just about getting a job. It’s about rewriting history so that Stonewall, Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, and countless unnamed heroes aren’t erased. It’s about learning to question, to resist, and to dream bigger.

Conclusion: Queer, Educated, and Unapologetic

Education is power. Socialism demands that this power belongs to all of us - not just those who can afford it. For the LGBQTIA+ community, access to free, inclusive, and affirming education is more that a political demand - it’s a lifeline.

So as the school bells ring and syllabi get handed out, let’s remember: every queer student deserves not just a seat in the classroom, but a future where knowledge isn’t rationed, and rainbow chalk is always on the blackboard.

Feel free to share your thoughts on Socialism as it pertains to education within the LGBQTIA+ community. Every 2nd Monday of the month we will post a blog about Socialism/Safe Space concerns and examples. If you have something that you would like mentioned or an experience you choose to share, please reach out to Angel Brown at Angel@iammecorp.org

References:

GLSEN (2021). National School Climate Survey

hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider