ELT, like many other professions, has traditionally assumed heterosexuality to be normative. Therefore, LGBTIQ individuals and collectives have been systematically excluded and discriminated against in this context (Cantor, 2008 & Rondón, 2012). In order to change this situation –in and out of the classroom– there is a need to understand how gender and sexual identities are constructed (and how they could be deconstructed) within the field of L2.

In 2012, when I was an undergraduate pre-service teacher, we students sensed that there was a connection between a person’s identity, broader power dynamics, and language learning. Specifically, our conversations with each other noted that students with non-normative gender and sexual orientations were facing problems in their English classes. This led us to devote our undergraduate theses to this subject and contribute to the then meager studies of this situation.