Straight Privilege: Unpacking the (Still) Invisible Knapsack

Several unearned benefits attending straight privilege are listed, prefaced by two main arguments. First, it is argued that the rampant heterosexism in the U.S. is largely attributable to many Americans' framing of heterosexism as a matter of religious freedom rather than as a form of bigotry. It is further argued that educators' elimination of the struggles and accomplishments of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from P-12 curricula is an act of oppression--a clear, sometimes unconscious privileging of heterosexuality that contributes to the alienation and violence routinely endured by the LGBT-identified/perceived/questioning youth in their care. (Contains 11 notes.)