Sexual Identities in ESL: Queer Theory and Classroom Inquiry by Cynthia Nelson

This article is very intriguing to me, because before I read this article, I did not think about sexual identities in language learning and teaching. This article reminded me of one Korean entertainer who is gay. He was a very famous entertainer in Korea. One day he confessed that he is gay. Because of his confession, I had to leave TV programs. People had very negative attitudes toward him. I could not see him on TV for a long time. Later, I read a story about him in the magazine. He was banned from showing on TV. He had a lot of difficulty in leading his life because of money and prejudice from people. He ran his restaurant in spite of his hard situation. His sincerity made people accept him as a nice man. Now I think that how brave he was and how many difficulties he faced. The Korean society has very negative attitudes toward lesbian and gay. These attitudes must have had impact on his identity negatively. He had to hide his identity for a long time.
I have learned that language have influences on identities. Sexual identities are one part of identities. According to this article, it is difficult to separate sexual identity from other acts of identity because identities are not just multiple but mutually inflecting (p. 376). Therefore, we need to take into consideration sexual identities in language learning and teaching.
While I am reading this article, I thought about the notion of power. Students who are fluent in English have a power over students who are not. Native speakers have a power over non-native speakers. Likewise, heterosexism has a power over lesbian and gay. This power relationship has negative effects on identities, excluding people with less power from opportunities for formation of positive identities.