To Be or Not To Be . . . Out in the Academy

Abstract:     
Being out is not like being pregnant. You can hardly be a little bit pregnant, but gay people can - and many do - live with varying degrees of openness about their sexuality in different spheres of their lives. With that in mind, what concerns should gay law teachers take into account before deciding to embrace publicly their sexual orientation? Do law professors have some special duty to disclose (or conceal) their sexual identity? What risks do gay teachers face in coming out to their students and colleagues?

In To Be or Not to Be . . . Out in the Academy, Professor Michael Siebecker attempts to address those questions from a highly personal perspective, as a gay man at the start of a law teaching career. Much of the literature addressing gay identity, however, reduces the complexity of issues to a few - though not necessarily easy to understand - theoretical propositions. That approach seems somewhat ironic, because much of that same scholarship advocates the need to invest academic discourse with personal perspectives and narratives. Moreover, little attention has been paid to how an individual reading the literature might attempt to wade through the hodgepodge of often conflicting principles and theories, each of which purports to provide clear direction on how to act. In contrast, Prof. Siebecker's article involves a kind of vivisection. Based on his own values, commitments and experiences, Prof. Siebecker confronts a variety of arguments culled from the literature, such as the claim that simply being gay imposes on him some special academic responsibilities to pursue gay legal scholarship or to incorporate gay legal perspectives into traditional law courses. In the end, the article provides a highly personal critique of entrenched notions of gay identity, community, pedagogy and legal scholarship.

Keywords: gay, glbt, sexual orientation, legal education, coming out, critical legal studies, pedagogy

Accepted Paper Series