‘Sod ‘em, sod ‘em like there's no Gomorrah’: comparing sexualities education for teachers, doctors and clergy in the UK.

In the context of changes in UK public discourse concerning sexualities over the last decade, this paper compares education in the field of sexualities equality, enquiring how teachers, doctors and clergy are being prepared for their professional lives. Data from a qualitative study using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are analysed to reveal that although in many outward respects teaching and medicine reflect recent legislative and cultural changes and the church does not, in more subtle ways these three professions share a common theme of disjunction between policy and practice. There is also some evidence that certain subsections of these professions offer differential degrees of welcome to gay and lesbian individuals. Behind this empirical study lies the theoretical question of the way in which historically these professions have enmeshed together to structure a dominant heteronormativity. Evidence from this research points to some loosening of these historic ties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]