Studies have shown that the dominant discourse within schools can be rather heteronormative and that LGBTQ students often experience themselves as marginalized (Epstein, 1994; Mayo, 2013; Lipkin, 2004). Furthermore, textbooks and curricula rarely address LGBTQ issues and topics (see Blackburn, 2011; Ferfolja, 2007). In Iceland, a new National Curriculum Guide for pre-, compulsory and upper secondary schools was released in 2011. It provides the option to teach about queer topics. This study is about the ways in which queer studies can provide a queer space, a kind of a counter-space, which marginalized groups can claim. I draw on Foucault’s concept of heterotopia – the space of the other – that he uses to describe places and spaces that function in non-hegemonic conditions (Foucault 1984), and Fraser’s concept of the counter-publics. She describes counter-publics as ‘parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter-discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests and needs’ (Fraser, 1990: 67). I use the concepts of heterotopia and counter-publics to explore how queer counter-spaces were formed by teaching about queer history in one upper secondary school in Iceland. The data is drawn from an ethnographic study, which took place during a two-week long seminar about the so-called ‘pink holocaust’. The objectives of the research entailed exploring the attitudes of students, who participated in the seminar and if the content changed their attitudes towards LGBTQ issues. Moreover, interviews were taken with gay male students, who experienced the course as liberating and talked about how it made them feel more safe, included and welcoming. The course had disruptive effects, in the sense that it queered the hegemonic discourse of gender and sexuality (Warner, 1993) and thus created a queer counter-space which was ultimately beneficial for all students.

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