“We don’t know how to do it without hurting people”: Identifying tensions in the intersection of LGBTIQ policies and cultural diversity in education

The implementation of equality policies in primary and secondary schools often follows a single-issue logic, addressing gender, sexuality, or cultural diversity in isolation. This article examines the tensions that emerge when LGBTIQ equality policies are implemented in culturally diverse educational settings in Catalonia (Spain). Drawing on 24 interviews with public officers and civil society professionals and a group discussion with 14 practitioners, the study identifies 4 recurrent sites of tension: conceptual approaches to inequality, perspectives on cultural diversity, the positionality of professionals, and strategies of interpellation in classroom settings. Findings show that while intersectionality is increasingly referenced in policy frameworks, its translation into practice remains challenging. Classroom encounters reveal how religion, race, migration, class, gender, and sexuality interlock to shape both interventions and student responses. The article argues that intersectionality must be operationalised as a way to analyse power in policy and interventions, and calls for integrated, hybrid approaches to preserve its transformative potential in culturally diverse schools.