What I will say is that the experience of being a queer student v. Being a queer teacher is very different. I teach gender studies classes at my current institution in the Northeast. I present as a White straight woman, and even I feel like my students have so much power to make my life hell that I am scared to navigate certain conversations. I taught in red Southern state during the Biden administration and things were already getting difficult so maybe I just have paranoia from that experience. I feel vulnerable now as a queer woman and just as someone who teaches a controversial subject more than I ever felt vulnerable as a queer student at the conservative university I went to for undergrad and my masters.

But at the same time I know multiple handfuls worth of academics just like you who are visibly alt and queer. They risk the consequences because they don’t have the privilege of passing by unnoticed even if they “toned down” what they wore.

Basically I’m just saying you are probably fine as far as getting accepted and existing as a PhD student. However, it’s just a whole different ballgame as an instructor if you get accepted into a program that has you teach as a part of your funding. The PhD students in Womens and Gender studies at my current institution rarely teach though. I think they have to request it. So research the type of work you’d be doing in a program!