This article uses a queer narrative hermeneutic approach to interpret higher education leadership experiences of not passing. Developed through biographical narrative depictions of personal and professional experiences informed by theoretical studies of curriculum and learning and queer cultures and histories, the article distinguishes among different forms and expressions of passing and not passing within the context of leadership experience in higher education. In addition to offering interpretations of past events and experiences of those events, the article includes depictions of alternative ways to include counternormative sensibilities within the contexts of higher education leadership practices.