A national organization for English teachers has established a new award for equity and inclusion in young adult literature. It will first be given to gay author Bill Konigsberg and named after him for future recipients.
The verbal harassment of LGBTQ students at school had been in decline for nearly a decade—but that decline has stalled, and the frequency of verbal harassment based on gender expression has actually increased in recent years, according to a new national survey from GLSEN.
I’ve been writing about Sesame Street’s need for LGBTQ inclusion for well over a decade, and been a fan since it first aired in 1969, when I was two. I was disappointed, however, by producer Sesame Workshop’s denial this week of a romantic relationship between Bert and Ernie, not only because that would be awesome, but also because they missed an opportunity to highlight the existing (though limited) queer inclusion on the show and to commit to more.
Ellen DeGeneres and her sponsor, Shutterfly, have given $25,000 to a fund set up by students at a Catholic school in support of their former guidance counselor, who was placed on leave from her job for being married to another woman.
It’s that time of year again! Here’s my annual collection of back-to-school resources for LGBTQ parents, parents of LGBTQ children, and educators, enlarged and improved for 2018! I hope it remains useful, whether your children are just entering school, starting a new school, or encountering new situations in their educational journeys.
Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist and FIFA World Player of the Year (2012), who is also lesbian and (since her 2017 marriage to author Glennon Doyle Melton) a mom, gave the commencement speech at Barnard College earlier this month. It’s well worth watching for her advice and inspiration on life, career, community, and leadership.
A new program from the American Military Partner Association (AMPA) aims to serve U.S. military families with LGBTQ children. The news comes just weeks after the Department of Defense launched an online professional development course for staff at military-affiliated childcare centers and youth programs on how to create safe, inclusive spaces for gender-expansive and LGBTQ children.
For Teacher Appreciation Week, let’s look at a new book aimed at helping elementary school English teachers bring LGBTQ inclusion into their classrooms or deepen discussions they may already be having around LGBTQ identity and gender.
The Trump administration continues to push for banning some, if not all, transgender people from the military, despite all four service chiefs asserting that the presence of transgender troops has caused no harm. At the same time, one Department of Defense program has launched a new professional development course for staff at military-affiliated childcare centers and youth programs on how to create safe, inclusive spaces for gender-expansive and LGBTQ children.
Both Massachusetts and Illinois have recently taken steps towards including the history and achievements of LGBTQ people—and the authentic telling of their lives—in the states’ education curricula.
