Schools and Education
Bad News, Good News for LGBTQ Families and Youth in Recent U.S. Supreme Court Moves
The past few weeks have seen bad news—and one bit of good news—from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding LGBTQ youth and families. Let’s look at three cases, involving school discrimination and public funds, conversion therapy, and whether schools must tell parents the names and pronouns that their children use.
Back-to-School Resources for LGBTQ Parents
- Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students. A useful compact reference for classrooms of all ages. From Learning for Justice.
- GLSEN. Championing LGBTQ issues in K-12 education since 1990.
- Our Family Coalition’s Welcoming and Inclusive Schools Program. Works with families, teachers, administrators, and child-serving professionals in California to create more welcoming schools and agencies.
- Teach All Families. Resources and tools for parents and teachers who want to make schools more inclusive of LGBTQ+ parent and other diverse families. From Dr. Abbie Goldberg, a clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at Clark University, and leading researcher on LGBTQ families.
- Welcoming Schools. The most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program in the nation to provide LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals. From the HRC Foundation.
Elementary
- Ready, Set, Respect Elementary Toolkit. Tools to support elementary educators, including lessons on name-calling, bullying and bias, LGBTQ-inclusive family diversity and gender roles and diversity. From GLSEN.
High School
- GSA Network. Empowers and trains queer, trans and allied youth leaders to advocate, organize, and mobilize an intersectional movement for safer schools and healthier communities.
College
- Point Foundation. Offers scholarships to promising LGBTQ students and promotes change through scholarship funding, mentorship, leadership development, and community service training.
- Campus Pride. A national organization for student leaders and campus groups working to create a safer college environment for LGBTQ students. Among other work, they publish the annual Campus Pride Index to assess institutions’ LGBTQ friendliness.
- LGBTQ+ Student Scholarship Database. Undergraduate and graduate scholarships, fellowships and grants for LGBTQ+ and allied students. From HRC.
- Gender-Inclusive Biology. Resources and connections to grow a more inclusive biology curriculum.
- History Unerased. Bringing LGBTQ-inclusive history into mainstream courses and classrooms.
- Lessons. From Welcoming Schools.
- The Queer Mathematics Teacher. Educational coaching to re/humanize mathematics
- Teaching LGBTQ History. Instructional resources for California educators, students, and families.
- Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries. From the American Library Association.
- Fight for the First. Empowers communities to act in defense of their constitutional right to free speech. Developed by EveryLibrary.
- LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries. From the American Association of School Librarians; uses the AASL Standards framework as scaffolding to help users explore LGBTQ+ materials and needs in their own communities.
- Literary Activism. News and tools for engaging in literary activism, from ending book bans to supporting libraries and more. From Book Riot.
- National Coalition Against Censorship. Provides direct intervention for people and groups facing censorship in their communities.
- PEN America. Stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide.
- Report Censorship. To the American Library Association.
- Report Censorship. To the National Coalition Against Censorship
- Unite Against Book Bans. An American Library Association-led coalition that includes LGBTQ organizations, publishers, and others, for a toolkit of talking points, suggested actions, and more resources.
- What to Say About Book Bans at School Board and Library Meetings. From PEN America.
- Books Unbanned. Invites young people to apply for a free ecard via any participating library, so they can check out e-books no matter where they live.
- GLSEN Rainbow Library. Sends LGBTQ+ affirming K-12 text sets to schools and libraries in many states.
- Hope in a Box. Donates LGBTQ-inclusive books and curriculum guides to educators.
- Open Books. Provides school libraries with LGBTQ+ affirming literature.
- Pride and Less Prejudice. Provides age-appropriate LGBTQ books for Pre-K to 3rd grade classrooms. Now part of the Madison Reading Project.
- It Gets Better. Messages and videos of hope for bullied LGBTQ youth.
- Matthew Shepard Foundation. Resources for educators and others specific to anti-LGBTQ bullying.
- National School Climate Survey. GLSEN’s biennial survey of the school experiences of youth who are LGBTQIA2S+.
- Welcoming Schools. From the HRC Foundation, Welcoming Schools is a bias-based bullying prevention program that provides LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists, and resources for educators and youth-serving professionals.
- Athlete Ally. Runs public awareness campaigns and educational programs, and mobilizes ally Ambassadors in collegiate, professional and Olympic sports.
- Changing the Game. Resources for athletes, athletic administrators, coaches, and parents, inspirational videos about people making a difference, and the Team Respect Challenge pledge. From GLSEN.
- National Center for LGBTQ Rights Sports Project. Founded in 2001, the Sports Project has litigated cases on behalf of LGBTQ athletes and coaches, advised schools and athletic associations, and convened key coalitions to combat homophobia and transphobia in sports.
- Transathlete. Resources and information from Team USA member and trans man Chris Mosier.
Links to external sites are provided as a convenience. While I have tried to choose sites that I think are helpful, their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement or a guarantee of their accuracy.
Queer Parenting in a Cishet World
Wisdom from a 1985 Parenthood Book for Lesbians
For Women’s History Month, let’s take a trip back to 1985, when a book for lesbians considering parenthood—one of the first books about queer parents—offered some wisdom that still feels relevant today.
Fighting Daily Bias & Misunderstanding
Banned Books Week: Saving Stories, Saving Children
Today starts Banned Books Week, and a new report from PEN America is blunt about the current wave of book bans in the United States: “Never before has access to so many stories been stolen from so many children.”
Explaining Our Families to Our Kids
12 Ways to Include Your Children in Your Wedding
When soccer stars Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis got married last week, their baby was part of the ceremony—which feels like a good excuse to post a revised version of a piece I did many years ago about how couples (particularly queer ones) who already have kids can include them in their weddings.
Reflections on Parenthood
“Radical Family” Shares Stories of an Earlier Generation of Lesbian Moms
In a powerful new collection of nine personal essays, lesbian parents who raised children in the 1980s, ’90s, and early 2000s share the stories of forming and sustaining their families.
Social Justice
3 Civil Rights Milestones on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia
Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT). Do you know why May 17 was chosen—and what two other key civil rights events happened on the same day in different years?
Other Topics
12 Ways to Include Your Children in Your Wedding
When soccer stars Sam Kerr and Kristie Mewis got married last week, their baby was part of the ceremony—which feels like a good excuse to post a revised version of a piece I did many years ago about how couples (particularly queer ones) who already have kids can include them in their weddings.
Randomly Served Inspiration from Now and Then
