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This guide highlights best practices in the areas of policy, curriculum, classroom culture, & community engagement. It also provides guidance in ways to address backlash to anti-bias practices.

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This guide provides 8 policy recommendations for creating a more inclusive school. Each recommendation has specific actionable items, resources, & spotlight programs to consider.

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School and district leaders, educators, and school staff have a significant opportunity-and responsibility-to create learning environments in which all students can thrive and achieve their full educational potential.

Fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness in school are crucial for putting all students on a path to success. ¹ However, many LGBTQ students are left feeling unsupported in their schools. In order to ensure that school learning environments are supportive of all students, it is critical to implement specific policies and procedures that support LGBTQ youth, affirm their identities, promote safe and healthy learning environments, and advance equity and respect for all in our schools. ²

This resource provides education policymakers and practitioners, particularly at the district and school levels, with concrete recommendations related to creating safe and affirming learning environments that uphold the dignity of all students. To meet this objective, districts and schools should:

1. Set and reinforce a vision and mission statement that is welcoming and inclusive of LGBTQ students.

2. Assess, strengthen, and monitor school climate on a regular and ongoing basis.

3. Adopt and implement clear, consistent, and comprehensive non-discrimination policies that protect and affirm students' sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression, among other characteristics (e.g., race, religion, etc.), and prohibit discrimination against students, families, and educators on those bases.

4. Ensure that anti-bullying and harassment policies enumerate and specifically include protections for LGBTQ students.

5. Ensure that discipline policies rely on positive and restorative approaches and do not disproportionately target LGBTQ youth, students of color, English Language Learners (ELL), or students with disabilities.

6. Ensure that district and school policies are designed and implemented to support transgender and gender nonconforming students, who face even more hostile school climates than other students in the LGBTQ community. ³

7. Ensure that professional development and educator resources include a focus on creating inclusive learning environments in which all students, including LGBTQ students, feel safe and welcome.

8. Establish a welcoming and affirming environment for LGBTQ students and their allies.
WHY IS THIS SO CRITICAL?
Students are most likely to reach their full educational potential in positive learning environments that are safe, secure, welcoming, and where they feel a sense of belonging. Research demonstrates that an affirming school climate leads to improved behavioral, academic, and mental health outcomes for all students. ⁴ Not surprisingly, schools promoting LGBTQ-inclusive and affirming learning environments have fewer student absences and greater improvements in academic achievement across grade levels. ⁵

LGBTQ students disproportionately report being subject to unsafe school climates, and thereby are denied equal access to educational opportunity and the opportunity for healthy social and emotional development. GLSEN research shows that 59.5% of LGBTQ students felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation, and 44.6% felt unsafe because of their gender expression, ⁶ and that LGBTQ students reported higher levels of peer victimization at school than other students - 89.4% of LGBTQ students reported victimization experiences versus 71.4% of other students. ⁷

Student victimization and unsafe school climates have real consequences on both the personal health and academic outcomes of LGBTQ youth. Students who experienced victimization at school were almost three times more likely to have skipped school because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable; to have demonstrated lower levels of academic achievement including lower GPAs; and to have had lower self-esteem and higher levels of depression when compared to students who did not experience victimization related to their sexual orientation and/ or gender expression. ⁸ Similarly, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 60.4% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual students nationwide felt so sad or helpless in schools that they stopped participating in usual activities compared to 26.4% of heterosexual students. ⁹

The good news is that through thoughtful development and implementation of policies and procedures, districts, schools, and educators can provide LGBTQ students with the inclusive and supportive environments they need to thrive in school and beyond. ¹⁰

Indeed, many schools and districts across the country have implemented such policies, which have transformed the educational experience of LGBTQ students while avoiding any disruption or harm to the educational experience of other students. This resource provides some examples of state and district implementation to elevate positive approaches that might be considered for replication.
GUIDANCE ON IMPLEMENTING POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Each step that districts and schools take to improve school climate is an investment in better educational outcomes and healthy youth development. Below, we provide further examination of the eight policy recommendations, which includes suggested policy language, resources, and best practices to improve the educational experiences of LGBTQ students:

1. Set and reinforce a vision or mission statement that is welcoming and inclusive of LGBTQ students. Through a stated vision and mission statement, and in communications with students, families, educators, and community members, education leaders can set the tone and expectation for welcoming and inclusive school environments. An inclusive vison and mission statement should be visible to the entire school community, both displayed in the school building and on all related school materials, including the district/school strategic plan, school orientation events, family/community meetings, staff meetings, and all and appropriate school materials, such as student and faculty handbooks.

RESOURCES

Values Statement of Inclusion and Respect is a national call to action issued by nine leading education organizations that affirms the right of all students to attend school in an environment free from fear, violence, and intimidation, including students of color, undocumented, LGBTQ, Muslim, and/or living with disabilities.

2. Assess, strengthen, and monitor school climate on an ongoing basis. To advance educational equity for all students, regularly assess the school climate and student experience in schools.

Conduct school climate surveys. Have a process for schools to use data to better understand the landscape of student experiences, including instances of bias, bullying, harassment, discrimination, relationships with teachers and peers, and school connectedness. This data can also be used to assess the needs of the school or district and to track progress and effectiveness of efforts to improve school climate;

Include questions about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, along with other demographic identities (e.g. race, ethnicity, sex at birth, ELL, etc.);

Monitor disparities in school climate for LGBTQ students by disaggregating relevant data by sexual orientation and gender, including transgender identity. Data sources could include school climate surveys, discipline data, and bullying and harassment incident reports, among others. For transparency, we encourage publicly reporting the data unless the sample size is too small, so as not to reveal personally-identifiable information of a student;

Include measures of school climate, discipline data, and measures of incidents of bullying and harassment in any diagnostic reviews, including needs assessments for school improvement, disaggregated by sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, along with race, ethnicity, disability status, and ELL status.

RESOURCES

3. Adopt and implement clear, consistent, and comprehensive non-discrimination policies that protect and affirm students' sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression, among other characteristics (e.g., race, ethnicity, religion, etc.), and prohibit discrimination against students, families, and educators on those bases.

These nondiscrimination policies should:
RESOURCES

District Anti-Bullying and Anti-Harassment Model Policy provides policy language based on best practices and research that can be adapted to work for your district and includes guidance on non-discrimination language.

Open Letters to Schools on the Rights of LGBT Students: These letters by the ACLU LGBT and HIV Project explain the law on a variety of issues that frequently affect LGBTQ students.

DISTRICT IMPLEMENTATION SPOTLIGHT

Dallas Independent School District in Texas has a district-wide policy that offers protections for students and staff on the basis "of race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or gender expression" from discrimination, harassment, and bullying.

4. Ensure that anti-bullying and harassment policies enumerate protections for LGBTQ students.
Anti-bullying and harassment policies that do not explicitly name or enumerate both sexual orientation and gender identity/expression often fail to provide a sufficient level of protection in practice for LGBTQ students. ¹¹ Therefore, anti-bullying and harassment policies should:

Prohibit bullying and harassment of students on any basis and expressly enumerate the characteristics of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, as well as race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, disability, and religion;

Have clear and timely procedures of action regarding responsibilities for investigation and timeline for addressing reported incidents;

Ensure that all school staff address bullying incidents fairly by curbing unnecessary discretion and intervene effectively in ways that do not blame LGBTQ students, or any student, for their own victimization; and

Have a clear parental notification process for reporting incidents of bullying and harassment at the school that does not risk "outing" a student or placing a student in an unsafe home situation.

RESOURCES

5. Ensure that discipline policies rely on positive and restorative approaches to justice and do not disproportionately target LGBTQ youth, students of color, English Language Learners (ELL), or students with disabilities. Studies show LGBTQ youth are disproportionately subject to

harsh forms of discipline, thus depriving them of educational opportunities. ¹² In particular, exclusionary practices that result in the removal of students from the classroom have led to student push-out and increased youth involvement with the juvenile and criminal justice system, often referred to as the "school-to-prison pipeline." ¹³ Adopting restorative approaches has shown to be effective in reducing school discipline overall and can positively impact all students, including LGBTQ students.

Discipline policies should:

Not include zero-tolerance policies, which mandate harsh disciplinary practices like suspension or expulsion regardless of the severity of the offense;

Ensure that schools have practices in place to guard against inequitable enforcement of discipline policies;

Employ graduated approaches that take into account the seriousness of the offense in order to keep students in school whenever possible;

Implement restorative practices that focus on resolving conflicts, repairing relationships, and building community. Consider bringing in external partners or technical assistance to train administrators and educators in this practice; and

Ensure that any School Resource Officers (SROs) or other types of security personnel are properly trained to interact positively with all students, including LGBTQ students, especially LGBTQ students of color. Make sure that there is a clear memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the school and law enforcement about the SROs' role, responsibilities, and jurisdiction.

RESOURCES

6. Ensure that district and school policies are designed and implemented to support transgender and gender nonconforming students, who face even more hostile school climates than other students in the LGBTQ community. Transgender students too often encounter school experiences that can have life-long mental health, social, emotional, and socio-economic consequences - not because they are transgender, but because of how they are treated because they are transgender. ¹⁴ A school policy that sets forth principles and procedures for supporting transgender and gender nonconforming students can provide clear expectations for the school community and avoid invasion of privacy and other harms. ¹⁵

District and school policies should:

Accept the gender identity that each student asserts. There is no medical or mental health diagnosis or treatment threshold that students must meet in order to have their gender identity recognized and respected. The assertion may be evidenced by an expressed desire to be consistently recognized as the sex consistent with their gender identity;

Allow students to use their chosen name and gender. School staff should privately ask transgender or gender nonconforming students how they want to be addressed in class, and in school communication with the student's parents or guardians, with whom the student may not have shared their gender identity;

Ensure equal access to all school facilities according to a student's gender identity. Schools may maintain separate restroom, locker room or changing facilities for male and female students, provided that they allow all students equal access to facilities that are consistent with their gender identity. In addition to transgender boys and girls, there are students who do not identify as male or female. When gender-neutral options are not available, these students may need to make an individual determination about which facility is safest and most comfortable for them;

Allow all students to participate in physical education classes and intramural sports in a manner consistent with their gender identity. All students should be permitted to participate in interscholastic athletics in a manner consistent with their gender identity, under the guidelines established by the state interscholastic association;

Evaluate all gender-based activities, rules, policies, and practices including classroom activities, school ceremonies, and school photos, and maintain gender-segregated policies only when absolutely necessary;

Ensure that dress codes are gender-neutral. Any policies that are based on gender differences must permit students to dress in compliance with the school's dress code consistent with their gender identity and expression;

Ensure that all personally identifiable and medical information relating to transgender and gender nonconforming students, like all students, is kept confidential. School staff should not disclose any information that may reveal a student's transgender status to others, including parents or guardians and other school staff, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.

RESOURCES

7. Ensure professional development and educator resources focus on creating inclusive learning environments in which all students feel safe and welcome. This type of learning is valuable for all staff members in the school or district, not just educators.

Address strategies to create safe and inclusive schools in professional learning. These include effective strategies to prevent bullying and to stop such behaviors once they have begun, implementing restorative justice practices, and empowering educators to use and create LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum;

Ensure that professional learning is inclusive of LGBTQ students with multiple intersecting identities, for example, LGBTQ students of color, undocumented LGBTQ students, or LGBTQ students with disabilities, as these students often endure additional forms of discrimination and stigma.

Ensure that staff are skilled and confident in their abilities to implement learning opportunities, such as cultural competency training or safe space training, which increase awareness of issues impacting LGBTQ students and the effective strategies for improving their educational experiences. It is critical that these opportunities include modeling and practice of effective behaviors;¹⁶

Include such professional development focused on establishing safe and inclusive learning environments in district- and school-level professional development plans, including district Title II plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and ensure the funding and resources to implement this effectively.

RESOURCES

Safe Space Kit is a guide for how to support and be an ally to LGBTQ youth by assessing the school's climate, policies, and practices.

Ready, Set, Respect! An Elementary Toolkit provides tools to support elementary school educators, including lesson plans on teachable moments such as respect and name-calling, and other bullying prevention programs.

Pronouns: A Resource for Educators: A tool for supporting transgender and gender nonconforming (GNC) educators and students.

Local GLSEN Chapters offer professional development for K-12 schools. Connect with a GLSEN chapter near you.

GLSEN Educator Network helps educators stay connected to new resources, lesson plans, educational opportunities, and programming to create more inclusive schools.

DISTRICT IMPLEMENTATION SPOTLIGHT

The School District of Palm Beach County established the Office of African American, Latino, and Gender Studies, which assists district, faculty, and staff to incorporate gender sensitivity into K-12 curriculum in an age-appropriate manner, including a resource for teachers titled "We're All In."

8. Establish a welcoming and affirming environment for LGBTQ students and their allies. There are many steps that education leaders and educators can take to ensure that the school environment fosters a sense of belonging and is safe and affirming for LGBTQ students and families. These include both creating opportunities for and removing barriers to inclusion. For example:

Allow students to participate fully in LGBTQ- supportive extracurricular activities. This includes support for LGBTQ-inclusive and student-led clubs, such as Gay-Straight Alliances or Gender & Sexuality Alliances (GSAs). Students attending schools with a GSA report hearing fewer homophobic remarks and fewer negative remarks about gender expression and transgender people, were less likely to feel unsafe and miss school for safety reasons, and report a greater sense of belonging to their school community.¹⁷

Adopt and implement a curriculum that is LGBTQ-inclusive. LGBTQ students who reported that their classroom curriculum included positive representations of LGBTQ people and topics had higher GPAs, higher educational aspirations, and were more likely to have classmates who were accepting of LGBTQ people.¹⁸ Some states and school districts have integrated LGBTQ-specific content into their subject requirements through LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum policies;¹⁹

Encourage the visibility of LGBTQ-supportive educators by allowing them to display stickers and other signs of support, including GLSEN's Safe Space stickers, Safe Space poster, and Ally lanyards in their classrooms. When educators display LGBTQ-affirming stickers and posters in their classrooms, there are a variety of positive effects for LGBTQ students. For example, LGBTQ students who had seen a GLSEN Safe Space sticker or poster in their school were more likely to identify school staff who were supportive of LGBTQ students and more likely to feel comfortable talking with school staff about LGBTQ issues;²⁰ and

Activities or initiatives that establish positive school conditions for learning for all students must include LGBTQ students, and engage LGBTQ students in the stakeholder consultation and needs assessment process to inform those activities. Title IV, Part A under the Every Student Succeeds Act provides federal funding to states to award to districts. Districts must spend at least twenty percent of these funds on activities to support safe and healthy students, and must engage in consultation with stakeholders to inform the district's application. This provides districts and schools with an additional funding source to help implement the types of activities directly related to fostering a safe and inclusive school environment, and a mechanism to engage LGBTQ students and consider school climate in the needs assessment.

RESOURCES

STATE IMPLEMENTATION SPOTLIGHT

California's Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful ( FAIR) Education Act "ensures that the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials by adding LGBT people to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already included in the state's inclusionary education requirements."

CONCLUSION

Research has demonstrated the positive impact that safe and inclusive learning environments can have on student success. Research has also shown that LGBTQ students experience unsafe school climates at a higher rate than their peers, leading to greater risk of missed school days, lower GPAs, and higher dropout rates. Schools and districts have a significant opportunity - and responsibility- to ensure policies and practices that create safe and inclusive learning environments for all students. From setting an inclusive vision, monitoring school climates, adopting comprehensive non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies, to creating restorative approaches to discipline, these recommendations seek to move toward a future education system in which all students, including and particularly LGBTQ students, have the opportunity to learn and succeed in school.

If any terms were unknown, please visit our " Glossary of Terms " on the GLSEN website.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to partners that provided valuable input in the content of this resources.

The School Superintendents Association (AASA)

Education Counsel

National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)

National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

ABOUT GLSEN

GLSEN works to create safe and inclusive schools for all. We envision a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people,regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression. Each year, GLSEN programs and resources reach millions of students and educators in K-12 schools across the United States, and our network of 39 community-led chapters in 27 states brings GLSEN's expertise to local communities. GLSEN's progress and impact have won support for inclusive schools at all levels of education in the United States and sparked an international movement to ensure equality for LGBTQ students and respect for all in K-12 education.

For additional questions about the resource, contact GLSEN's Public Policy department at policy@glsen.org or 202-347-7780.

END NOTES
¹ Cantor, P., Osher D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T., (2018) Malleability, Plasticity, and Individuality: How children learn and develop in context, Applied Developmental Science; Osher, D., Cantor, P., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T., (2018) Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development. Applied Developmental Science. Jones, S.M., & Kahn, J. (2017).

The evidence base for how we learn: Supporting students' social, emotional and academic development. Consensus statement of evidence from the Council of Distinguished Scientists. The Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development. 9-13-17. Thapa, A., Cohen, J., Guffey, S., & Higgins-D'Alessandro, A. (2013). A review of school climate research. Review of Educational Research, 83, 357-385. Cohen, J., McCabe, E.M, Michelli, N.M. & Pickeral, T. (2009). School Climate: Research, Policy, Teacher Education and Practice. Teachers College Record, Volume 111: Issue 1: pp. 180-213.

² Greytak, E. A., Kosciw, J.G., Villenas, C., & Giga, N. M. (2016). From Teasing to Torment: School Climate Revisited, A Survey of U.S. Secondary Students and Teachers. New York: GLSEN. American Educational Research Association. (2013). Prevention of bullying in schools, colleges, and universities: Research report and recommendations. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

³ Reisner, S.L., Greytak, E.A., Parsons, J.T., & Ybarra, M.L. (2014). Gender minority social stress in adolescence: Disparities in adolescent bullying and substance use by gender identity. The Journal of Sex Research.

⁴ Thapa, A., Cohen, J., Guffey, S., & Higgins-D'Alessandro, A. (2013). A review of school climate research. Review of Educational Research, 83, 357-385.

⁵ Kosciw, J. G., Palmer, N. A., Greytak, E. A., & Kull, R. M. (2013). The effect of negative school climate on academic outcomes for LGBT youth and the role of in-school supports. Journal of School Violence,12, 45-63.

⁶ Kosciw, J. G., Greytak, E. A., Zongrone, A. D., Clark, C. M., & Truong, N. L. (2018). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation's schools. New York: GLSEN.

⁷ Greytak, E.A., Kosciw, J.G., Villenas, C. & Giga, N.M. (2016). F rom Teasing to Torment: School Climate Revisited, A Survey of U.S. Secondary School Students and Teachers. New York: GLSEN.

⁸ Greytak et al., 2018.

⁹ Kann L, Olsen EO, McManus T, et al. Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12 - United States and Selected Sites, 2015. MMWR Surveill Summ 2016;65(No. SS-9):1-202.

¹⁰ Greytak, E. A., Zongrone, A. D., Clark, C. M., & Truong, N. L. (2018). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation's schools. New York: GLSEN.

¹² Poteat, V. P., Scheer, J. R., & Chong, E. S. K. (2015). Sexual orientation-based disparities in school and juvenile justice discipline: A multiple group comparison of contributing factors; Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(2). Snapp, S., Hoenig, J., Fields, A., & Russell, S.T. (2015). Messy, butch, and queer: LGBTQ youth and the school to-prison pipeline. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30, 57-82.

¹³ Redfield, Sarah E. and Nance, Jason P. (2016). American Bar Association Joint Task Force on Reversing School to Prison Pipeline. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/diversity_pipeline/stp_preliminary_report_final.authcheckdam.pdf.

¹⁴ Amicus brief filed by National PTA, GLSEN, and other education organizations in support of respondent in U.S. Supreme Court case Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. Available at https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/GLSEN-Amicus-Brief-Gavin-Grimm.pdf.

¹⁵ U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Examples of Policies and Emerging Practices for Supporting Transgender Students (May 2016).

¹⁶ Greytak, E.A., Kosciw, J.G. & Boesen, M.J. (2013). Educating the educator: Creating supportive school personnel through professional development. Journal of School Violence 12, 80-97.

¹⁷ Greytak, E. A., Zongrone, A. D., Clark, C. M., & Truong, N. L. (2018). The 2017 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in our nation's schools. New York: GLSEN.

¹⁹ Saint Paul Public school policy on Multicultural, Intersectional, Nonracist, Non-sex-Biased, Gender, and Disability Fair education https://www.spps.org/cms/lib/MN01910242/Centricity/domain/1240/board%20policies/sect%20vi%20-%20ed.%20 programs/602.01Multicultural_gender_and_disab_6-17-08_Former_617.00.pdf.

²⁰ GLSEN (2015). Evaluation of GLSEN's Safe Space Kit. The Utility of an Educator Resource for Improving School Climate for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth. New York: GLSEN.

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Respect for All: Policy Recommendations to Support LGBTQ Students

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School and district leaders, educators, and school staff have a significant opportunity-and responsibility-to create learning environments in which all students can thrive and achieve their full educational potential. Fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness in school are crucial for putting all students on a path to success.

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For more information on pronouns, check out this guide from GLSEN.

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This guide is created to help anyone learn how to use people’s correct pronouns. Everyone in your school community should engage in learning, educating, and advocating for the inclusive use of pronouns for all.

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Understanding & respecting students' pronouns is one way to act as an ally in your classroom. Make sure to check in with students as to when & where they are comfortable with you using certain pronouns.

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Feeling overwhelmed on how to include LGBTQ+ issues in your classroom with recent policy changes? This article covers ideas & provides resources to help you navigate these changes.

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Abstract

Determining Where Schools Stand

Shaping School Culture

Expanding the Curriculum

As many states consider restricting the teaching of LGBTQ content in schools, educators propose strategies for reaffirming inclusive classrooms.

Credit: yurakrasil / Shutterstock

Abstract

Determining Where Schools Stand

Shaping School Culture

Expanding the Curriculum

Florida's now infamous "Don't Say Gay" law , which restricts the ability for public school teachers in the state to address LGBTQ topics with students from kindergarten through 3rd grade, has put questions about inclusive teaching practices and curriculum back in the national spotlight.And although the bill has provoked condemnation from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Trevor Project , it isn't exactly unique-in fact, 15 other states are considering similar legislation.

For teachers who may face potential new instructional restrictions, the legislation has fueled a wave of anxiety. Creating an environment that is safe and affirming for all students-including those who are LGBTQ or have LGBTQ family-takes intentional effort, and more educators are now coming forward with questions about how to do this in the face of looming state legislation.

"We are meeting with at least one school or library group every week, if not twice a week, to have these conversations, which is a huge uptick compared to this time last year," says Vanessa Ford, an advocate and education consultant who works with teachers to support and affirm LGBTQ students.

Florida's LGBTQ content restriction is the first of this wave of policies to be signed into law, and it isn't yet clear how many other state legislatures will follow suit, or what scope those laws may take. According to advocates, protecting LGBTQ students is an imperative whether or not teachers and administrators face state-imposed restrictions, but the role teachers can play in affirming their students may look different depending on local laws.

Determining Where Schools Stand

The best antidote is direct communication with school administrators to better understand what state policies actually mean for teachers, says Bex Mui, an equity consultant and director of the Stonewall National Education Project.

"I encourage educators in states where these restrictions are happening to talk with their administration about what it means for them," she says. "Without understanding what's being asked . . . what often happens is that there's fear and uncertainty and educators will be more likely to not talk about LGBTQ people or even might be afraid of interrupting anti-LGBTQ comments in the classroom."

Whether educators are concerned about the effect of anti-LGBTQ legislation in their own state, or simply galvanized by headlines about it elsewhere, they can draw on resources to better assess how their schools are supporting LGBTQ students across curriculum, instructional strategies, and school culture. The CDC provides a self-assessment tool for LGBTQ inclusivity in schools and GLSEN, a national network of LGBTQ advocates and educators, conducts annual school climate surveys . Gender Spectrum , another organization with a focus on inclusivity for gender expansive students, also provides guidelines for teachers and administrators on cultivating an affirming learning environment.

A restrictive law may prevent teachers from addressing one or more areas highlighted in these forms of assessment (in Florida's case, the curriculum for young learners), but using these resources can help schools determine where they can make progress without running into state-imposed barriers.

"It's the job of an educator to ensure that all families, and all students, are valued and feel a sense of belonging," says Greene.

As Greene points out, creating a safe space for LGBTQ students is a comprehensive process. In a state such as Florida, professional learning won't negate legislated content restrictions, but it can still help educators, for example, interrupt anti-LGBTQ comments in the classroom, expand students' understanding of what makes a family, or accept diverse expressions of gender (say, a boy who frequently comes to class wearing pink).

"It's the lens by which you do all of your work to be inclusive, and that's not something anybody can take away from you," Greene says.

Shaping School Culture

To contribute to a safer school environment generally, Ford uses an equity framework with four key directives-educate, affirm, include, and interrupt. These action items include policies such as revising dress codes, respecting students' names and pronouns, and allowing students to use the bathrooms that correspond to their gender.

Some of these measures are more politicized than others, but working together with administrators, teachers can select interventions that are within reach. This kind of training is essential for all adults who work with students, including bus drivers, janitors, and cafeteria staff, Ford says. Along with Mui, Ford outlined these practices in greater depth in an ASCD webinar, Supporting Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Students with Pride, from 2019.

"It's really important for educators to create safe, supportive environments," says Mui. "Even outside of being able to specifically teach LGBTQ-positive representations, we can still do a lot to [cultivate] a safe classroom."

Engaging on the issue of LGBTQ inclusivity also requires understanding the intersectionality of barriers facing both students and educators alike. State policies restricting LGBTQ content in the classroom don't happen in a vacuum, Ford notes, and many states across the country have also sought to restrict content related to race and history .

Expanding the Curriculum

Depending on their state, not every teacher will be able to infuse their instruction with more inclusive literature, but many can. Even in Florida, the "Don't Say Gay" law doesn't extend beyond 3rd grade, turning more attention on how educators devise their reading lists for older students.

"The more lesson plans and resources that teachers can have in their toolbox, the more comfortable they're going to be ensuring that they can broach these topics and support all of the kids in their classroom," Ford says.

Like other equity advocates, Ford believes it's essential for students to have access to what children's literacy expert Rudine Sims Bishopcalls "windows" and "mirrors" in the curriculum-that is, content that exposes them to different perspectives as well as content that reflects their own experiences. And that's critical for all students, not just those who are LGBTQ. "Everybody has a gender identity," Ford notes.

The more lesson plans and resources that teachers can have in their toolbox, the more comfortable they're going to be ensuring that they can broach these topics and support all of the kids in their classroom.

A former elementary school teacher, Mui reiterated the benefits of helping young learners explore diversity in all its facets. "Start early," she says. "I know the firsthand value of beginning this work with young children to minimize the unlearning that they have to do."

Outside campaigns to revise what students can learn in the classroom is a complex challenge for teachers. The best response, many leaders in LGBTQ education argue, is a unified one. Working alongside school and district leaders, and in partnership with advocacy organizations, teachers can find new ways to uplift all students, even amid barriers created by new legislation.

"In a place where there's a lot of negative attention on what you're already teaching . . . I always say, as a teacher, as an administrator, as a school staff person, you do not need to go it alone if you're looking to make change," says Ford.

ASCD is dedicated to professional growth and well-being.

Let's put your vision into action.

ASCD empowers educators to achieve excellence in learning, teaching, and leading so that every child is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

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Supporting LGBTQ Students in the "Don't Say Gay" Era - ASCD

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Abstract Determining Where Schools Stand Shaping School Culture Expanding the Curriculum As many states consider restricting the teaching of LGBTQ content in schools, educators propose strategies for reaffirming inclusive classrooms. Credit: yurakrasil / Shutterstock Abstract Determining Where Schools Stand Shaping School Culture Expanding the Curriculum Florida's now infamous "Don't Say

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A simple way to show LGBTQ+ students that you are a safe person is to display that fact in your room. This can be through a variety of posters, flags, or messages, like the ones shown here.

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This article from NEA highlights actions by educators currently taking place inside & outside of classrooms that you can adopt to help support LGBTQ+ students.

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Educators are on the leading edge of campaigns, initiatives and legislative efforts to create safe and affirming schools and support LGBTQ student rights. Below are summaries of some of the myriad ways educators are standing with LGBTQ students and working to ensure they feel supported and welcome in schools.

1. Fostering Safe and Affirming Schools for All Students

When students came to AP English teacher Lanie Gray for help starting a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at Olathe North High School in Olathe, Kansas, she jumped at the opportunity. Her brother, an openly gay young man, endured merciless bullying and several brutal physical assaults while at Olathe North in the 1980s.

"We live in a conservative and religious community," she says. "The challenge has been to convince people that standing up for LGBT students has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with making these students feel safe and supported because every student deserves that."

Using resources from NEA partner GLSEN, she served as an advisor and worked with students to set up a GSA. "I knew that creating a safe place for LGBT students was a cause I could fight for. I was all in," says Lanie.

In Virginia, NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia recently participated in a celebration of transgender students during a kindergarten class taught by NEA educator Jaim Foster in Arlington, Virginia. She joined Sarah McBride, a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign, in reading a children's picture book about a transgender girl.

"We have seen a complete, literal rollback of the protections for students, especially transgender students," Eskelsen García told the Washington Post in March 2019. "The Trump administration has been openly hostile, whether or not you're a transgender soldier or a transgender little boy or little girl. It is more important than ever before that we speak out."

2. Helping to Shape LGBTQ-inclusive Curriculum and Textbooks

With the passage of the California FAIR Education Act in 2011, educators laid the groundwork for an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum in the state. In the summer of 2017, NEA members who advocated for the passage of FAIR were among a select group of committee members who reviewed and decided whether publishers made the grade for LGBTQ-inclusive content in their textbooks.

"We fought so hard for the FAIR Education Act, but when we won no one really knew how to implement it," says C. Scott Miller, California Teachers Association member and liaison to the Equality California Board. "That is why it was so important to me to be a part of the team reviewing the textbooks that will help guide an inclusive curriculum."

California was the first state to mandate that students be taught about the contributions of LGBTQ people in social science classes. Educators in the state are now playing a vital role in driving the creation of LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum for K-12 classes in California - and potentially around the country.

In Arizona, educators mobilized in support of the repeal of a 28-year-old law that prohibited discussing homosexuality during HIV/AIDS instruction in public schools.

"I found sex-education to be heterosexual sex education, and even then, it was vague," educator Gabriella Siciliano told AZEdNews.com of her experience in Arizona public schools. Sciliano is a member of the local LGBTQ community and a teacher at Verrado High School. "It was not a comfortable, or open discussion, as I believe it should be. By under-educating our students, we are setting them up for failure, which is simply a disservice."

The Arizona state Senate passed a bill repealing the law in May 2019.

"Schools should be a welcoming and safe environment for our students," says Arizona Education Association President Joe Thomas. "This law stigmatized and harmed both our LGBTQ students and staff. Arizona educators are glad to see this discriminatory law repealed."

3. Training Other Educators to Raise their Voices for LGBTQ Students

NEA educator Bo Frank says he wants the world to be a more loving and accepting place for all students. Frank is a trainer and teacher at Radford High School in Honolulu, Hawaii.

His training, Sharing Aloha: Equity, Social Justice and Inclusion for LGBTQIA Students, has been viewed by thousands of educators across the nation. In the training, he shares his own family's journey with his daughter Sakoda, who made the transition from living as a boy to being a girl halfway through kindergarten.

"I hope that my presentation starts the conversations that are needed to create change at the school level," says Frank. "Faculty and staff at all schools need in-service training and exposure to the basic needs of marginalized populations in our schools. Every student deserves an equal opportunity, to feel safe and accepted in school, and to reach their maximum potential."

4. Backing Legislation That Supports LGBTQ Students' Rights

In New Mexico, Washington, and Virginia, educators mobilized this spring in support of state legislation and court cases that would affirm the rights of transgender students.

In March 2019, the New Mexico Senate passed the "Safe Schools for All Students Act," a comprehensive anti-bullying law that is inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity.

"All students deserve to feel safe at school, and today the New Mexico state legislature took a tremendous step forward in ensuring that all students - regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity - are protected from bullying and harassment," said Havens Levitt, Chair of GLSEN Albuquerque, in a statement issued at the time.

Washington already has comprehensive anti-bullying protections in place. In April 2019, the state senate passed a bill that would help ensure that every school district in in the state has the resources to handle harassment, bullying, and discrimination appropriately against transgender students.

In Northern Virginia, four school districts declared their support in March 2019 for transgender students' rights by filing an amicus (or friend-of-the-court) brief in a case involving a transgender teen who sued his school district after he was barred from using the boys' restroom.

The four districts argued in court papers that they believe they "must embrace the thousands of students in Virginia public schools who . . . identify as transgender."

The case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but was returned to a lower court after the Trump administration abandoned an Obama-era rule regarding transgender students. The case, which is seen as a landmark case in the fight for transgender student rights, is set for a July 2019 trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

5. Supporting School Naming Initiatives That Honor Legacies of LGBTQ Activists & Leaders

In April 2018, the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland voted to make Bayard Rustin Elementary School the first school in the state to be named after an openly gay person. The new school in Rockville, Md., opened in September 2018.

Rustin was a gay African-American activist who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and a leading organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The decision followed a months-long campaign by parents, students, educators and community activists who said the new school name would both honor a courageous African-American activist who embraced his gay identity and underscore the district's commitment to inclusion and tolerance.

"For young people to be able to see themselves, and who they are, and see that reflected in their schools and their teachers, that's important," said Samir Paul, a computer science teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md.

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5 things educators are doing right now to support their LGBTQ students | NEA

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Educators are on the leading edge of campaigns, initiatives and legislative efforts to create safe and affirming schools and support LGBTQ student rights. Below are summaries of some of the myriad ways educators are standing with LGBTQ students and working to ensure they feel supported and welcome in schools.

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This article examines the data from the last 20 years of the National School Climate Survey in respect to our LGBTQ+ students. They use this data to highlight four key places that educators can support these students.

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20 Years of Data Shows What Works for LGBTQ Students

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A review of two decades’ worth of data with Dr. Joseph Kosciw, director of GLSEN Research Institute, shows that schools should prioritize four key areas when supporting LGBTQ students.

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This infographic discusses common terms related to gender identity & sexual orientation, plus some additional terms & pride flags.

Here's another list from GSA that discusses LGBTQ+ terminology: https://gsanetwork.org/resources/gsa-terms-definitions/

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A simple shift teachers can make to promote a more inclusive classroom is to adopt gender-neutral language. This article gives suggestions on alternative words & why this practice is so important.

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"Some people may argue that such concerns are unimportant, but if you consider that language is the primary filter through which we perceive the world, it's obvious that it affects how we relate to and make judgments about one another," Dowd tells Teen Vogue. "Until now, history has been written and told by men, to the detriment of others. Part of any attempt to create a society in which all people - regardless of gender, sexuality or race - have equal opportunities and freedoms is to use language that no longer excludes certain groups or creates unconscious bias."

Just because a nonbinary person isn't present doesn't make it OK to use binary language.

Many nonbinary people aren't as vocal about their identity and pronouns as others, and you can't know someone's gender by looking at them, Hoffman-Fox stresses. Nonbinary people reflect a wide variety of gender expressions and are sometimes still identified as male or female because they don't present as androgynous.

"It's fairly common for people to assume that a nonbinary person isn't in the room," Hoffman-Fox said. "The truth is, there is no way someone could know that, unless they have had conversations with every person in the vicinity and have asked them if they use binary terms to describe themselves."

Hold those around you accountable.

Don't be afraid to correct those around you, such as your classmates and even teachers, about using exclusive, gendered language, but do understand not everyone receives criticism in the same way.

"Some people will be comfortable with being very direct, like: 'Excuse me, but when you used ladies to describe our friend group, it leaves out those who are uncomfortable with being gendered as female,'" Hoffman-Fox tells Teen Vogue. "Some may want to take a more subtle approach, such as repeatedly using a gender-neutral term within earshot of the person using binary language."

Pay attention to which responses work better for certain people.

"Depending on the situation, you can address the situation with the person publicly or privately, in person or through a message," Hoffman-Fox adds. "Try to keep it as simple as possible, explaining briefly what binary language is and how it can often result in people feeling invisible."

Remember that binary language also harms cisgender and binary transgender people.

Nonbinary people aren't the only ones hurt by binary language. Binary transgender people (or trans people who aren't nonbinary) and cisgender people are also affected - and often harmed - by the gender binary and how ingrained it can be in our language. For instance, many women prefer not to be lumped into a group of "ladies" because of society's expectations of how a lady should act.

"There are people who aren't nonbinary who are uncomfortable with binary gendered terms, thanks to these terms also being experienced as stereotypical," Hoffman-Fox says. "Shifting to gender-neutral language is of benefit not only to those who are nonbinary but to many others in society who feel that binary terms are inaccurate ways of describing them."

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The Gender-Neutral Words You Need to Know for Back to School

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"Some people may argue that such concerns are unimportant, but if you consider that language is the primary filter through which we perceive the world, it's obvious that it affects how we relate to and make judgments about one another," Dowd tells Teen Vogue.

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Tips for Cultivating an Inclusive Classroom

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Tips for Cultivating an Inclusive Classroom

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This podcast is actually the season finale of this series, but provides excellent tips for cultivating an inclusive classroom, as well as ways to incorporate LGBTQ+ history into your curriculum. Check out the full series for more specific ways to incorporate queer history into specific units you already teach.

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Resources and Readings
Cory Collins Return to Episode Listing
Transcript

Leila Rupp: Welcome to the last episode of Queer America. When we first began this series, we told you about an attempt in Michigan to censor U.S. history. A group of legislators and advisors proposed stripping references to democratic values, women's history, the civil rights movement, climate change and the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality from the Social Studies standards for K-12 classrooms.

John D'Emilio: But public outcry forced them to reconsider. The committee responsible for revising the standards went back to work, and in the latest version, the phrase "democratic values" will remain, and so will teachings on Harriet Tubman, Roe v. Wade, climate change-and gay rights.

Leila Rupp: This is good news and a victory for the children of Michigan, who will continue to learn about the rich and diverse history of the United States. This is a victory for all of us who believe that understanding the past in all its complexity and nuance is critical for living in the present and future. I'm Leila Rupp...

John D'Emilio: And I'm John D'Emilio, and this is Queer America, a special series from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Press. LGBTQ history has been largely neglected in the classroom, but it's necessary to give students a fuller history of the United States and to help them understand how that history shaped the society they live in.

Leila Rupp: This podcast provides a detailed look at how to incorporate important cultural touchstones, notable figures and political debates into an inclusive U.S. History curriculum. In each episode, we explore a different topic, walking you through historical concepts, suggesting useful source material and offering practical classroom exercises.

John D'Emilio: Talking with students about sexual and gender identity can be emotional and complex. This podcast is a resource for navigating those challenges, so teachers and students can discover the history and comprehend the legacy of queer America.

Leila Rupp: For our final episode of this series, we've asked Cory Collins from Teaching Tolerance to share a wonderful resource for educators called " Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students." He'll walk us through the guide, focusing on how to approach LGBTQ content in the classroom and tips for adding LGBTQ content into a packed curriculum. Cory will also share a sample exercise from the guide.

John D'Emilio: With our podcast episodes in one hand and these best practices in the other, you'll be more than ready to take on the challenge of teaching your students about queer America. Cory begins his talk by taking us back a few years when his own understanding of LGBTQ history was very different.

Cory Collins: I want to talk about Wikipedia, but first, let me set the scene. It's 2014. I'm 24 and I, a gay man, am still in the closet. I'm a sports journalist at the time and Michael Sam has just become the first openly gay man selected in the NFL draft, and I want to write about it, and as writers often do, I go looking for a historical allusion that I can use to open the story. That search takes me to a Wikipedia page called "LGBT History," and that page takes me to a world I had never dared to imagine. I'm Cory Collins. I'm the senior writer for Teaching Tolerance and alongside my coworker Jey Ehrenhalt, I co-wrote our best practices guide for serving LGBTQ students and introducing LGBTQ content to a curriculum. A lot has changed in those five years.

I don't remember what I ended up writing about Michael Sam, but I remember that feeling as I scrolled and scrolled through stories I'd never seen, stories I'd certainly never learned in a textbook, evidence of queer love and affection, and queer identity from ancient Egypt to revolutionary France to indigenous communities in the Americas, and it's hard to describe what it was like reading that for the first time; this proof that people like you have always existed despite messages you've heard of the contrary, proof that not all of these people were considered criminals, or crazy, or perverse, but instead were sometimes celebrated, often respected. It's liberating and it's sustaining. To know that people like you have always had purpose and humanity gives you permission to love yourself as you are and work toward a better world because there's precedent, and precedent is power. This podcast, Queer America, has been a journey in chronicling that precedent and that power. For me, it has supplemented my self-learning over the past five years and it has opened the door for educators like you to pass that feeling of discovery on to your students and perhaps yourself. Both Jey and I went into writing this guide with a goal: to help queer students feel safe and seen at school, to help all students better understand and respect LGBTQ identity and history, and to help educators like you create an environment where this can happen.

My education in queer history came late, but it doesn't have to for our young people today, and that's why teaching the content you've learned on this podcast is not just good history pedagogy, it's vital to the well-being of your students. This matters. According to survey results from GLSEN, that's G-L-S-E-N, which is a nonprofit that promotes LGBTQ inclusion in schools, more than half of LGBTQ students feel unsafe at school. More than half hear negative remarks about their identity not just from students but from school staff, and less than a quarter of them see or hear positive representations of queer people in any of their classrooms. A Human Rights Campaign survey revealed that only a quarter of students feel like they can be their authentic selves at school, and that wears on a young person, and because of those things, we know that queer students are statistically more likely to miss school, to see their grades suffer and to experience suicidal ideation. But there is hope, and much of that hope resides in schools, school leaders and educators doing the right thing. LGBTQ students who go to schools where the curriculum is inclusive and the policies value their identities experience less harassment, period. They feel more valued by the adults around them and they are much more likely to succeed in school and socially.

Non-LGBTQ students also benefit, becoming more understanding of their peers and the world, so as I talk today about ways in which we can center and value LGBTQ identities in our teaching, I hope those facts will stick in the back of your mind. This isn't just best practices. It's an act of care, an act that for some of you will require some courage. So as we culminate this season of Queer America, perhaps you're left with a lingering question. You have all of this content that you can use in the classroom and alongside us you've had your own discovery of hidden history, right, but perhaps, at the same time, you still feel some hesitation. "What if I say the wrong thing?" "What if I'm interrupted or students push back?" "How do I do it while teaching what I'm required to teach?" And those are fair questions, and we at Teaching Tolerance want to answer those questions for you. When Jey and I co-wrote "Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students," we as two queer adults wanted to create something that allowed more students to see themselves in their curriculum and allowed more students to empathize with and respect their queer classmates. And that meant giving educators the tools to feel more comfortable changing their curriculum, so today I want to talk through some of those questions and offer some tips that are detailed in our guide.

You realize now that you have this opportunity to provide your students with a whole new view on the world. Let us help you get there. So, what is the guide? The guide is called "Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students" and you can find it on our website. If you go to tolerance.org/podcasts and click on Queer America, you'll find it on the bottom of that page. The guide is broken into several sections that can help you with a very practical approach to LGBTQ inclusion in your schools. Now, these sections include policy samples, and these are example policies from dress codes to bathroom access that allow you to make LGBTQ students feel like they not only belong but they are valued. There's a section on classroom culture, which gives you steps towards creating an inclusive classroom. There's a section on instruction, which is more about tips for integrating queer voices into your existing curriculum, as well as responding to difficult moments when you have those conversations. And there's also a family, community and engagement section because we know that there is going to be some pushback from families and there's going to be some pushback from the community, and we want you to feel prepared to face that. But there's also a lot of opportunities for families and community members who are pining for this, and to reach out to them, and make them feel like they're included as well.

Now, if you're looking at the online version of the guide, there's also some appendices that we really want to draw your attention to because they're a helpful, useful resource. One is the glossary of terms that helps you become familiar with the language. One is a list of books from elementary to middle school to high school, as well as professional development for teachers, and that list of books gives you fiction books with LGBTQ characters as well as books about LGBTQ history, and that's a great way to introduce this content to students and to yourselves. And in the last appendix, there's a list of LGBTQ historical figures, and some of those are a great jumping-off point for integrating LGBTQ figures into stuff you're already teaching because you will see people from almost any time period that you can imagine teaching in your classroom.

Leila Rupp: As Cory's personal experience indicates, knowing queer history is so important. It has the potential to transform the lives of students, both those who are part of the queer community and those who are not. We know that bullying of students on the basis of sexual and gender identity is widespread, sometimes even driving young people to suicide, as Cory mentioned. Any mention of queer people or queer issues in the classroom can increase student safety and improve the climate for queer students. It improves the climate for all students by helping to foster acceptance and civility.

John D'Emilio: And it also makes for better history. For one thing, it helps to undermine the common notion that queer history is a simple story of progress from the bad old days to the much better present. For example, understanding that the Puritans were not so puritanical about sexuality teaches that the past is more complex than we sometimes think, and understanding the complexity of the past along with knowing how things have changed is crucial to understanding and living in the present while working toward a better future. Again, here's Cory with some important strategies for the classroom to help all of your students thrive.

Cory Collins: Let's begin by talking about classroom culture. This is Section Two in the guide, because ultimately, no matter how well you know the content, no lesson is going to stand on its own if you don't have a solid foundation. And that foundation rests on your willingness to learn and it rests on creating an environment where respecting students' identities is a priority. Now, the most basic way to set this foundation is to begin with something as simple as language. It's very important that we learn the terms that students are using today to describe their identities. Young people today have a large vocabulary with which they articulate those identities, and we sometimes get pushback when we ask educators to learn these because if we're of a certain age, we have seen this vocabulary grow and grow and grow, and it can feel hard to keep up, but it's vital that we meet our students where they are, so if you look at our glossary, you're going to see terms like "biological sex," "gender identity," "cisgender," "transgender," "asexual," "pansexual," and these are terms that your students are using to describe their identities, and you'll be able to match the definition with the word, and maybe be able to meet them where they are, understand what they mean when they say that, and talk to them about it.

I also want to talk about something that has come up a lot lately in the cultural discussion about LGBTQ people, and sometimes the importance gets mocked, but we think it's pretty vital, and that's modeling inclusive pronoun use. Gender fluidity is expressed in the many pronouns that students will use to talk about themselves, and that goes beyond the "he/him/his," "she/her/hers" binary that we've been using in our culture for a long time. So, in Section Two of the guide, you're going to see a lot of ways that you can model inclusive pronoun use. This includes using what we call "the singular 'they,'" so perhaps, instead of sentences that use "he" or "she" as an example or when you're even reading something for a spelling test, or giving examples in math, whatever you're doing, you can use "they" instead. Another tip is to decentralize cisgender identity by stating your own pronouns, so maybe you use "he/him/his," or "she/ her/hers" pronouns, and you think that it's obvious, so you don't have to state that. But if you model that, if you introduce yourself by modeling your own pronouns, that tells the student that maybe uses "they/them" pronouns that you're not singling them out.

You're having everyone do this. You're conducting pronoun check-ins with everybody at the beginning of the year so that this is just something people know so they know how to refer to each other, and it normalizes that. It's also useful, I think, to begin the year with a student survey that asks students about the pronouns they use in different situations, so sometimes it's not enough just to ask our students what they prefer to be called, what their pronouns are, but that can change situationally. Maybe they feel a certain trust with you or their peers that they don't feel with other adults in the building. Maybe they don't live in a home where it's safe for them to use their pronouns, so they might want to know if you can use "he/him" pronouns to their parents but "they/them" pronouns in the classroom, and it's really useful for educators to know those boundaries.

Now, once you know your students' boundaries, once you know your students' pronouns, it's also helpful to check in with yourself about what you're going to do if you misgender a student. So perhaps, in getting used to using different pronouns or getting used to using the singular "they," you misstep, and sometimes this is something that makes educators really uncomfortable, especially if it's not something they're used to doing, and there's actually some really easy tips in the guide for confronting this situation, and ultimately, it all comes back to don't overreact, and don't center yourself in that interaction. So, if you misgender a student, whether they're transgender or non-binary, the first step is honestly just to apologize briefly. Correct yourself. Move on but don't call extra attention to it. By doing that, you're making it about yourself, but you're also putting that student in an uncomfortable position, so, along that vein, don't over-apologize. The student is more often than not going to be understanding of the fact that you're trying, so if you just quickly move on, correct your error, that will do the trick. Now, if you overhear a coworker or a student misgender someone, that's a good opportunity to be an ally, and there's a lot of ways that you can do that.

One of those is to correct them in the moment. So say, someone says to you, "The other day I saw Jess and he was saying that his homework was late," and if you know Jess uses "they/them" pronouns, you can respond right in the moment with a correction that's not overt but enough to tell them what they have done, so you can say, "Oh, right. So, Jess, they were saying what?" And just by doing that, you are sending the message that you know their pronouns and you want that to be respected in conversations even when that other person isn't present.

Another way that you can do that is to model the correct pronoun usage going forward, and another way is to address it directly. So if you hear someone misgendering another student, you can directly say, "Hey, just in case you didn't know, Jess uses 'they/them' pronouns," and from then on, hopefully that situation can be corrected And so now that you have all of those examples of ways that you can model pronoun usage, there are ways to transition that into how you respond to a lot of things, such as a student coming out to you. So, in our guide, you'll find actually a lot of dos and don'ts about what to say and what not to say if a student comes out to you. For example, listening and being supportive without questioning them or questioning their certainty, and you can find more of that in the guide. But let's also talk about creating an inclusive classroom culture because ultimately, learning key terms isn't enough. There are things you can do with your classroom practices that are actually quite simple but they can help you audit yourself for ways that you might be upholding gender norms that would make transgender and nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students uncomfortable, or at worse, they would not feel valued in your classroom.

Now, one of those is to conduct a visual audit of your classroom. Examine your wall posters and your visible materials and ask yourself, "Do these represent individuals with diverse range of gender expressions? Are there nontraditional families? Are there families with LGBTQ members? Are there historical figures, or celebrities, or students represented who do not fit into that boy/girl/heterosexual binary?" Something else you can do is to take note of casual conversations you're having with students and to not make assumptions based on gender. There are a lot of phrases that we use without thinking about them much, such as "Boys will be boys," or, "Girls are such gossip queens," or any number of phrases that make assumptions. Maybe you think about never teasing or joking around with students in a way that presumes their gender identity or that presumes a heterosexual orientation, such as saying that when a boy picks on a girl, he's flirting with her. These sorts of comments are innocuous and they seem innocent, but when they pile on top of each other, they create a set of expectations that students remember, and they create a set of stereotypes about what it means to flirt, what it means to behave, that are ultimately really damaging to the way we think about boys, girls and all people in our society.

And something else I want to encourage you to do in your classroom when you're doing this audit of your own practices, is to encourage all students to try different types of activities so that what you're doing does not conform to gender stereotypes, but instead opens those opportunities to everyone. So for example, if you need help moving heavy furniture or something off a shelf, don't only ask for boys because you assume they are stronger, or if you are looking to decorate your door or the bulletin board, or to rearrange a classroom library, don't just ask for girls who you deem creative or neat. Give all students opportunities to fulfill these roles and you, in doing that, model what it looks like to break down gender stereotypes and offer a world of possibilities to your students. I think this world would probably be a better place if more boys felt comfortable and felt like they were allowed to do activities that are stereotypically what we say is "girly" and vice versa-and that's something you can model right there in the classroom from a young age on through high school.

So how can you set the stage for these conversations, especially as they advance into the territory of talking about LGBTQ history or LGBTQ characters in fiction? The way that we do that is that we set ground rules, and often that begins by creating community agreements with students. This is something a lot of you do already at the beginning of the year, and basically what we have to ask our students to do is to create a community agreement from the beginning that tells us how we have conversations in the classroom in a way that's inclusive of all students regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity. So one way we can get this started with our students is to open that community agreement process at the beginning of the year with discussion prompts that can help them think about what leads to a productive conversation. So ask your students, "What rules would help you have a respectful conversation with each other?" Or, "When someone disagrees with you, how can you stay engaged in that conversation while still being respectful of the other person?"

So when you're going through this process, if you suspect that LGBTQ perspectives will be new territory for some of your students, begin the discussion with a statement about the importance of being open to ideas that are unfamiliar. And you need to make it clear in creating this community agreement that purposefully hurtful comments regarding a person's identities or differences is never OK because once you set that ground rule, you can refer to that community agreement throughout the year. And this isn't a way to squash opposing opinions. This isn't asking you to censor your students. It's instead asking your students to come up with a model in which no one is going to feel attacked for who they are and that all discussions will be based on the merits of humanity and the facts, not just visceral, in-the-moment opinions that sometimes lead to attacks. So you need to make sure those ideas of identity and difference are discussed explicitly when you're making these community agreements, and to post this agreement in a very visible location. And once you've done that, you've set the tone for the year, and as long as you have that visible backing of "This is an agreement that you all came up with," you're putting the power in their hands.

This isn't just a didactic rule from the teacher at the front of the classroom. This is a community agreement that they came up with and it gives you a lot of power to share that power in a weird way because then they're responsible to each other and they're responsible to the rules they created, not just the rules that you set forth. So what do we do once that conversation or that lesson is happening? Because ultimately, even with that community agreement in place, if I'm being realistic, we know that LGBTQ people and topics may raise emotions or may raise uncomfortable moments in your classroom, and we have to be ready for that. And the first thing I want to stress is the importance of remaining calm and diffusing tension rather than reacting in a way that can enhance a negative interruption in your classroom. I want to refer you to another Teaching Tolerance guide here, and that's a guide called "Let's Talk."

Basically, "Let's Talk" is a guide that gives you very concrete strategies for having what we might call "difficult" or "courageous" conversations in the classroom, whether that's about race, or sexual orientation, or gender identity or any host of topics that some might deem controversial, but which you know are valuable, and in that guide, you're going to find a lot of ways that you can check in with your students to make sure that they're comfortable, but continue to challenge them to think about these critical topics. But in speaking specifically about LGBTQ content, there are some recommendations that we offer in the guide and that I can offer you here. One of those is to never let a homophobic or transphobic remark go uninterrupted. I think sometimes, as educators, there is this idea that silence is neutrality; that if we're having a discussion that is tough, by remaining quiet or by not interrupting someone's opinion, we are being neutral in that discussion. But if we go back to the community agreement, there's a reason that we have instilled the idea that no identity should be attacked, and we're not asking you to make a political stance in that moment, but what we're asking you to do is to interrupt for the sake of that community agreement and for the sake of the LGBTQ students in your classroom who are hearing their very essence attacked.

So while it might be tempting or easier to let that comment slide or to laugh it off, or to try to move on as quickly as you can, it's important that you stop everything in that moment, not let it go interrupted, and remind that student this is our community agreement, and those sorts of comments are not going to fly in this classroom when we're having conversations. Something else that's important when discussing LGBTQ content is to prepare for the possibility, and honestly probably the inevitability that religion will arise as a topic, and we don't want you to send the message that a student's religion does not matter or that they are not welcome to discuss this aspect of their identity because after all, we want to affirm students' identities and let them explore what it means to belong to an identity, and that includes religion. But rather, we want to remind students that they cannot use their religion to justify the harassment of another student or a violation of your classroom contract. That's the clear delineation you need to draw in these conversations. You're not trying to squash any student's identity, but you also-and this is really important and I will stress it-never need to present LGBTQ identities as up for debate.

One thing I remember going through high school, and this was before the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, was that we would debate gay marriage, which would ultimately devolve into a debate about whether gay people had chosen to be gay or whether they were born that way, and so for much of my school career, in the classroom, I heard the debate as to whether I existed as a choice or whether I existed because that's who I am. And it's hard to overstate how damaging that is to our LGBTQ students, so be very wary of the sort of topics that you bring up as a debate as opposed to maybe discussing LGBTQ content in a different way instead of making it a "this versus that" in more a discussion of history, or a discussion of a character's motivations, which honestly, is more what our history and literature courses are about anyway.

And lastly, I would just underscore the importance of being ready to respond to common myths with facts. The anti-LGBTQ groups that are out there are very effective in spreading misinformation about LGBTQ identities, and if you can educate yourself to some of those myths, such as the idea that being transgender is a mental illness, or that being gay is a choice, or that being gay is linked to pedophilia. If you research those myths and have facts ready, you can respond in a calm, respectful way that affirms LGBTQ students without calling out the student who used those myths in a way that will silence them, because we want to call in our students as much as we can.

Leila Rupp: You're listening to Queer America. I'm Leila Rupp...

John D'Emilio: And I'm John D'Emilio.

Leila Rupp: Those are such great suggestions. As Cory was talking, I was reminded of a few other classroom challenges and some approaches that might be useful to you in confronting them. The first is that talking about non-normative sexuality and gender can raise the specter of having to talk about sex with your students, which of course, can make for giggles and smirks. In our first episode, Daniel Hurewitz shared a helpful conversation he had had with a high school teacher named Will Grant. Will explained to him why teaching about intimacy and relationships is not the same as teaching about sex. "We talk about Henry VIII and his wives," he said, "and his desire for a son, or about first ladies in U.S. history who are relevant because they are married to the president, and that isn't about sex, so it makes sense that we can also talk about the relationship between Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith, and why it was important to Addams' work and life without that being a conversation about sex either."

John D'Emilio: That's absolutely right, and I want to build on what Cory was saying about language because there is a related challenge when we're teaching LGBTQ history. We should be sensitive to the words people used at the time versus the words we use now, which frequently requires avoiding words that they didn't have. It's inaccurate and sometimes unfair to label people in ways they couldn't or wouldn't describe themselves at the time, so for example, you can say, "same-sex sexuality," as a general term when discussing the period before the invention of the term "homosexuality." Similarly, before the development of the concept of transgender, you can substitute the terms "gender nonconforming," or "gender crossing." As new terms came into use by both observers and people with same-sex desires, we follow their lead using "homosexual," "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual," "queer" and "transgender." Students today who embrace a wider array of identities, including pansexual, fluid, heteroflexible, trans, gender queer, agender and others, these students can learn from the changing ways that people in the past have been named and named themselves.

Leila Rupp: Another idea that's very important to introduce with students, especially in later grades, is the concept of the social construction of sexuality. It can be hard since so many students of all sexual identities embrace Lady Gaga's message that we are all "born this way," but almost all historians agree that societies shape the ways that sexual desires are understood, that societies shape people's sexual practices, and societies shape the meanings people attach to their sexual desires and behaviors, yet students tend to remain firmly convinced that they were born straight, or lesbian, or gay, or bisexual, or transgender. It's important to remember that this is not an issue of being born that way versus choice. Through history, you could help them see that their desires and behaviors could have quite different meanings and consequences in other times and places. This is an important lesson for students of all sexual identities. Next, Cory Collins is going to talk about some specific ways you might begin to incorporate queer history into your existing curriculum. Here is Cory.

Cory Collins: Once you have those foundations of a solid classroom culture, the question for many of you will become, "OK, but how do I work this into my existing curriculum?" For those of you who face strict requirements or pressure to prepare students to test in certain subjects, queer history may feel extracurricular, but it's not. There are ways to seamlessly integrate the topics you've learned about on this podcast into areas you're almost certainly covering already, especially if you're a history teacher. The question then becomes, "How can we seamlessly integrate these topics you've learned about, especially when we're teaching queer history?" And the first tip for teaching queer history in a way that is seamless with your curriculum is to capitalize on historical eras during which LGBTQ figures played a documented and prominent role, so the very first episode of Queer America from Daniel Hurewitz and Genny Beemyn's episode on the experiences of trans people, both of those provided a good overview of the many eras in U.S. history in which queer people made significant contributions and we know this, so if you teach about the frontier west, the civil rights movement or almost anything in between, you'll hear names you can incorporate into your lessons.

As we learned from Susan K. Freeman in her episodes about romantic friendships, lessons on the women's rights and suffrage movements should absolutely include figures like Jane Addams, who had same-sex companions. Units on the Red Scare, McCarthyism, the Cold War or really any aspect of post-World War II America should include details we learned in David K. Johnson's episode about the Lavender Scare. The same can be said for units on the Jazz Age or even the colonization of Native culture, and these are not ancillary stories. They're not just add-ons. They're central to the history and they're vital to our understanding of present-day issues and inequalities, so if you're covering those areas, it's actually a disservice to not include these figures that made such an impact and these policies that made such an impact. Another way that we can integrate this queer history is to look at LGBTQ movements within the context of different social movements, so as Ian Lekus laid out so wonderfully in episodes 9 and 10 of this podcast, any discussion of the liberation movements of the 1960s is incomplete without incorporating LGBTQ figures like Bayard Rustin and the veterans of uprisings at places like Compton's Cafeteria, and the one you're more likely to have heard of, Stonewall.

Within the black civil rights movement, the women's movement, the Latinx labor movements, and even Vietnam anti-war efforts, there are prominent queer figures at the forefront and they were erased from that history out of prejudice, not because of a lack of importance, so we shouldn't do the same thing in our classrooms. Highlighting these figures opens another opportunity as well, and that's to have students compare the LGBTQ rights movement tactics with tactics from other liberation movements, and this can help illustrate how one movement often informed another and how interconnected they are, so you can create graphic organizers where you compare, "Well, what did the movement under Martin Luther King Jr. and Bayard Rustin, that aspect of the nonviolent civil rights Movement, what did that have in common with the gay rights movement of the '50s and groups like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis, and how did that change after Stonewall? How did the civil right movement change as the Black Panther party became more prominent?" And you start to see comparisons and people who moved in between the movements, and it becomes really illustrative of that time, and it's actually a great way to draw connections throughout history.

Now, if one of your expectations is to discuss current events with students, then that offers a great opportunity to discuss LGBTQ people, past and present. Current issues have histories, right, and discussing what's going on today can lead you toward teaching what led us here. So here are just a few ways that we can respond to current events and contemporary issues in a way that is inclusive of LGBTQ people and our students. One of those is to encourage discussion instead of silence, so think of political events as opportunities to encourage your queer students to speak their truth, and as opportunities for all of your students to understand the consequences of court decisions and legislation. So whether it's something like the military ban on transgender people or aspects of immigration and asylum that disproportionately affects LGBTQ people fleeing persecution, you can answer that question that your students are going to have: "What does this mean for me? What does this mean for people I know?" And those questions deserve thoughtful, nonpartisan consideration. A good example of why this is so important was actually made obvious by episode 11 of this podcast, which was about the AIDS epidemic, and silence on that issue has led to a lot of myths, a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding of the current situation-and how we got here.

Imagine if we had encouraged discussion instead with our students. That silence has been dangerous, whereas speaking openly about that history and the current state of AIDS in America tells us a lot about current events. It tells us a lot about access to healthcare. It tells us a lot about access to compassion in this country, as well as more practical information about safe sex. Now something else you can do if current events is part of your pedagogy is to bring contemporary LGBTQ role models and public figures into your classroom discourse. We are fortunate to live in a time when there are openly gay, lesbian, and transgender, and nonbinary political figures, or figures who hold positions of power. So when we're talking about current events, it's good to touch on those people because it's a reminder that they not only exist, but they are thriving in their own way, which is really valuable for your students to know. It's important to highlight moments of agency, moments of empowerment, and not just moments of persecution.

John D'Emilio: This is Queer America. I'm John D'Emilio...

Leila Rupp: And I'm Leila Rupp. If you've been listening to all the episodes, you know that there's a lot more LGBTQ history available when you're teaching about the mid-20th century and beyond. That's not really surprising. Integrating a discussion of queer history into class sessions on World War II, the Cold War and social movements of the 1960s is pretty straightforward, no pun intended. Or let's be honest: I did intend the pun.

John D'Emilio: So, we want to call your attention to earlier periods in U.S. history. From first European contacts with Native Americans through westward expansion and the Gold Rush to cross-dressed soldiers in the Civil War, cowboy and miner intimacy on the frontier, Chinese bachelor societies on the West Coast, and dance hall culture in urban, working-class neighborhoods at the turn of the 19th century. There are many ways that you can incorporate queer history into the entirety of your U.S. History curriculum. You can discover more about these periods in LGBTQ history from our early episodes featuring Genny Beemyn, Daniel Hurewitz, Emily Hobson and Felicia Perez, and also Susan Freeman's episodes about same-sex romantic friendships between women as an accepted cultural practice in the early 20th century.

Leila Rupp: In addition, the California History Social Studies framework for grades K through 12 gives some good pointers in this regard. Their standards call for students in fourth grade to learn about the way settlers and missionaries sought to impose European-American concepts of gender and sexuality on Native American societies. Students also learn about the possibilities and motivations for same-sex intimacies and gender diversity in frontier conditions and the Gold Rush era. And in grade eight, they learn about social and cultural expressions of intimacy between men and women, including same-sex intimacy in the context of urbanization and immigration. Again, here's Cory.

Cory Collins: So, once you're committed to integrating queer history and LGBTQ content into your curriculum, there are things to keep in mind when selecting what that curriculum is going to look like, and one of those is to assess your texts. You can send a really powerful message with the resources you choose. Students perceive the texts and books that you highlight as representations of what is valued and celebrated in our culture. You're teaching them about what the U.S. values and that gives you a lot of power, and omission can send an equally loud message, so when you include the voices of LGBTQ people, that supports students' abilities to affirm their identities and it cultivates empathy for those experiences that differ from their own. So there are some questions that you can ask yourself when you're selecting your texts, whether that's a book, a passage, a film, whatever. There are questions you can ask yourself that can make sure that your curriculum is inclusive. So for example, "What voices does this text include? Does the text include stereotypes? Does it include misrepresentations of people? And how are those stereotypes or misrepresentations treated?" Because we know that, for example, if we're reading a historical piece, there are often going to be stereotypes, but are those stereotypes commented on? Are they challenged?

Does the text accurately reflect lived experiences and cultures? Does it promote healthy self-concept for your students? And maybe one of the most vital questions is whether the text fosters intergroup understanding. Does it motivate, engage or enable students to take action in a way that is productive and inclusive? Now you can find a lot of these questions and more questions in a tool that we have on the tolerance.org website. It's called Reading Diversity and it gives you a checklist of questions like this that can help you assess your texts and make sure that they are inclusive of all identities. So something else that's important to keep in mind when you are selecting curriculum is how to teach with an intersectional approach, and what I mean by teaching with an intersectional approach is understanding that everyone has multiple identities and acknowledging that some people experience multiple forms of oppression where those identities intersect. So our curriculum should always avoid telling a one-sided story, so ask yourself questions such as, "Does my curriculum include a diverse array of stories and combinations of identities? Am I representing multiple narratives about what it's like to be LGBTQ?"

So that means highlighting the experiences of LGBTQ people of color. That means highlighting the experiences of queer people of different faiths. That means highlighting experiences of LGBTQ people who are immigrants or seeking asylum because these are all different experiences, and if we flatten those experiences into one identity, we're missing a lot of stories.

So one challenge that can come up when we're trying to teach with an intersectional approach is that we often confront gaps and silences in the history of LGBTQ people, so when I think back to that Wikipedia list that I stumbled upon five years ago, as expansive as it was, I couldn't help but notice the eras that weren't there. And it's no accident that so few historical records have preserved the lives of queer people in eras across human history because ultimately, history does not remember what it does not value, so for those who experienced intersecting oppressions, such as enslaved LGBTQ people, a historical record is not always available, right, but we know these people existed, so when that representation is hard to find when you are in an era where you can't find LGBTQ people to talk about, it's tempting to skip over it. The record's not there, so how can we teach it? But instead of skipping over it, what I would challenge you to do instead is teach the context-and what that means is explaining laws, or cultural norms, or power structures, and societal values that might have led to the erasure of queer people. So for example, why might we not know about enslaved African-American people who were also LGBTQ?

Think about what it meant for them to even have families. Think about what it meant for them to live openly or if they ever could. What might it have looked like for them to outwardly show their queer identities? And when you think about the cultural norms at the time, if you think about the power structures they were facing, it's easy to understand why we have no record there. Something else we can do is to explain why queer people would not have used modern identifiers, as we discussed near the top of this podcast. There are a lot of terms today that young people use to describe their identities, but a lot of those terms are relatively new, and it's tempting to retroactively put those terms on people in the past, but they didn't use those terms. It's important for us to be mindful of that and to have an explanation as to why someone like Walt Whitman didn't describe himself as gay or bisexual, but instead, to honor the terms they would've used and describe what the queer identities were without naming them with modern terms.

It's also, I think, vital, when possible to point out the exceptions to these gaps and silences. So I mentioned at the top that it was amazing to me that I could find examples of ancient Egyptian drawings that celebrated same-sex couples. So when possible, point out those exceptions because there's something so incredible about seeing yourself in history. It's a reminder that you have ancestors who have walked this earth. It's a reminder that you have people like you that have been respected or celebrated, and it's a reminder that you sort of can move with that same energy that they gave into the world and that you can have a purpose. Ultimately, the reason that I think that these tips are helpful is because all together, they offer us no excuse to erase LGBTQ people from our history lessons or even from our literature lessons because if we're capitalizing on historical eras during which LGBTQ people played a prominent role, we have that record. We have the texts that we can use to seamlessly integrate them into our curriculum.

If we're looking at LGBTQ movements within the context of other social movements, we have the comparison points. We have the prominent figures to list, but also, if we're teaching the gaps and silences, even in those places where we don't have the historical record, we do have the context with which to explain to our students, "Yes, these people existed, and here's why you haven't heard about them,' or, "Here's why it's hard to know what their lives were like," but we can begin to imagine; we can begin to empathize.

And then that all comes back to using these to tie them to current events because our LGBTQ students did not just arrive in a vacuum this century, and if they know their pasts, and they can connect that to the issues they're facing today, to the ways that they can thrive today, then we're ultimately doing them the service that history education should be all about, which is connecting the past to our present in a way that is empowering and actionable and healthy.

Leila Rupp: As Cory points out, it is really important to think about ways that present connects to the past, the way the past shapes our present, and at the same time, as the question of language makes clear, we need to distinguish between what a word might mean in one era and another, and also what a similar kind of desire or behavior might mean in one era versus another.

John D'Emilio: That's a good point to make, Leila. I also want to add to what Cory was saying and emphasize his notion of intersectionality. It's an important concept that is threaded through every episode in this series. Intersectionality refers to the overlapping and interconnected nature of social categories, such as race, gender, class and sexuality. When teaching about any particular aspect of queer history, we have to think about which queer people we're talking about. Are we talking about white, elite, cisgender, gay men? Are we talking about black, working-class, transgender women? The context and nuances matter for understanding, both in the past and today.

Leila Rupp: I keep thinking of Felicia Perez's advice for teaching in episode three. She says, "You could have an overarching thematic question for every single topic you cover," and she gives us an example: "Who's included? Who's not included, and why?" You could ask that for every single topic, for every single lesson, for every single historical event, and that gets at intersectionality because it's about all the complicated identities that we all embrace, so it's important at every point to connect gender and sexuality to race, ethnicity, class and other social categories.

John D'Emilio: And one way to do that is to focus on the intersectional identities of groups and individuals. There are so many important queer historical figures we've learned about in this podcast, and just bringing them into a discussion of relevant topics has the potential to introduce students to an intersectional queer history. We've heard about Jane Addams, Ma Rainey, Eleanor Roosevelt, James Baldwin, Frank Kameny, Bayard Rustin, Sylvia Rivera and Harvey Milk to name just a few, and here's Cory to explain how you can use yet another person, Lorraine Hansberry, to explore intersectionality with your students.

Cory Collins: In our best practices guide, we highlight five lessons that you can use to integrate LGBTQ people of color into your curriculum, and a good example of a lesson that you can use to help students see LGBTQ history through an intersectional lens is our lesson on Lorraine Hansberry. Lorraine Hansberry is probably most known as the author of A Raisin in the Sun, and she was the first black woman to have a play she wrote performed on Broadway. She also advocated for human rights as a journalist. She was an incredible figure who died way too young at the age of 34 due to cancer, and for students, she helps illustrate the oppressions that happen at the intersections of race, gender and sexuality. And we have a lesson on her that helps highlight how incredibly ahead of her time she was, not just as a writer, but as an activist who strongly believed in intersectionality and in raising up not just women, not just black women, but black women with queer identities, and while she didn't have those words at the time, in this lesson, you can help your students see how she was representing all of those identities in her work.

So let me walk you through what this would look like in the classroom. First you're going to ask students to read the Lorraine Hansberry biography that is supplied in the materials of this lesson, and students are going to use that information to fill out her biography and fill out a blank timeline of her life and achievements, and you're going to review all the possible answers with your students, and you're going to see a range of what maybe they deemed important as milestones in her short life. Once they complete that biography and they complete the timeline, you're going to have students look at some key terms and see if they can define them with the context in these texts. So whether it's her play, A Raisin in the Sun, or whether it's the lesbian group, Daughters of Bilitis, terms like that will be defined using those texts. Now, this is when it gets interesting. Once your students have defined key terms, you're going to have them read an article called "Lorraine Hansberry's Gay Politics." This is an article by Kai Wright, and that's also provided in the materials. It was written in 2009, but it does a great job of illustrating not just Hansberry's career highlights, but also the motivations and the beliefs that were influencing those works.

Now, while they're reading, you're going to ask your students to highlight passages where the writer discusses Hansberry's thoughts about race, gender and sexuality, and you're going to have your students ask themselves questions like, "How does the author use the term 'straight wash'?" Or, "How is that applicable to Hansberry's life and legacy?" Now, once you have students read and highlight, you're going to discuss the questions using evidence from the text, and you're going to tell students to be ready to explain why they chose the passages that they selected. Now once you've done that, you're going to pair students up and each pair is going to read these very short excerpts of commentary that Hansberry wrote to a publication called the Ladder. Now this was a lesbian publication and she wrote these way back in 1957, and you're going to have them discuss the connection Hansberry makes between sexual and gender oppression. You're going to ask students, "How does she differentiate between the two? What similarities does she acknowledge between sexual and gender oppression?"

And then you're going to ask the question... and this is when we get into that notion of how do we apply today's terms to people in the past? But we're going to ask, do they think that Hansberry was a queer person or simply an ally to the queer community? And you're going to tell students to use the text to support their answer. And the text is pretty fascinating-to read someone in 1957 talking about women's rights and gender and sexual equality in ways that sound very modern, in ways that sound very ahead of her time. And after you read that and discuss it with students, invite your students to select a quote from that text to share with the class, and have them write a brief explanation of why they selected that quote and what it reveals about Hansberry. Students might pull this quote, for example, where Hansberry writes, quote, "As per marriage, as per sexual practices, as per the rearing of children, etc. in this kind of work, there may be women to emerge who will be able to formulate a new and possible concept that homosexual persecution and condemnation has, at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma."

We can imagine that sentence being written today and still being met with backlash, still being met with confrontation; that Hansberry was writing this in 1957 is significant as one of the most celebrated black female writers in our history, and it's worth talking about with your students what it meant for her to write that at the time, even under a pseudonym, and what it says about her politics, and what it says about the ideas that she put into her writing. Now there are some extension activities you can do with this lesson as well. You can have students write a new biography for Lorraine Hansberry that maybe uses some of the context they know that isn't in the biography provided in the lesson. It's also a good opportunity to discuss the connection Hansberry saw among civil rights for African Americans, women's liberation, and gay and lesbian rights, and that opens up a lot of questions you can ask your students, like, "Should we consider Hansberry's sexual politics to be ahead of her time? Where would Hansberry's political beliefs fit in today's society? And if Hansberry were still alive, do you think she would be a controversial figure? Why or why not?"

And not only does this help students get a better understanding of Hansberry's work, but it also helps to challenge that idea of history as being a constant progression uphill. If we look at things that Hansberry was saying in 1957, and say they still apply today, we can challenge that notion that progress always moves forward. We can challenge that notion that the fights we're having now are fights we've never had before. Something else that this lesson offers is a chance to do something like a history walk, so students could conduct research about people like Hansberry, black LGBT people in our history, and they can compile a list of those figures based on what they can discover. And have students choose different individuals from the list and write one-paragraph biographies of each person. Maybe these are biographies that haven't existed in their textbooks before that they can fill that gap, and in that way, we're inviting our students to take these gaps and silences and fix it. And I think that empowers our students to not only learn something new but to think about the way history comes to them, and to think about their power in correcting that record.

Lorraine Hansberry represents just one example of a way that you can pull someone from history into your classroom to illustrate how intersectional identities impacted the way that they moved through the world. If you go to our guide online, you can find an appendix of historical LGBTQ figures throughout history, and it really runs quite the spectrum of not just time period, but also identities. And on that list you're going to find a lot of fascinating figures that you can integrate into your classroom. There are people like Edmonia Lewis. Edmonia was an Oberlin College-educated black and Native American sculptor who was born in the 1800s and became a very prominent figure of the neoclassical movement, achieved international renown, and how often do we see her in our textbooks? You can talk to your students about people like Audre Lorde, a poet, civil rights activist and feminist whose philosophy on intersectional identities was out loud and it still influences progressive ideology today. You can also talk about living figures who had a huge impact on our history that we don't often hear about in our history classes, people like Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, who was not just a Stonewall uprising participant, but has been an advocate for prison reform ever since and has been an ally for transgender people that are incarcerated.

And in all these figures in that appendix, you're going to see an opportunity to not only bring your students a history they've never heard before but to show them a through line of LGBTQ existence that goes from as far back as human history is recorded to today. And each name on the list in that appendix, much like that Wikipedia list I read once upon a time, takes you to a different person, a different place, a different time and a different context. And each name reminds us that queer people have always existed, that LGBTQ people, to use a Walt Whitman phrase, "contain multitudes," that their history is multifaceted, and it's complete with heroes and villains and people in between, because it's human history. You know, I was lucky five years ago when a search for a metaphor led instead to an open door, an open door to my past, my present and my future, an open door to understanding my history and my potential, and I never would've imagined that five years later, I'd play a part in opening that door for a new generation. And so can you. After all, this is history. This is the truth, and as Bayard Rustin once said, quote, "To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true," and I hope as this podcast comes to a close, that you feel less afraid.

I hope you feel empowered to offer your students a more complete narrative of U.S. history, and I hope you feel ready to introduce them to the beauties and wonders, and infinite possibilities of queer America. And again, I encourage all of you to go check out our guide, "Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students," for more tips and details on creating an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum and school, and you can find that guide at tolerance.org/podcasts. You're going to click on Queer America, and at the bottom of the Queer America page, you'll see a link to that guide, and in there you will find everything I've talked about and so much more, and with that, I'd like to thank our hosts, Leila Rupp and John D'Emilio. Their voices introduced us to this podcast, and they have guided us on this journey.

Leila Rupp: Thank you for listening to this podcast. As you know, it's really designed for teachers to bring queer history into the classroom, but I recently thought about ways that this could have a much broader reach. I have a friend. He's a gay man who was in the hospital. When he was released, they took him to a rehab facility, which was really boring, and so to try to entertain him, I told him about the podcast, and I brought him earbuds, and he's been listening to it, and he is so excited. He just keeps saying, "This is something that I never knew. I just love learning this history. This is just wonderful." He was having a great time, and so I realized that this is something that has really broader reach, and so I hope you'll tell your friends who might be interested in learning this history, even if they're not teachers in the classroom.

John D'Emilio: That's a really good point to make, Leila, because the truth of the matter is that it's not just that young people today are not learning this LGBTQ history, but that generations of adult Americans learned nothing about it in school and they're not learning anything about it in their daily life. So this podcast, yes, it has very practical usage for teachers in the classroom and it can be a tremendous educational device for almost anybody. I also want to add that for myself, the experience of teaching LGBTQ history over the years brought tremendous satisfaction. So often, in the teaching of history, I could tell that students had heard about this topic or that topic before and it was hard to hold on to their attention in the classroom. But when I was teaching LGBTQ topics, I knew that almost all of them had never encountered this information in any class they had ever taken. They were eagerly taking it in. They were asking questions. They wanted even more. Discussions just erupted in the classroom. And for LGBTQ students in the classroom in particular, the excitement that showed on their faces was unmistakable. I knew that I was accomplishing something in those classes.

Leila Rupp: John, that's really powerful. To borrow from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., we have a dream. We dream of a day when all students, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, fluid, queer, transgender, gender queer, agender, nonbinary or however else they identify, see mirrors as well as windows at school, when they feel supported and affirmed, when all students learn about the beautiful complexity of sexuality and gender in the past.

John D'Emilio: And you can help make that dream a reality in the classroom, at home, in daily life. Recognizing our differences can bring us all together-and build a better future. Cory Collins is the senior writer at Teaching Tolerance. He is the coauthor of "Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students" with Jey Ehrenhalt. You can find his recent article, "Teaching Stonewall's 50th Anniversary," on our website. Cory has also been an editorial advisor to this podcast.

Leila Rupp: Queer America is a podcast from Teaching Tolerance in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Press. They're the publisher of the award-winning anthology Understanding and Teaching U.S. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History. Throughout the series, we featured a different scholar talking about material from a chapter in that collection. You can purchase the book at tolerance.org/podcasts.

John D'Emilio: You'll also find additional tools, including resources we've mentioned, episode transcripts and the LGBTQ best practices guide we've been discussing to help your school create an inclusive curriculum and an open and respectful climate for dialogue among students and staff.

Leila Rupp: Teaching Tolerance is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, providing free resources to educators who work with children from kindergarten through high school. You can also find those online at tolerance.org.

John D'Emilio: Our thanks to Mr. Collins for sharing his insights with us. This podcast was produced by Shea Shackelford with production assistance from Russell Gragg. Kate Shuster is our project manager. Music in this episode is by Chris Zabriskie.

Leila Rupp: I'm Dr. Leila J. Rupp, Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

John D'Emilio: And I'm Dr. John D'Emilio, Professor Emeritus of History and of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

John D'Emilio and Leila Rupp: And we are your hosts for Queer America.

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Episode 13 On our season finale, join Learning for Justice Senior Writer Cory Collins and hosts Leila Rupp and John D'Emilio as they offer concrete tips for creating LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms and taking themes from this podcast into your daily practice.

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The recent Florida "Don't Say Gay" law blocks K-3 teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.

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Recent policies, such as Florida's HB 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, leaves teachers fearful of backlash in supporting their LGBTQ+ students & families.

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Gender? Identity? Sex? What's the Difference?

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Gender? Identity? Sex? What's the Difference?

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A common response to educating young children on LGBTQ+ issues is to "let kids be kids." In this TedEd, Lindz discusses the importance of including all kids. When considering that by age 4 children have a solid understanding of their gender identity, the inclusion of gender & sexuality concepts becomes essential to making sure all of our students are included in our curriculum.

Visit https://www.queerkidstuff.com/ to learn more about the webseries "Queer Kid Stuff" and for various resources to educate children on LGBTQ+ including book recommendations, lesson plans, & more.

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Why kids need to learn about gender and sexuality | Lindsay Amer