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Mhutchinson@collegiateschool.org

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https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/educationfamily/growing-gender-revolution-single-sex-schools-struggle-to-create-new-protocols-transgender-lgbtq-gender-high-private-school/

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This past June, on the graduation stage of a prominent local all-girls independent private school, there was yet another indisputable signal that we are in the midst of a profound, fundamental cultural correction in regard to how we collectively understand gender and identity. For the first time in the school's 134-year history, amid the gleeful throng of beaming graduates in white dresses, a young man, Will McClelland, dressed in an understated creme-colored suit, became the first openly transgender student to graduate from The Bryn Mawr School.

But it was complicated. It still is complicated. And it is the harbinger of the arrival of the single most important and defining issue confronting all-boys and all-girls private schools in generations.

Across the United States and around the globe, the leadership of single-gender independent schools are grappling with how to reconcile their missions with a new generation that demands to live and be seen for who they are, not who they are told to be. While society's long overdue recognition of the trans and non-binary community, a historically marginalized sector of the population, is a step forward in social progress, this recognition presents a unique nexus of extraordinary challenges within the isolated realms of Baltimore's many independent, single-gender schools. Here, throughout the tight-knit community of prestigious single-gender private schools-specifically, Roland Park Country School, Boy's Latin, Bryn Mawr, St. Paul's School for Boys, St. Paul's School for Girls, Oldfields, St. Timothy's, Gilman, Garrison Forest-heads of schools, administrators, and counselors are scrambling to adapt to a fundamental cultural paradigm shift unimaginable to their institutional founders. Are these schools ready for this? Their parents? Teachers? Alumni? How about their boards of directors? These are all powerful forces, and they are colliding at very high speed.

"The world is changing-with or without these schools," explains Jabari Lyles, the first full-time LGBTQ Affairs Liaison with the Baltimore City Mayor's Office. "Schools are responsible to our kids and to our society for keeping up."

The gender revolution is toppling the longstanding binary status quo with astonishing rapidity. "The transgender movement was one of the first social justice and diversity issues to come of age in the social media era," explains Julie Mencher, a renowned therapist, policy consultant, and trainer on LGBTQ issues based out of Northhampton, Massachusetts. "As a result, the pace of public awareness, trans visibility, and social change has been viral."

From corporate boardrooms to the halls of government, outdated gender binary policies and perceptions are being hastily jettisoned to accommodate change. Culturally speaking, we have already crossed the Rubicon of integrating transgender acceptance-and rejecting the traditional gender binary-into the mainstream.

Transgender role models such as Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and actress Laverne Cox are more visible than ever, and American brands have begun to recognize the new zeitgeist. A recent campaign for Gillette features a father teaching his transgender son how to shave. Airlines are proudly touting third gender options in their bookings. Leaders from the LGBTQ community are running for public office across the country, including Congress.

And while social media has certainly fuel-ed the dizzying pace of the gender revolution, this massive shift in the cultural landscape can also be attributed to a far more simple truth: the transgender community is-and always has been-everywhere. They are our parents, students, co-workers, teachers, friends, brothers, and sisters. Their voices have merely-and finally-been amplified.

Although both all-boys and all-girls schools are on a steep learning curve, Will McClelland's graduation from Bryn Mawr represents part of a larger country-wide trend highlighting how the all-girl institutions are reacting with greater alacrity and agility than their all-boy counterparts.

"It's true that girls' schools are way ahead of [boys' schools] in considering trans inclusion," says Mencher. "I see it as partly about identity and partly about practicality: Quite differently from boys' schools, the very identity of most girls' schools has historically included a social justice mission of expanding traditional notions around gender. Girls' schools have offered safe harbor for girls to pursue education, achievement, and ambition, free from the gendered-and often sexist-choreography of a coed environment."

"Our ideas of what it means to be a boy have expanded quite a bit . . . and that's a good thing."

In an email, Sue Sadler, the Head of School at Bryn Mawr, echoes that sentiment: "For 135 years, Bryn Mawr has tried to even the field for an underrepresented group: girls!" she writes. "Over time, the school has become more inclusive of race, religion, and sexual orientation, and gender is the new frontier of inclusion. As our understanding of gender expands from binary terms of 'girl' and 'boy' to a spectrum of gender expression, we have to examine what the definition of 'all-girls' is. Fortunately, we've always had a wide range of ways to be a girl."

Across the country, many prestigious sec-ondary all-girls schools, such as Los Angeles' Marlborough School and Manhattan's The Nightingale-Bamford School, The Brearley School, and The Spence School, have already taken action and issued revised, explicit policies and guidelines. Marlborough and Nightingale now have policies that will consider "any applicant who identifies as female, including those assigned male at birth."

So far, Bryn Mawr has no explicit policy. "At this time, we prefer practices to policies," writes Sadler. "We've addressed the uniform codes and campus facilities such as gender-neutral bathrooms. We continue to educate our community on transgender topics and discuss how to best serve our students with faculty, trustees, and families. Fortunately, there is a lot of latitude in how this can be implemented, and we try very hard to serve both the student and the mission."

While non-binary and trans students in all-girls spaces may benefit from their schools' emphasis on empowerment, all-boys schools are inherently different-and differently complicated. Boys who do not identify as cisgender, a term for anyone who identifies as a gender consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth, must reckon with an environment in which social pressures to uphold traditional tropes of masculinity are acutely exacerbated.

Henry Smyth, headmaster of Gilman School, an all-boys school in Roland Park, oversees more than 1,000 students from pre-K-12. He is keenly aware of the inherent challenges of leading an all-boys institution. The table in his office is strewn with a toppled mountain of summer reading-all books related to educating boys, what it means to be a boy, and how to crack longstanding myths about boyhood.

"What these discussions about genderfluidity have allowed to happen is for us to continue to figure out how the definition of what it means to be a boy can be expanded to include as many different types of boys as possible," Smyth says. "Our ideas of what it means to be a boy have expanded quite a bit over the past 50 years. And it's expanded even faster over the last 15 years. And that's a good thing."

The pressing question becomes how these
schools approach the retention of students who, in developing their own sense of self, identify as a gender that's wholly at odds with the school's single-gender mission.

"In my own thinking, I've been making a distinction between guidelines and policy," notes Smyth. "Because part of what I've heard loud and clear from other schools and organizations who've been looking into this as well is that having hard and fast policies is not the way to go. There are going to be such great variables in each person's different story and path. So, what might be more helpful is that we have guidelines that reaffirm what we believe in as a school and that provide the right sorts of questions to be asking, and what areas need addressing when making the right decision for a particular student."

Presently, the single-gender private schools in the Baltimore area we spoke to are all operating on similar informal, case-by-case bases when it comes to individual students. This allows institutions the flexibility to consider and navigate the constellation of variables involved in a new sphere they concede they are still coming to understand.

It also preserves the school's right to remove a transgender student solely on the basis that their identity has strayed beyond the confines of their school's single-gender mission.

For LGBTQ advocates, the passive "case-by-case" approach is often unfavorably compared to the notorious Clinton-era "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy for gay members of the armed forces and has been sharply criticized for placing an additional strain on young adolescents who, if struggling with their gender identity, may already be shouldering a mighty emotional burden.

"We're forcing kids to make a decision or reconcile or compromise their identity for their community-and that's terrible," says Lyles. He says the kids are given a near-impossible choice: "[They] have to either pick, 'I'm going to pick who I'm going to be' or 'I'm going to pick where I'm going to be because I feel safe.'" He adds that the case-by-case approach can work, but only if the goal is manifestly "to do what's in the best interest of the student."

Adding another layer of complication, it is not uncommon for transgender students to wish to remain in their single-gender schools-even if the school is not the "right" place for them anymore. Over time they have created a safe space for themselves in these schools. Some, like Will McClelland, have not been affirmed by their own families, and so the ties they have forged within their school community-a critical support network of trusted classmates, allies, counselors, and teachers-often provides one of their only safe havens. "I always felt a lot more comfortable at Bryn Mawr than I did at home," says McClelland.

Although his experience was oftentimes difficult, when asked how he would feel if he'd been asked to leave Bryn Mawr, McClelland, in a matter-of-fact manner, replies, "I would've been devastated. My whole life was there."

"I would feel hurt to be torn away from my friends . . . because of something I did not choose."

Echoing that sentiment is Steve Chan*, a transgender boy currently enrolled in a prominent local private girls' school. "I feel it is not the school's place to make those decisions for students," he says. "If a student is having personal issues because of their gender identification in a school, there should be every opportunity for them to change schools, but it should always be the student's decision. Being transgender already made me personally feel as though my entire world shifted around without my consent, and one of the things that has helped me get through this has been the existing relationships I had with friends and teachers from my school; taking that away from students without their choice would be harmful and unnecessary."

Chan has attended his school since kindergarten and is now entering his senior year. "I would feel hurt to be torn away from my friends and existing relationships because of something I cannot change and did not choose," he says.

Others contend that while reserving the right to remove transgender students from a school might preserve the purity of its single-sex mission-and mollify powerful old-guard stakeholders-it also risks reinforcing the long history of marginalization suffered by non-cisgender students within their school communities.

"The mission of single-sex schools is grounded in the gender binary," Mencher says, "so it does require some thoughtful study and policy consideration for a school to be able to acknowledge that gender is a spectrum, that anatomical sex does not determine gender identity, that gender identity can be fluid, and that gender identity is self-affirmed, not assigned by others. These schools have stepped up quickly, but they understandably have further to go."

No matter what schools do, what remains indisputable is that, "[Along] with providing the best environment for learning . . . the primary and most fundamental responsibility of the schools, even above mission, is providing for the safety and well-being of their students," says Lyles. "And when talking about the transgender community, safety and well-being is a very serious concern."

Of the more than 6,400 transgender and gender non-conforming people who responded to a joint study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA School of Law, 41 percent said they attempted suicide at some point in their lifetime-an alarming rate, especially in comparison to the rate of the general public, which is 4.6 percent.

Those who identify as transgender are also at significantly higher risk of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and other mental health concerns than their non-trans peers. The data connecting these disturbingly disproportionate rates of self-harm, addiction, and mental health issues in the transgender community can be directly linked to the stigma and discrimination still suffered by many-bullying, harassment, family rejection, and outright violence. Schools have a moral and professional obligation to create and continually foster safe spaces for all their students, including those who identify as gender non-conforming.

The critical importance of how we treat these children is further underscored in a recent policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that stridently urges the support and caretaking of transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents. The AAP "encourages families, schools, and communities to value every child for who they are in the present, even at a young age," while assuring them that "transgender identities and diverse gender expressions are normal aspects of human diversity," reads the statement.

"I've seen over and over how trans kids who lack family support can find a lifeline with a trusted teacher or school administrator. That can make all the difference," says Mencher. "But if the topic of gender diversity is never discussed at schools, gender-questioning and trans students are likely to stay silent rather than reach out for help. I worry much more about the trans students we don't know about than the [ones] we do."

To that end, "Schools must take the lead in educating their entire communities-not just faculty and students, but parents as well," says Mencher. "Because, although few in numbers, these children are everywhere."

Smyth acknowledges the truth in this sentiment. "There's more ground to be broken, and more understanding to be had and reached," he says.

To remain inclusive and relevant, every aspect of a school-from facilities, to dress codes, to athletics, to the words they use-will have to be reassessed in an entirely new context. New campus cultures will emerge. Every school will have its own journey along the path of how they come to embrace and affirm LGBTQ students. They will have to harken back to the ruptures of the civil rights era to find a corollary paradigm shift of such immense proportions.

As for Will McClelland-after posting an A- average, joining the ice hockey team, serving as Arts Council President, leading the campus Gay-Straight Alliance, living and speaking his advocacy for the LGBTQ community on campus, and even making some history-he's looking forward, with youthful anticipation, to his freshman year at the University of Michigan, where he will be able to live his true identity completely and openly and have the freedom to be just "be myself."

*This student's real name and school have been withheld to protect privacy.

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This past June, on the graduation stage of a prominent local all-girls independent private school, there was yet another indisputable signal that we are in the midst of a profound, fundamental cultural correction in regard to how we collectively understand gender and identity.

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What is the Role of an all-boys school in 2019

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What is the Role of an all-boys school in 2019

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https://time.com/5687978/all-boys-schools-me-too-movement/

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When the all-boys Regis High School in Manhattan devoted a day this spring to discussing challenges facing women today - sexual harassment, discrimination in the military, the gender pay gap, for instance - it was a first for the school, an example of an all-male institution confronting the issues raised by the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements

It also reinforced to Alice Foppiani, a senior at the all-girls Marymount School of New York, just how far they had to go. "It felt like they were learning very basic information that they should have learned a while ago," says Foppiani, 17, who participated in a panel at Regis that day with fellow Marymount students.

She and her classmates had been immersed in lessons on sexual harassment and assault prevention for years, taking required self-defense classes, heeding warnings to be vigilant about who might be following them on public transportation and considering rates of campus sexual assault as they embarked on college searches.

This wasn't the first time the girls of Marymount had been struck by the gap between their own worldviews and experiences and those of their male peers. Earlier that school year, a meeting between Marymount students and a fledgling feminist club at Regis, HeForShe, had crystalized some differences as students discussed the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her while he was a student at the elite all-boys Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Md. (Kavanaugh denies the allegation.)

"It was just such a big thing for us," says Matias Benitez, 18, a Regis senior who co-founded the school's HeForShe club. "We were saying, we can't let this happen again ... It's another all-boys school. It's another prep school. It's also Catholic, but we don't want this to be the same."

While Marymount students recalled the boys seeming genuinely supportive during the meeting, they also noticed the way their perspectives differed at times. According to Marymount senior Kristin O'Donoghue, 18, one boy said he believed someone's "job shouldn't be threatened because of something they did in high school." Benitez says he and most students did not share that view.

The dynamic illustrates a major challenge for all-boys schools as they're forced to consider their role in 2019. While they are hardly the only institutions confronting such issues, boys' schools are already entirely focused on educating boys and known for graduating students who often rise to positions of power, so their leaders see both an opportunity and a responsibility to do more.

A recent survey by the International Boys' Schools Coalition found that boys' school leaders think the most important challenge facing their schools today is "healthy concepts of masculinity and relationships." Asked about the challenges boys' schools will face over the next five years, a plurality of respondents said "gender issues."

"I would be less than honest to say it has not added a new complexity, a new challenge," says Regis High School principal Rev. Anthony Andreassi, referring to the discussions of toxic masculinity and gender equality playing out across the country. "It's important that we address this."

In a January speech to parents, Jason Robinson, the headmaster of St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., identified this as an "existential moment" for boys' schools.

I would be less than honest to say it has not added a new complexity, a new challenge.

"I'm very mindful of the fact, as a boys' school leader, that as we seek to convince families in the future to send their sons to us, they will rightfully ask me the question, 'Why should I send my son to a boys' school rather than a co-ed school? Please assure me that a boys' school will not be an incubator of male privilege and entitlement and misogyny,'" Robinson says. "And I think we've got to have really thoughtful, well-developed answers to those questions."

There were about 780 private all-boys schools in the U.S. during the 2017-18 school year, according to the most recent numbers available from the Department of Education, and about 650 private all-girls schools. Many boys' schools trace their roots to religious orders that sought to recruit and train young men, says Kirstin Pesola McEachern, a former boys' school teacher who wrote her 2014 dissertation on gender issues at an all-boys Catholic school in the Northeast. That raises a question, she wrote, about "why single-sex education makes sense in today's world."

Research has shown that all-boys schools can be more sexist environments than all-girls schools or co-ed schools, and that students at boys' schools display more traditional forms of masculinity and tend to show more respect to male than female teachers. "What we know in practice is that when you segregate people, they tend to develop stereotypical views of their own group and the excluded group," says Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of The Separation Solution?: Single-Sex Education and the New Politics of Gender Equality. But proponents of single-sex schools say they bring out the best in their students, encouraging boys to be vulnerable and to build deeper relationships, while empowering girls to speak up in class and step into leadership roles that might be dominated by boys in a co-ed school.

Benitez, the Regis senior, says some of his classmates seem more willing to start talking about feminism and gender issues in the comfort of an all-male space.

"There's a communal sense that we don't talk about this as much as a girls' school would, or a co-ed school even," he says, adding that boys and men, "as the people who benefit from [patriarchy], are the ones who really do need to hear about feminism and hear of an experience outside their own."

But too often, critics say, advice for boys still leans toward treating women as objects in need of protection rather than equals deserving of respect. On the day devoted to women's issues at Regis, a speaker who was lecturing about the legal definition of rape and consent, using examples of sexual assault at high school and college parties, encouraged the boys to remember, "That is somebody's sister, that's somebody's closest friend, that's somebody's cousin, that's somebody's cherished daughter." To the Marymount students, who thought the day's conversations were a good start, it was still an example of how not to teach gender equality.

"We felt that she should have just said, 'Think of her as a person that you wouldn't defile and treat like this,'" says O'Donoghue.

While some single-sex schools are public, scrutiny of boys' schools tends to focus on those that are private and cater largely to students from wealthy families, with common critiques being that they enable male privilege and a "boys will be boys" mentality. (Regis is a private school, but it is tuition-free thanks to an endowment and alumni donations.)

Adam Howard, an education professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, who studies elite schooling and affluent youth, says even as boys' schools engage in more conversations about privilege, sexism and social justice - often in more progressive parts of the country where the demand for that kind of school culture is greater - they have not fundamentally changed. "The core function of elite schools is to make and remake elites," he says.

In August 2018, for the first time in history, the American Psychological Association (APA) put out a set of guidelines for treating men and boys, writing that "traditional masculinity ideology" - often characterized by "anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence" - can be harmful to boys and men.

While the process of writing the guidelines began 14 years ago - similar guidelines have been introduced for girls and women, and LGBTQ people in the past - they were released into a world fraught with debate about changing gender roles, and the backlash was swift. Psychoanalyst Erica Komisar said the guidelines ignore biology and "demonize masculinity." On Fox News, American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers accused the APA of "treating masculinity as a pathology in need of a cure." And researchers who worked on the guidelines were inundated with hate mail.

"We can kind of argue about terms," says Matt Englar-Carlson, one of the authors of the guidelines and a co-director of the Center for Boys and Men at California State University, Fullerton. "But the reality is that men and boys in American society are not doing that well."

Though the suicide rate is on the rise for all Americans, it's higher for men than women. Boys are more likely than girls to drop out of high school, and women outpace men in earning advanced degrees. And while the percentage of men participating in the workforce has declined significantly since the 1960s, due in part to technological advancements and declining demand for middle-skill workers, the opposite has been true for women. The female labor force participation has also rebounded more strongly since the recession. In addition, research has shown that stereotypical expectations of masculinity, including that boys hide their emotions or exhibit dominance, can make them less likely to seek help.

Experts also say it's hard to combat bullying and toxic masculinity when the President of the United States boasts about grabbing women "by the pussy" or responds to a protester by saying he'd "like to punch him in the face." When the accusations against Kavanaugh surfaced last year, Trump warned that "it's a very scary time for young men in America."

An institution that may look, on the surface, to be rather traditional may be ideally positioned to meet the great progressive questions and the great sort of progressive vision for the future we want for both our sons and daughters.

"The way [Trump] speaks and bullies and denigrates people, like you'd expect 9- and 10-year-olds to do," says Thomas Keith, an adjunct professor of philosophy and gender studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who directed the documentary The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men, "as long as there are people that think that's a positive trait, it's going to be difficult to really see a more widespread reversal of what we're calling bro culture."

These are challenges that exist in co-ed schools as well, but ideally, says Robinson, the headmaster of St. Albans, boys' schools provide an affirming environment for boys to "interrogate unhealthy notions of masculinity" and discuss anxieties and frustrations without feeling self-conscious. "Counterintuitively, an institution that may look, on the surface, to be rather traditional may be ideally positioned to meet the great progressive questions and the great sort of progressive vision for the future we want for both our sons and daughters," he says.

That's why Michael Reichert, a psychologist who leads the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, developed a program 25 years ago at the all-boys Haverford School outside Philadelphia to help boys learn to express their emotions. Now for an hour and a half every other week, about 50 boys gather to share pizza and their feelings. They dissect their emotions on topics ranging from sex and porn to their relationships with parents, girls and each other. Reichert says it's not uncommon for boys to cry, and they often shake his hand and thank him when they leave.

Pearse Glavin, 18, is a regular. Each session, he says, leaves him with "a tangible feeling in my stomach that an emotional burden has been released."

"I think that it's important for schools to have this, boys' schools especially, because the problems that are going on in the world - especially in our country with consent and harassment -are really rooted in the stereotype that men should bottle up their feelings," Glavin says.

In one study, Reichert found that boys who spent more time in the program developed deeper friendships and greater self-awareness than those who did not. While boys said they were "constrained by the school's restrictive norms for masculinity," according to Reichert's study, they saw peer counseling as "an oasis of opportunity amidst a threatening and even punishing social world."

Since 2014, the school has also offered a human relationships seminar that covers race and implicit bias, sex and consent, healthy relationships, feminism and manhood. "Schools are becoming these spaces that are really thinking about emotional intelligence and giving kids not just a rulebook, but a play space to practice how to navigate this," says Brendon Jobs, the school's director of diversity and inclusion, who teaches the seminar. "We don't have the answers for exactly how to do it, but we can set up scenarios and offer a reflective space to do the work."

But many students and alumni of boys' schools, and their girls' school peers, are pushing for more lasting change.

In early 2018, Kelsey Caine posted an open letter on Facebook to a boy she said had assaulted her in 2010, when she was a senior at St. Agnes Academy in Houston, an all-girls school, and he was attending the all-boys Strake Jesuit College Preparatory next door. In the post, Caine said she had been drinking at a friend's house, fallen asleep and woken up to find the Strake Jesuit student kissing her and groping her breasts. When others in the house heard her yelling and rushed into the room, the boy denied Caine's allegations, and everyone believed him. "All boys schools have an opportunity and responsibility to educate hundreds of thousands of young men about sexual assault," Caine wrote in her Facebook post.

To Caine's surprise, her attacker contacted her and apologized, acknowledging what he had done years before. "When you appropriately called what I did to you sexual assault, it hit me like a sack of bricks," he told her. In April 2018, the two met with administrators at Strake Jesuit to advocate for incorporating sexual assault prevention into the curriculum. They delivered a petition signed by nearly 3,000 people, along with letters from recent alumni who supported it, and a 28-page outline Caine had written as a guide for a potential curriculum.

"Please give freshmen, sophomores and juniors and seniors this information. I'm telling you that that is something you have an obligation to do," her attacker told administrators, according to an audio recording of the meeting shared with TIME.

Administrators pointed to programs already in place at the school and said they were considering new measures. "I think we all are very aware that it is an issue, and it is something that we don't want to sweep under the rug," a Strake Jesuit counselor said during the meeting.

"I never said we couldn't do more," an assistant principal said. "That's what we talk about all the time - how we can do this better."

Caine, now 28, says she hasn't heard from Strake Jesuit leaders since then about the curriculum she proposed or about changes they are making to sexual assault education at the school.

But a school spokesperson told TIME that it launched "Coaching Boys Into Men" for athletes, "a mentorship program that helps students process their relationships with a healthy vision of their own masculinity" in the summer of 2018 and is incorporating a healthy-relationships program into its counseling curriculum for the first time this school year. It will cover "contemporary issues in gender relations, sexual violence, and relationship safety, including what the Church calls 'sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women.'"

Robinson took the job at St. Albans in July 2018, three years after the school had drawn criticism for a 2015 yearbook that contained sexist and misogynistic language, echoing problems with Georgetown Prep's yearbook from 1983. (Georgetown Prep declined to comment for this story, referring TIME to a letter from President Rev. James Van Dyke last September, in which he said it was "tough to see the caricature that we have been painted with by some" and that the school would "continue to evaluate our school culture.") In a separate incident, students at the all-girls National Cathedral School created a Google Doc in 2014 that turned into a catalogue "of unwanted sexual advances at parties, of inappropriate sexual comments" and drew "inappropriate" responses from St. Albans boys on social media, according to letters both schools sent to parents at the time.

Robinson called the yearbook and Google Doc controversies "really, really unfortunate episodes," and said they fueled his decision to speak to students, families and alumni about issues of privilege and sexism. "That means acknowledging - in a very open, transparent way - moments in our past where we have not lived up to our mission and our moral commitments," he says.

Last fall, during the Kavanaugh hearings, a few St. Albans seniors wrote a column calling on their peers to address the problematic ways they had treated girls in the past. "Our time at St. Albans will put us in positions of power, big and small, throughout our lives," they wrote. "And if in the future or in the present, we do not use that power for good, St. Albans will not have succeeded as an institution." Working with girls from the National Cathedral School, they started a group on consent and respectful relationships that met throughout the school year. Days before they graduated, they urged Robinson to create more co-ed programs so St. Albans students could develop better relationships with their female peers - something Robinson says he is now working on.

I want people who meet our students to say, 'That is not at all what I would have expected of a boys' school graduate.'

St. Albans is one of five schools - and the only all-boys school - that took part in a pilot program about consent and sexual relationships run by the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia this spring. The school also participated in a survey on "responsible sexual citizenship" at boys' schools, conducted by a researcher at McGill University in partnership with the International Boys' Schools Coalition, and plans to adapt its sex ed curriculum accordingly when the results are released next year.

"I've often said to our boys this year that I want St. Albans to be a stereotype-confounding school," Robinson says. "I want people who meet our students to say, 'That is not at all what I would have expected of a boys' school graduate.'"

In a debrief at Regis at the end of the day addressing women's issues this spring, a group of students gathered in a classroom to reflect on what they had learned. One boy commented on how it was a rare opportunity to hear from "the other side." ("The other side?" his teacher, a woman, joked. "Of the war?")

Another suggested that he and fellow upperclassmen try to set a better example for freshmen by calling out sexist language they overhear or trying to change bad behavior at school dances. One student suggested Regis go co-ed.

It was the beginning of a conversation that school leaders hope will continue throughout the year. Next spring, Regis will devote a day to the theme of examining masculinity, holding events and inviting speakers to talk about the topic leading up to that day.

The HeForShe student leaders say their discussions in the coming year will cover toxic masculinity and the effects of the #MeToo movement. They kicked off the club's meetings last month by discussing sexism in politics and the way female candidates are often dismissed as "shrill."

"There's still so much more to do," Benitez says. "It's going to be an effort that continues until - forever, really."

Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com.

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What Is the Role of an All-Boys School in 2019?

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All-boys schools are considering their role in 2019 amid conversations about the #MeToo movement, toxic masculinity and gender equality

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Independent schools, like their public school counterparts, are considering how to best serve an increasingly diverse student population. For schools serving transgender and genderexpansive students, the question of how to best meet students' basic needs has proven to be a complex inquiry, one that traverses wide-ranging social, emotional, legal, religious, privacy, and ethical positions.

As mission-driven institutions, independent schools have a head start in setting the tone for dialogue and discernment about the issues and concerns that can arise when they attempt to meet the needs of transgender or transitioning students. Independent school leaders know that being proactive about matters related to diversity and inclusion yields the most effective outcomes, and this applies to the complexities of gender as well.

While the binary male/female gender paradigm is no longer sufficient for understanding gender identity and gender expression, this perspective is new to many people. School leaders can reduce misunderstanding and conflict by raising awareness and educating constituencies about gender diversity, including transgender status.

Anticipating challenges, listening to concerns from all quarters, and providing concrete responses to questions will allow administrators and other school leaders to successfully navigate most situations this topic reveals.

On this page, you will find many resources for supporting transgender students in independent schools.

Supporting Transgender Students

Resource Articles

Transgender Students and School Bathrooms
NAIS has released the following "FAQs" resource about transgender and gender-expansive students using bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. This guide, developed in partnership with Gender Spectrum, is designed to help you frame the discussion of bathroom and other facilities use so you can enter the conversation with confidence.
NAIS Webinar Recordings

Video: Supporting Transgender Students

Independent Ideas Blog

Independent School Magazine

More Sources

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Supporting Transgender Students in Independent Schools

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Independent schools, like their public school counterparts, are considering how to best serve an increasingly diverse student population. For schools serving transgender and genderexpansive students, the question of how to best meet students' basic needs has proven to be a complex inquiry, one that traverses wide-ranging social, emotional, legal, religious, privacy, and ethical positions.

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https://ibsc.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/IBSC_Transgender_Position_Statement_2018.pdf

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A Toolkit for Becoming a Transgender Ally | Eli Green | TEDxYouth@SanDiego

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The quiet revolution behind the word ‘transgender’

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Supporting Transgender Students in Single Sex Schools

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Supporting Transgender Students in Single Sex Schools

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https://ibsc.memberclicks.net/webinar-supporting-gender-fluidity

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Online Appendix for Book by SJ Miller. Some wonderful resources. 

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Online Appendix for Book by SJ Miller. Some wonderful resources. 

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https://www.tcpress.com/filebin/PDFs/9780807761250_app.pdf

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https://www.amazon.com/Gender-Creative-Child-Nurturing-Supporting-ebook/dp/B01EBC4KOO/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2PMZPS1VY0KDM&keywords=Gender+children&qid=1644072427&sprefix=gender+children%2Caps%2C52&sr=8-3

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From a leading US authority on a subject more timely than ever-an up-to-date, all-in-one resource on gender-nonconforming children and adolescents

In her groundbreaking first book, Gender Born, Gender Made, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft coined the term gender creative to describe children whose unique gender expression or sense of identity is not defined by a checkbox on their birth certificate. Now, with The Gender Creative Child, she returns to guide parents and professionals through the rapidly changing cultural, medical, and legal landscape of gender and identity.

In this up-to-date, comprehensive resource, Dr. Ehrensaft explains the interconnected effects of biology, nurture, and culture to explore why gender can be fluid, rather than binary. As an advocate for the gender affirmative model and with the expertise she has gained over three decades of pioneering work with children and families, she encourages caregivers to listen to each child, learn their particular needs, and support their quest for a true gender self.

The Gender Creative Child unlocks the door to a gender-expansive world, revealing pathways for positive change in our schools, our communities, and the world.

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The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes

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The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes - Kindle edition by Ehrensaft, Diane, Spack, Norman. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes.

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https://www.naesp.org/sites/default/files/Westheimer_JF17.pdf

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Gender Inclusive Schools- policy, law and practice

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Gender Inclusive Schools- policy, law and practice

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https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/diversity-and-social-justice/lgbtq-youth/gender-inclusive-schools-faqs/gender-inclusive-schools-policy-law-and-practice

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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What do you mean when you talk about gender inclusive schools?

In a gender inclusive school, diverse representations of gender are reflected in structural and interpersonal aspects of the running of a school, including policies, curriculum, facilities, and forms. A gender inclusive school also makes the diversity of gender visible in books, hallway displays, and everyday conversation.

While the topic of gender is often raised in the context of students who are transgender or gender-expansive, cisgender students also benefit from inclusive policies and practices. In a gender inclusive school, all students are more likely to successfully engage in their talents and passions.

Implementing systemic change takes time, but there are some actions you can take immediately. For more information, see Gender Spectrum's Framework for Gender Inclusive Schools and Welcoming Schools' Affirming Gender in Elementary School.
What is the school climate like for transgender and gender-expansive students?
Research in this area consistently shows that transgender and gender-expansive students are at increased risk for harassment by peers and adults. According to a report by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN):

Almost all transgender students had been verbally harassed (e.g., called names or threatened) in the past year at school because of their gender expression (87%).

More than half of all transgender students had been physically harassed (e.g., pushed or shoved) in school in the past year because of their gender expression (53%).

More than one fourth of transgender students had been physically assaulted (e.g., punched, kicked, or injured with a weapon) in school in the past year because of their gender expression (26%).

A third of transgender students heard school staff make homophobic (32%) remarks, sexist (39%) remarks, and negative comments about someone's gender expression (39%) in the past year (Greytak, Kosciw, & Diaz, 2009).

This report also indicates that a hostile school climate impacts a student's ability to thrive in school and beyond:

Transgender students experiencing high levels of harassment were approximately twice as likely as other transgender students to miss school for safety reasons.

Transgender students who experienced high levels of harassment had significantly lower grade point averages than those who experienced lower levels of harassment (Greytak et al., 2009).

Peer victimization related to gender identity or expression is also associated with disruptions in educational trajectories, traumatic stress, and alcohol and substance use (Collier 2013). Even without exposure to overt rejection, discrimination, or violence, individuals who do not see people like themselves represented in their community or society may develop a sense of not belonging, leading to long-term negative effects (Hendricks & Testa, 2012).

When schools implement policies and procedures to diminish harassment based on gender identity and expression, students report greater connections to school personnel, which were associated with greater feelings of safety (McGuire, Anderson, Toomey, & Russell, 2010). This finding mirrors research on lesbian, gay, and bisexual students that found that those living in states and cities with more protective school climates reported fewer past-year suicidal thoughts than those living in states and cities with less protective climates (Hatzenbuehler, Birkett, Van Wagenen, & Meyer, 2014).
What federal laws or policies protect transgender and gender-expansive students?

Title IX: Requires all schools that receive public funding to proactively enact policies and procedures that prevent discrimination based on gender. In December 2014, The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) provided guidance indicating that Title IX includes protections for gender-expansive youth and can be applied retroactively. Additionally, in May 2016, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released the Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students and Examples of Policies and Emerging Practices for Supporting Transgender Students.

The Equal Access Act: Prohibits discrimination against students who want to participate in and form extracurricular clubs.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects personal information about students in school records-including sexual orientation and gender identity-and in most circumstances prohibits release of this information without consent.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of students to free speech and freedom of expression, including expression of one's gender identity.

14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that no state will "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." School must take equal efforts to thwart reports of bullying of transgender, gender-expansive, and cisgender students.

Several policy and legal briefs from federal agencies have confirmed the rights of transgender and gender-expansive students under the laws. They include a Q&A on Title IX and Sexual Violence from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights and a brief filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in a lawsuit lodged by a transgender student who was denied access to restrooms congruent with his gender identity. And in late 2015, the Office for Civil Rights formed a resolution agreement after finding an Illinois school district in violation of civil rights laws for discriminating against a transgender high school student by denying her access to the girls' locker rooms.
For more information, see the National Center for Transgender Equality's FAQ and a list of states that have protections for transgender and gender-expansive students.
What are best practices around policies related to bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes/uniforms?
All students should be afforded the right to use facilities and participate in school functions in a manner congruent with their gender identity. This principle is not only good practice; federal laws and policies support it. According to a brief filed by the Department of Justice: " Prohibiting a student from accessing the restrooms that match his gender identity is prohibited sex discrimination under Title IX. There is a public interest in ensuring that all students, including transgender students, have the opportunity to learn in an environment free of sex discrimination" (G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, 2015).

Respect for students' identities and potential need for privacy are not mutually exclusive. There are many reasons that students may feel uncomfortable using communal locker rooms or bathrooms and providing an option to use a private space such as a single stall bathroom is always a good idea for any student who might seek additional privacy. For a sample of statewide policies that are applicable to districts and schools, see this guidance document from Massachusetts. A sample comprehensive model district policy can be found here.
What pronouns should I use with a transgender student?
It is best to use the pronouns that the student prefers, so asking the student what their preferred gender pronouns (PGPs) are is the best place to start. Many schools and some states now have policies regarding use of pronouns that correspond to students' gender identity. Washington's State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction addresses this in its transgender student procedure policy:

A student is not required to change their official records or obtain a court-ordered name and/or gender change as a prerequisite to being addressed by the name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity. When communicating with transgender or gender nonconforming students regarding particular issues such as conduct, discipline, grades, attendance or health, school employees will focus on the conduct or particular issues rather than making assumptions regarding the student's actual or perceived gender identity . . .The district will not condone the intentional and persistent refusal to respect a student's gender identity, or inappropriate release of information regarding a student's transgender status.

Some students who do not identify as male or female, may ask to be referred to with pronouns such as ze and they. While this new language and usage may initially be difficult to incorporate, with practice they will become more natural in their use. For more on usage, see this chart from Transgender Student Educational Resources (TSER).
What should our policy be about changing gender markers on school records?
This is an area that can be complicated by disagreements among students and their parents/guardians. Working collaboratively toward an agreed upon action is always preferable, even if it might delay the process.
Whether or not a student has openly transitioned at school, changing gender markers is critical to maintaining privacy for the student and to insure that their gender identity is respected. A simple error, such as a substitute teacher inadvertently reading an incorrect name on an attendance sheet has the potential to disclose a student's identity to their peers or to trigger negative feelings that can be associated with being referred to as the wrong gender.

The comprehensive report Schools in Transition: A guide for supporting transgender students in K-12 schools provides strategies to maintain school's record keeping and reporting requirements and safeguard students' privacy. Successful solutions generally include changing the configuration of database systems and mechanisms for sharing information.

A legal guide by Lambda Legal describes how the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act can be used to protect the privacy of student educational records. Under this law, students (or parents or guardians if a student is under 18) have the right to request that schools change names and gender markers on records.
How do I advocate to school professionals and colleagues about instituting gender inclusive practices?
Approach this topic as you would any other new initiative that you would want to introduce to your school community. Some key steps include:

Formally or informally assess the current school climate.

Assess how creating a gender inclusive school aligns with current school initiatives, including school climate, social and emotional learning, equity, and academic achievement.

Work with allies, including colleagues and parents who are committed to inclusive schools.

Engage school administrators to bring professional development and other strategies to lay the groundwork for inclusive schools.

Some resources that may help you include:
A Gender Inclusive School Assessment Tool: A checklist that can be used by individuals or teams to assess progress and next steps toward being gender inclusive.
Gender Inclusive Action Planning: A comprehensive planning tool to move schools toward gender inclusive schools.
Promoting Resiliency for Gender Diverse and Sexual Minority Children in Schools: A series of 5 pamphlets.

What types of and how do we measure outcomes for staff training to determine effectiveness of training?
There are many ways to determine the effect of training, both directly and indirectly. Pre- and posttraining scales and knowledge assessments may be given to students, faculty/staff, and parents. Additionally, school climate surveys which are used for positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) can help to assess changes in school climate. You can also use Gender Spectrum's assessment tool to measure progress before and after training.

Monitoring school office discipline referrals and other more direct monitoring procedures may also be helpful.
How can I help address concerns from parents/guardians related to transgender inclusive policies?
Some guiding principles include:

Respectfully meet parents/caregivers where they are and encourage conversation and dialogue.

Frame responses in relation to the well-being of all students.

Connect policies and procedures to the school's core mission, as well as applicable state and federal law.

Maintain confidentiality for transgender students.

Here are a few sample responses if a parent asks, "Why is the school making such a big deal about transgender kids? Do we have a problem with that here?"

Our school is committed to offering a safe and welcoming environment for all students. As such, we are prepared for transgender students. Are there specific questions you or your child have about gender that I can help clarify for you?

Gender-based discrimination is illegal under Title IX. The law recognizes that we need specific laws and policies to protect transgender students, because transgender students are subjected to discrimination and bullying based on gender identity.

For more sample responses see Responding to Concerns: Supporting Transgender Students.
How can I address concerns from school administrators and colleagues related to steps needed to create gender inclusive schools?
Training and educating all school professionals is an essential, proactive step to making schools accepting and inclusive; see Promoting Resiliency for Gender Diverse and Sexual Minority Children in Schools Pamphlets. The same guiding principles for responding to parents (see above) apply to responding to colleagues and administrators. In addition, you may want to directly connect the need for gender inclusive schools with concepts that generally resonate with administrators and educators, such as the links between academic achievement and safe and welcoming school climates. Conversations that explore ways in which all adults and students are affected by gender can also be helpful.
Note that some may fear having a lack of knowledge and language to talk with students about gender. To learn more about how to have those kinds of conversations, see Responding to Concerns: Teaching About Gender.
Bringing needs assessment results from your school into the conversation may also help open the door. Savage and Lagerstrom (2016) developed a readiness assessment which can be used to determine a school or district's current strengths and needs for a gender inclusive school climate. This gender inclusive assessment tool may also be helpful.
Also, consider connecting administrators with colleagues and professional organizations that have been leaders in supporting transgender and gender-expansive students. Resources targeted toward administrators include a feature article in the publication District Administrator and guidance from statewide and national professional organizations, such as this one from the Michigan School Boards Association.

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Gender Inclusive Schools: Policy, Law, and Practice

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What do you mean when you talk about gender inclusive schools? In a gender inclusive school, diverse representations of gender are reflected in structural and interpersonal aspects of the running of a school, including policies, curriculum, facilities, and forms. A gender inclusive school also makes the diversity of gender visible in books, hallway displays, and everyday conversation.

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https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/school-environment/guidelines-on-gender/guidelines-to-support-transgender-and-gender-expansive-students

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Guidelines to Support Transgender and Gender Expansive Students

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These guidelines set forth protocol and describe best practices for supporting transgender and gender expansive students. These guidelines apply to New York City Department of Education (DOE) school-based and central staff.

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https://www.glsen.org/activity/inclusive-curriculum-guide

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BEST PRACTICE: Inclusive and Affirming Curriculum for All Students

One way that educators can promote safer school environments is by developing lessons that avoid bias and that include positive representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, history, and events. For LGBTQ students, attending a school with an inclusive curriculum is related to less-hostile school experiences and increased feelings of connectedness to the school community. Inclusive curriculum benefits all students by promoting diversity and teaching them about the myriad of identities in their communities.

THEORY: Curriculum as Window and Mirror

Curriculum can serve as a mirror when it reflects individuals and their experiences back to themselves. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books. At the same time curriculum can serve as a window when it introduces and provides the opportunity to understand the experiences and perspectives of those who possess different identities. These windows can offer views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. Applied to LGBTQ-inclusive curricular content, these mirrors and windows can help create a more positive environment and healthy self-concept for LGBTQ students while also raising the awareness of all students. Inclusive curriculum supports students' abilities to empathize, connect, and collaborate with a diverse group of peers, skills that are of increasing importance in our multicultural, global society.

CONSIDERATION: Ensuring Coherent Curriculum

At times, educators' efforts to be inclusive and supportive can lead to curricular "fragmentation," or "isolation." This occurs when topics are taught without context and/or are positioned in such a way that they fail to connect to the big ideas of the topic being studied, such as when LGBTQ themes are only introduced during LGBTQ History Month (October) or LGBTQ Pride Month (June). Additional fragmentation occurs when educators include only lesbians or gay men to the exclusion of bisexual and transgender people, or when lessons fail to represent ethnic, racial and other forms of diversity that exist among LGBTQ individuals.

CLASSROOM AND SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT: Responding to Anti-LGBTQ Language and Behavior

LGBTQ-Inclusive lessons and discussions are best introduced in a supportive school environment. Introducing school-wide days of action and visibility, such as GLSEN's Ally Week (September), No Name-Calling Week (January), and the Day of Silence (April) are great ways to shift school culture to be more affirming of LGBTQ people. Additionally, ensuring that you, as educators, can also create a safer classroom environment by interrupting anti-LGBTQ remarks or comments is critical to the success of teaching LGBTQ-inclusive lessons and discussions.

Follow these steps when you witness anti-LGBTQ name-calling, bullying or harassment.

Address Name-Calling, Bullying or Harassment Immediately. Concentrate on stopping the behavior in that moment. Sometimes it's a simple response to hearing a derogatory term like, "That language is unacceptable in this classroom." Remember: no action is an action.

Name the Behavior. Describe what you saw and label the behavior. "That word is derogatory and is considered name-calling. That language is unacceptable."

Use the Teachable Moment (or Create One). Make sure to educate after stopping the behavior. Decide if you are going to educate in the moment or later, and if it will be publicly or privately. If you decide to educate later you will need to create the teachable moment. You can then take this opportunity to teach one class, the entire grade or the whole school about language and behaviors that are acceptable and those that are not.

Support the Targeted Student. Support the student who has been the target of the name-calling, bullying or harassment. Do not make assumptions about what the student is experiencing. Ask the student what they need or want. You will have to decide whether to do this in the moment or later, and if it will be publicly or privately.

Hold Students Accountable. Check school policy and impose appropriate consequences. Make sure disciplinary actions are evenly applied across all types of name-calling, bullying and harassment.

For more information and support refer to GLSEN's Safe Space Kit at www.glsen.org/safespace.

ADVOCACY: Addressing Questions and Pushback

When introducing LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, it is best to do so as a school, led by the administrators and school leaders. We recommend this decision be communicated through LGBTQ-specific professional development for educators, and to families at the start of the year on curriculum or Back to School night. Frontloading with the schools' responsibility to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for all students along with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, can be a strong start to the school year and a time to address any misconceptions or apprehensions about this inclusion. If your state, city, or district has a policy mandating inclusive curriculum, you can use this language in your rationale.

The following talking points can support this advocacy:

LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum benefits all students by promoting acceptance and respect, and teaching them more about the diverse people and families in the world.

Anti-LGBTQ bias hurts all children, both those directly affected and those who learn in an atmosphere of fear and tension, afraid to explore their own lives because of worry about disapproval and rejection.

Beginning these conversations in elementary school will help young people develop empathy for a diverse group of people, and to learn about identities that might relate to their families or even themselves. It is never too early for schools to set up a foundation of understanding and respect.

Students of all ages must be given an opportunity to learn that the words "gay," "lesbian," and "transgender" are adjectives that should be used with respect to describe people in their community, not words used in a negative way to hurt, insult, and degrade.

Inclusive curriculum supports a student's ability to empathize, connect, and collaborate with a diverse group of peers, and encourages respect for all.

All students deserve to see themselves in their curriculum, including students who identify as LGBTQ and come from LGBTQ-headed families.

Teaching LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum acknowledges the reality that many students come from LGBTQ-headed families, are being taught by LGBTQ-educators, and are, increasingly, identifying as LGBTQ themselves even in elementary school.

LGBTQ students with inclusive curriculum have better academic and mental health outcomes, and are less likely to miss school (GLSEN's National School Climate Survey).

Supportive administrators can support this work by addressing families directly. They should be open to hearing their questions, and be careful to distinguish questions or concerns from negative pushback. Inviting families to a panel, coffee, or film screening to discuss diversity initiatives has helped many schools to invite families into this work, to address questions directly, and to identify which families in the school community are allies in this work as well.

Example statement from administration: We are conscious of providing age-appropriate and developmentally-appropriate lessons and activities that meet all of our students where they are when addressing LGBTQ-visibility and inclusion. Our goal is to work together as one community through this practice. We encourage you to reach out to us or our teachers throughout the year if you have any questions or would like further information as we support our students in this important work.

PLANNING: Finding Opportunities for LGBTQ Visibility and Inclusion

Educators should spend time identifying the extent to which LGBTQ-related content is present in their current curriculum. Care should be taken to fill gaps while looking for opportunities to deepen student understanding of their world and identities. LGBTQ people, history, and events can be easily inserted into most content areas. Teaching about identity at any age is valuable for students, and can be considered part of social emotional learning (SEL). Curriculum should provide students with opportunities to reflect on their own identities, including gender identity and expression, family diversity including LGBTQ-headed families, and the types of relationships they may want to build.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunities

Early Elementary: Ensure that family studies show examples and use language that includes a variety of family structures including LGBTQ-headed families. Address identity and reflections around gender stereotypes using Ready, Set, Respect!, inclusive read-alouds, and GLSEN's lesson I Am Me: Talking About Identity.

Upper Elementary: GLSEN's Identity Flowers lesson encourages students to explore their own identities and personal experiences with race, culture, ability, family structure, religion or spirituality, and gender identity and expression. Find more lessons for elementary students in our No Name-Calling Week program at www.glsen.org/nncw.

Middle School: GLSEN's Challenging Assumptions lesson provides students an opportunity to experience what it's like to be labeled in a negative way, and as a result, develop empathy for those who others label, even though those labels don't fit.

High School: GLSEN's Learning Empowerment and Self-Identification encourages students to explore how self-identification can be empowering, and have discussions about what it means to be proud of the labels and identities that we all hold. They will also explore the damage that can be done when someone applies labels to another person without that person's permission (consent).
Science & Sexual Health Education
when teaching science it can quickly get very binary (sperm/egg, male/female, XX/XY)

the most important thing is to dismantle this polarizing way of thinking and giving ample examples of ways that nature is not binary. science class can be a place where a very complex world can be, incorrectly, summarized in binaries.

Elementary - In science, elementary students can explore informational texts about animals that highlight their diversity in gender and family structure. Health educators can use these Principles of Gender-Inclusive Puberty and Health Education for more information and best practices.

Grades 6-8 - Educators are mindful of vocabulary and use visuals such as GLSEN's Gender Triangle to distinguish between gender identity, gender expression, and bodies. Educators teach about biology and the human bodies in ways that does not reinforce gender binaries, and includes intersex people. For example, when having conversations involving chromosomes, highlight how not all people born with XX chromosomes identify as women to distinguish between sex, gender, and gender identity. LGBTQ identities are present when discussing healthy relationships, boundaries, and consent.

High School - From learning about meiosis to talking about natural selection, students learn about sex, gender, and gender identity using a diverse represenation. Educators can acknowledge how western culture traditionally views reproduction (between cisgender men and a women) and how many stories are different from that "traditional view." Include the identity and history of scientific figures in relevant lessons, such as Alan Turing in biology lesson or Sally Ride in a physics lesson around velocity and trajectory. Sexual health educators check in with students to answer questions and ensure that they are receiving information and is relevant to them. Word problems in Chemistry and physics can be another opportunity to highlight LGBTQ people, families, and relationships.
For more information, videos, and resources go to www.glsen.org/health and read our blog: Common Core State Standards for ELA and Literacy Elementary Inclusion: 6 Ways I Make My Science Class LGBTQ-Inclusive as a Trans Teacher.
COMMON CORE: Connecting Curriculum to Standards
Writing Core Standard for Grades 6-12
Implementation of the Common Core State Standards is one way that many states and school districts are making efforts to ensure a quality education for all students. The examples below demonstrate how an examination of the standards and themes can lead to locating opportunities for the natural inclusion of LGBTQ-related content in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, and Mathematics.

GLSEN's Ready, Set, Respect! - GLSEN's elementary toolkit has common-core aligned lessons that focus on name-calling, bullying and bias, LGBTQ-inclusive family diversity and gender roles and diversity.
Writing Core Standard for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects 9-12
Reading the Rainbow: LGBTQ Inclusive Literacy in the Elementary Classroom - This book offers comprehensive resources, curriculum development, resource materials, and a pathway between existing literature and current LGBTQ resources.

Pronouns: Little Words that Make a Big Difference - In this lesson, students will learn about pronouns, how they are used, and their importance. They will learn that pronouns are connected to people's gender identity, and that everyone gets to choose which pronouns work for them. Students will practice using gender neutral pronouns, such as they/them/ theirs, by writing about Hadhir the hamster (they/them).
ELA Standard: Reading and Literature for Grades 9-10
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: GLSEN's LGBTQ History Timeline Lesson facilitates a much needed discussion about the erasure of LGBTQ history in what is considered American history, and the value of critical thinking in history classes. After examining the LGBTQ visibility (or invisibility) in their current history curriculum or textbooks, students proactively create newspaper articles to highlight the stories of LGBTQ leaders and bring them into the classroom.
Common Core State Standards for History/Social Studies
Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating, understanding of the subject under investigation.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Students use GLSEN's National School Climate Survey or Local School Climate Survey to examine LGBTQ student experiences at school. They can also use resources from GLSEN's No Name-Calling Week to examine school climate, bullying and harassment at school.

Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Students read Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli and watch the movie Love, Simon. Use GLSEN's Love, Simon: Coming Out and Invisible Identities to conduct a character study of the main characters.

Elementary - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Students learn about critical events in LGBTQ History through the living timline and resources at www.glsen.org/lgbtqhistory. Students explore read-aloud books such as Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders (Grades 1-3) or The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle E. Pitman (Grades 4-6).
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
Grades 6-8 - Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Students listen to and read the primary sources of individuals who bore witness to or helped shape LGBTQ history in our country through GLSEN's Unheard Voices, developed in partnership with ADL and StoryCorps. Students research additional textual evidence to support and provide more context to these stories.
Grade 7 - Statistics and Probability 7.SP
High School - Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Students chose a historic event related to an LGBTQ leader from GLSEN's LGBTQ History Flash Cards. Students research the event through multiple sources with differing points of view to present their own assessment. Find more activities at www.glsen.org/historycards

Elementary - Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Ensure that word problems are inclusive, and use this opportunity to highlight diversity in names, gender, and family structure. For example, "Anqelique and her moms bought fifteen apples from the market." or "Miguel and their dads love to draw with chalk." Consider the activities that are highlighted and use this as an opportunity to explore a range of gender expression and activities. Encourage students to write story problems with characters who break gender stereotypes, and have their peers solve them.
For more ideas and best practices, read GLSEN's blog How Do We Make Math Class More Inclusive of Trans and Non-Binary Identities?
Use random sampling to draw inferences about a population. Understand that statistics can be used to gain information about a population by examining a sample of the population; generalizations about a population from a sample are valid only if the sample is representative of that population.

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Share statistics or informational posters from GLSEN's National School Climate Survey with students to demonstrate population samples as they relate to the experiences of LGBTQ students. If available, use a State Snapshot of this survey results to allow students to explore the experiences of LGBTQ youth in their state. Students can also use GLSEN's Local School Climate Survey tool to collect their own sampling and draw inferences from the results.

High School - Statistics and Probability Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable. Summarize, represent, and interpret data on two categorical and quantitative variables

Suggested LGBTQ-Inclusive Learning Opportunity: Assign students to analyze LGBTQ demographic trends as reflected in GLSEN's National School Climate Survey executive summary, graphics or informational posters. Assign small groups to create a chart or graph illustrating national trends based on one of the areas covered, such as GSAs, inclusive curriculum, policies, etc.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Inclusive Curriculum Lessons - All of GLSEN's resources and lesson plans for inclusive curriculum can be found at www.glsen.org/curriculum

Changing the Game - Resources for PE teachers, coaches, and athletic directors can be found at www.glsen.org/sports.

Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Resources - Find more activities and discussion topics at www.glsen.org/gsa

No Name-Calling Week - for lessons on addressing name-calling and bullying go to www.glsen.org/nncw.

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BEST PRACTICE: Inclusive and Affirming Curriculum for All Students One way that educators can promote safer school environments is by developing lessons that avoid bias and that include positive representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people, history, and events.

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https://welcomingschools.org/resources/childrens-books-transgender-non-binary

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Annie's Plaid Shirt. Stacy B. Davids. (K - 1) Annie's mom tells her that she must wear a dress to her uncle's wedding. Annie protests, but her mom buys her a fancy new dress anyway. Annie is miserable. Why can't her mom understand? Then, Annie has an idea. But will her mom agree? Lesson Plan.

The Boy & the Bindi. Vivek Shraya. (Pre-K - 2) A five-year-old South Asian boy becomes fascinated with his mother's bindi, the red dot commonly worn by Hindu women and wishes to have one of his own. Rather than chastise her son, she agrees, giving him permission to be more fully himself. Lesson Plan.

Bunnybear. Andrea J. Loney. (Pre-K - 1) Although Bunnybear was born a bear, he feels more like a bunny. The other bears don't understand him, and neither do the bunnies. Will Bunnybear ever find a friend who likes him just the way he is? Pair with the Gender Snowperson Lesson Plan.

I am Jazz. Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings. (K - 5) From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. Based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings. Lesson Plan.

Introducing Teddy: A gentle story about gender and friendship. Jess Walton. (Pre-K - K) Introduces the youngest readers to understanding gender identity and transition in an accessible and heart-warming story about being true to yourself and being a good friend. Lesson Plan.

It Feels Good to Be Yourself. Theresa Thorn. (Pre-K - 3) Some people are boys. Some people are girls. Some people are both, neither or somewhere in between. A straightforward exploration of gender identity, providing young readers and adults with the vocabulary to discuss the topic with sensitivity. Pair with the Gender Snowperson Lesson Plan.

Jacob's New Dress. Sarah and Ian Hoffman. (Pre-K - 2) Jacob loves playing dress-up, when he can be anything he wants to be. Some kids at school say he can't wear "girl" clothes, but Jacob wants to wear a dress. Can he convince his parents to let him wear what he wants? Speaks to the unique challenges faced by boys who don't identify with traditional gender roles. Lesson Plan.

Julián Is a Mermaid. Jessica Love. (Pre-K - 2) While in the subway with his abuela, Julián sees three women spectacularly dressed up and he wants to dress up just like them. But what will his Abuela think? A story about the power of been seen and affirmed. Lesson Plan.

Red: A C rayon's Story. Michael Hall. (Pre-K - 1) A blue crayon mistakenly labeled as "red" suffers an identity crisis. Almost everyone tries to "help" him be red until a friend offers a new perspective. He's blue! About finding the courage to be true to your inner self. This can be read on multiple levels. Lesson Plan.

They, She, He easy as ABC. Maya and Matthew Smith-Gonzalez. (Pre-K - 1) Inclusive pronouns are featured alongside the alphabet. An introduction to the many different ways people identify and use pronouns. Shows that including everyone is all part of the dance. "No one left out and everyone free." Lesson Plan.

When Aidan Became a Big Brother. Kyle Lukoff and Kaylani Juanita. (Pre-K - 2) When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl, but as he grew older, he realized he was a trans boy. When he finds out he is going to be a big brother, he learns the most important thing about being an older sibling: how to love with his whole self. Pair with the Gender Snowperson Lesson Plan.

Middle Grade Books

Better N ate Than Ever. Tim Federle. Nate plans an overnight escape to New York for an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, knowing this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom. Also: Five, Six, Seven, Nate! and Nate Expectations.(4 - 8)

Felix Yz. Lisa Bunker. (5 - 8) When Felix Yz was three he is accidentally fused with a fourth-dimensional being. Now he's on the brink of a risky procedure that will free him. With an awkward crush on a boy at school, a gender fluid grandparent and a Bi mom, family, bullying and identity are woven into the story.

George. Alex Gino. (3 - 6) When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George really wants to play Charlotte in Charlotte's Web. Will she be able to?

Gracefully Grayson. Ami Polonsky. (5 - 7) Grayson has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: "he" is a girl on the inside. Will new strength from an unexpected friendship and a caring teacher's wisdom be enough to help Grayson?

Lizard Radio. Pat Schmatz. (5 and up) In a futuristic society, Kivali is a Bender - not quite boy or girl. Sent to CropCamp, a commune meant to steer teens toward a lifetime of good citizenship and "proper" gender roles, Kivali, called Lizard, wrestles with friendship, love, and the price of being true to oneself.

The Moon Within. Aida Salazar. (4 - 7) Celi Rivera's life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend's exploration of what it means to be genderfluid. But most of all, her mother's insistence she have a moon ceremony, an ancestral Mexica ritual, when her first period arrives.

Not Your Sidekick. C.B. Lee. (5 - 8) Welcome to Andover, where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. On the upside, Jessica gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby. With a sudden and dangerous turn, she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether. Also see: Not Your Villain.

The Pants Project. Cat Clarke (3 - 6) Liv knows he was always meant to be a boy but he hasn't told anyone - even his two moms yet. Now, his new school has a terrible dress code, he can't even wear pants. Only skirts. The only way for Liv to get what he wants is to go after it himself. But to Liv, this isn't just a mission to change the policy―it's a mission to change his life.

Riding Freedom. Pam Muñoz Ryan. (4 - 6) A fictionalized account of the true story of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, lived as a boy, moved to California, and became a stagecoach driver.

Roller Girl. Victoria Jamieson. (4 - 7) An inspiring coming-of-age story about friendship, perseverance, and girl power! And so begins the most difficult summer of Astrid's life as she struggles to keep up with the older girls at camp, hang on to the friend she feels slipping away, and cautiously embark on a new friendship. Graphic novel.

Steven Universe. Rebecca Sugar. (2 - 6) Many books and graphic novels are set in the "Steven Universe", an Emmy award winning animated series on Cartoon Network. Follow the adventures of Steven and the Gems. This series Includes LGBTQ, non-binary characters, and an intersex character.

Zenobia July. Lisa Bunker. (5 - 9) Zenobia July is starting a new life in Maine with her aunts. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was. When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the hacking skills to solve the mystery

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Diverse Children's Books Trans and Non-Binary Children

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Annie's Plaid Shirt. Stacy B. Davids. (K - 1) Annie's mom tells her that she must wear a dress to her uncle's wedding. Annie protests, but her mom buys her a fancy new dress anyway. Annie is miserable. Why can't her mom understand? Then, Annie has an idea.

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