Black students often face discrimination in schools on the basis of both race and sexual orientation. According to the 2019 National School Climate Survey, 34.7% of Black students experience both racist and anti-LGBTQ victimization at school.1 As a result, it’s important to take intentional steps to make your GSA (and your school) inclusive of Black LGBTQ+ students. This resource will provide some guidance on concrete steps you can take to make your GSA more inclusive.
Being inclusive means that your student club and its members commit to an ongoing process of education. Your club will need to make an effort to ensure that its activities and advocacy efforts are inclusive of transgender and gender nonconforming people and issues. This guide has been put together to help with that process.
We often hear (and are guilty of making) the remark, “Advising a GSA isn’t like advising Chess Club!” The underlying assumption is that advising a GSA is much, much more complicated and involved than advising Chess Club. But is this true? In an effort to honor the work of Chess Club advisors everywhere (thank you!) while at the same time recognizing the unique challenges and opportunities afforded GSA advisors, we decided it was time to identify some of the similarities and differences in advising the two groups.
We empower trans and queer youth to educate your schools and communities, organize in coalition with other youth across identity lines, and advocate for just policies that protect all LGBTQ+ youth from harassment and violence. Together, you learn to tackle the issues that impact you in school, build collective power, and ultimately transform educational institutions.
| Egale Canada has launched the Rainbow Action Hub – a one-stop shop for the why and how to combat the rise of anti-2SLGBTQI hate in Canada.
The hub includes resources, tools, education, and information aimed at 2SLGBTQI organizations, advocates and activists.
Lessons and Activities
Teaching about Gender Diversity by Susan W. Woolley (Editor); Lee AirtonTeaching about Gender Diversity is an edited collection of teacher-tested interdisciplinary lesson plans that provides K-12 teachers with the tools to implement gender-inclusive practices into their curriculum and talk to their students about gender and sex. Divided into three sections dedicated to the elementary, middle, and secondary grade levels, this practical resource provides lessons for a variety of subject areas, including English language arts, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and health and physical education. The lessons range from reading aloud early literacy picture books that use gender-neutral language and highlight the gendered experiences of characters to engaging mathematics in the study of targeting gender terminology, stereotypes, and the social construction of binary gender. Written by teachers for teachers, this engaging collection highlights teachers' specialized knowledge of pedagogical practices for the diverse contemporary classroom. More than 30 contributors from across North America provide their varied perspectives on the timely issue of teaching about gender in the classroom. Teaching about Gender Diversity is an ideal resource for students taking education courses on gender, sexuality, diversity and equity, curriculum design, and professional practice. Features detailed lesson plans that include next steps and extension ideas pactice-based, guided approach practical resource for pre-service and in-service teachers
The following activity guide intends to spark ideas for keeping your virtual meetings relevant, meaningful and adaptive to your new context as well as responsive to emerging needs and concerns of your participants. They are categorized into the three main GSA functions, ‘Mutual Care & Support’, ‘Social and Cultural Engagement’, and ‘Organizing and Activism’.
A set of five scaffolded lessons including: LGBTQ Role Models & The Arts – Developing Identity Through Creative Expression and LGBTQ Role Models and Allies: Solidarity Among Movements
This resource lists fun things to do with your Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club in three areas: support, social, and activist activities. GSAs can be a mixture of these three types and mix up their activities to reflect their mission.
The goal of gegi.ca is to equip all Ontario students and teachers – whether transgender or cisgender – with the tools to advocate for the right to express and live their gender in their own way without experiencing discrimination, harassment or violence, and without being told they have to change. Recognizing that gender expression and gender identity have been protected grounds in the Ontario Human Rights Code since 2012, gegi.ca indirectly supports schools in learning about how their structures, practices and curricula may have to change. Gegi.ca has a page just for for your school board, featuring board-specific information on the policies and local resources that can help you to provide or advocate for an environment free from gender expression and gender identity discrimination.
GLSEN's Solidarity Week is a student-led program where LGBTQ+ students and educators in K-12 schools lead the conversation on how non LGBTQ+ people can be in solidarity with them and also how they can show solidarity with others in their community.
Gender: Your Guide by Lee Airton"An invaluable resource for both new and veteran allies...obvious and necessary" (Library Journal, starred review) information for everyone who wants to learn more about how to navigate gender diversity in today's families, communities, and workplaces. The days of two genders--male, female; boy, girl; blue, pink--are over, if they ever existed at all. Gender is now a global conversation, and one that is constantly evolving. More people than ever before are openly living their lives as transgender men or women, and many transgender people are coming out as neither men nor women, instead living outside of the binary. Gender is changing, and this change is gaining momentum. We all want to do and say the right things in relation to gender diversity--whether at a job interview, at parent/teacher night, and around the table at family dinners. But where do we begin? From the differences among gender identity, gender expression, and sex, to the use of gender-neutral pronouns like singular they/them, to thinking about your own participation in gender, Gender: Your Guide serves as "a warm, inviting guide to a complicated area" (The Globe and Mail, Toronto). Professor and gender diversity advocate Lee Airton, PhD, explains how gender works in everyday life; how to use accurate terminology to refer to transgender, non-binary, and/or gender non-conforming individuals; and how to ask when you aren't sure what to do or say. It provides the information you need to talk confidently and compassionately about gender diversity, whether simply having a conversation or going to bat as an advocate. Just like gender itself, being gender-friendly is a process for all of us. As revolutionary a resource as Our Bodies, Ourselves, Gender: Your Guide is "greatly needed...an impactful tool for creating a world more supportive of people of all genders" (INTO! Magazine).
Call Number: Books (Education) HQ1075 .A3577 2018 or online
ISBN: 9781507209011
Publication Date: 2018-10-16
The de/politicization of pronouns: implications of the No Big Deal Campaign for gender-expansive educational policy and practice by Lee AirtonAccommodating non-binary transgender people, many of whom use gender-neutral pronouns, poses a unique challenge to schools and universities, even in contexts with legal protections for transgender rights. This article explores a recent Canadian controversy around gender-neutral pronouns, and assembles a theoretical framework to analyze the argument that legal protection for transgender peoples' pronouns poses a threat to 'free speech.' The framework bridges queer theory, affect theory and Deleuzo-Guattarian assemblage theory to propose a threshold between 'extra' and 'excessive' effort to accommodate social difference in everyday life. Free speech objections produce some peoples' pronouns as requiring 'excessive' effort. This extra/excessive framework was exemplified by a recent Canadian social media campaign that sought to produce transgender peoples' pronouns as requiring merely 'extra' effort, which entails de-politicizing pronouns. Community responses to the campaign carry significant implications for gender-expansive educational policy and practice.
DignityUSA works for respect and justice for people of all sexual orientations, genders, and gender identities—especially gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons—in the Catholic Church and the world through education, advocacy, and support.
This blog post lists resources that may be helpful for queer students of various faiths. It includes links to Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish organizations, as well as several others.
Gender Diversity Resources
The Faculty of Education (faculty, staff, and students) recommends the following resources for Gender Diversity: