NEA LGBTQ+ Resources

NEA Resources

• NEA EdJustice: Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth: Get connected and engaged to advocate for racial and social justice in our schools and communities. NEA EdJustice engages and mobilizes activists in the fight for racial, social, and economic justice in public education.
• Stand Against Hate and Bias Pledge: Help Support LGBTQ+ Students and Educators and Stand Against Hate and Bias. Sign the Pledge!
• NEA LGBTQ+ Trainings: Designed for all NEA members, particularly those committed to addressing bias around sexual orientation and gender identity, NEA offers multiple LGBTQ+ Trainings to teach educators and school personnel how to create a safe school climate for students and staff.
• In Response to COVID-19: A Checklist to Support LGBTQ Students During Distance Learning: During the COVID-19 quarantine, educators across the country are learning how to continue to provide a safe and affirming experience for LGBTQ+ students via distance learning. Use this checklist to ask yourself how you are supporting LGBTQ+ students today.
• Bostock and LGBTQ+ Rights:
  • NEA Model School Board Resolution: NEA developed a model school board resolution as a result of the Bostock Supreme Court decision. This model policy will help local districts to make meaningful changes at the local level to protect the civil rights of our students.
    • School Districts with LGBTQ+ Inclusive Policies:
      • Kansas - Olathe Public Schools (2019): Expanding Non-Discrimination Policies to include Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
      • California - Los Angeles Unified School District: Comprehensive District policies for transgender and gender non-conforming students and educators
      • Illinois - Chicago Public Schools (2016), Harlem School District 122 (2020), Berwyn South School District 100 (2015), Evanston Township High School District 202 (2017), Evanston District 65 (2020): Comprehensive District policies for transgender and gender non-conforming students and educators
      • Canada LGBTQ+ Policy
  • Bostock and Educator Rights: Among one of his first acts, President Biden signed an Executive Order, asserting that all should receive equal treatment under the law, “no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.” It specifically states that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which concluded that sexual orientation and gender discrimination are prohibited forms of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Use this reference guide developed by NEA’s Center for Social Justice and General Counsel to help inform educators about their rights as LGBTQ+ employees. 
  • Bostock and Student Rights: Use this reference guide developed by NEA’s Center for Social Justice and General Counsel to help inform LGBTQ+ students about their rights.
• Legal Guidance on Transgender Students' Rights: This guidance was developed to provide educators with a short overview about transgender students’ rights, and best practices to support and protect them.
• Schools in Transition: A Guide to Support Transgender Students in K-12*: This guidance was developed to provide educators with a short overview about transgender students’ rights, followed by a description of the key best practices for schools in respecting these rights, a brief primer regarding transgender issues, and a full explanation of the legal rights which those best practices respect and how those rights play out in particular situations.
  
  *Will be updated
• Advocating for LGBTQ+ Students with Disabilities: This is a guide for educators and parents/guardians on supporting LGBTQ+ Students with an IEP or 504 Plan.
  • The Burden and Consequences of Self-Advocacy: This powerful personal narrative from The Disability Visibility Project details the burden and consequences of self-advocacy for disabled BIPOC.
  • Students of Color in Special Education: Learn more about the disproportionate identification of students of color as students with special education needs in this resource from the Learning Disabilities Association of America.
  • LGBTQ+ People With Disabilites: Dive into the data on LGBTQ+ folks with disabilities and download this report from the Movement Advancement Project.
• Transgender Awareness Week: These resources from Learning for Justice can help educators and family members support transgender students during Transgender Awareness Week, and all year round.
• Transgender Youth and the Freedom to Be Ourselves: This messaging guide about living as our authentic selves, provided by our partners, is available for use for organizing, campaigning, and communications.
• Don't Say Gay Bill Guide: An updated explainer and guide to the so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans Bill" passed in Florida.
• What to Know About State Anti-Trans Laws: Check out this breakdown from NEA's legal team on the recent anti-trans laws passed in several states.
• Messaging Guidance: Read our latest guidance on how to communicate effectively about current issues facing the LGBTQ+ community.
• What Educators Should Know: This Safe Schools for Everyone primer is a handy FAQ and explainer on LGBTQ+ rights for educators.
• Model Legislative Language: Use this document as a template for a bill to ensure inclusion of LGBTQ+ topics in school curricula.
• Why School Board Elections Matter: A guide to the importance of school board elections and our students rights, created by NEA and our partners at the Human Rights Campaign.
• Pronoun Guide: Our two-page guide to what pronouns are, why they're important, and how to use them inside the classroom and out.

Interactive Maps

• Gender Inclusive Schools: States with Policy Guidance for Transgender and Gender Diverse Students: Gender Inclusive Schools created an interactive map to help identify states who have developed policy guidance for transgender and gender diverse students.
• Lambda Legal: Making the Case for Equality: Select any state to learn more about its legal protections for LGBTQ+ people and their families.

Books and Videos

• Great Diverse Books For Your School, Library, or Home
• NEA’s Read Across America Books with LGBTQ+ characters and stories

• "Why the LGBTQ+ Supreme Court Decision is so Historic” webinar with NEA Senior Counsel, Eric Harrington 

• Leading for Change: Achieving LGBTQ+ Equity and Inclusion in our Schools - In collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign.

• 'The Future of Trans' Documentary: Chella Man, ALOK, Patricio Manuel, and more - The new short documentary from Imara Jones. TransLash Media

• FACEBOOK WATCH: The LGBTQ+ Education Town Hall - In collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign, GLSEN and NQAPIA, and moderated by Imara Jones.

• NEA 2021 LGBTQ+ Pride Series - Night 1: Pride Kickoff with opening remarks from NEA President, Becky Pringle and keynote address from National Black Justice Coalition Executive Director, David Johns.

• NEA 2021 LGBTQ+ Pride Series - Night 3: Pride: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: An Intergenerational Conversation on the Importance of LGBTQ+ Pride with NEA members and HRC Youth Ambassadors. Moderated by HRC’s Youth Well-Being Program Director, Vinnie Pompei.

NEA Partners

Human Rights Campaign

• HRC Welcoming Schools Program: HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is the most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program in the nation to provide LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklist, and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals.
• HRC 2018 Youth Report: HRC Foundation and the University of Connecticut released the largest-of-its-kind survey ever of more than 12,000 LGBTQ+ teenagers across the nation, revealing in distressing detail the persistent challenges so many of them face going about their daily lives at home, at school, and in their communities.
• Black and African American LGBTQ+ Youth Report: In 2017, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation partnered with researchers at the University of Connecticut to conduct a groundbreaking survey of over 12,000 LGBTQ+ youth and capture their experiences in their families, schools, social circles, and communities. More than 1,600 Black and African American LGBTQ+ youth responded to the survey.
• Latinx LGBTQ+ Youth Report: This resource presents data collected from these youth, shedding light on their challenges and triumphs encountered while navigating multiple, intersecting identities.
• LGBTQ+ Asian and Pacific Islander Youth Report: This resource presents data collected from Asian and Pacific Islander LGBTQ+ youth, shedding light on their challenges and triumphs encountered while navigating multiple, intersecting identities.
• Bi+ Youth Report: HRC Foundation, in partnership with the University of Connecticut, released the 2019 Bi+ Youth Report, a groundbreaking resource detailing the experiences of bisexual, pansexual, queer, and sexually fluid (bi+) LGBTQ+ youth.
• 2018 Gender-Expansive Youth Report: This report details the alarming challenges and barriers facing transgender and gender-expansive youth around the country -- and their perseverance in the face of discrimination and harassment.
• LGBTQ+ Inclusive Position Statements and Resolutions: To empower and guide more youth-serving professionals to take action around the safety, health, and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth, we have compiled a list of resolutions and position statements from major health, education, and child welfare organizations.
• COVID Resources: As COVID-19 continues sweeping the world, hundreds of thousands of people have contracted the virus, and every community has been affected. The LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. — along with many communities around the globe — will face unique challenges due to its economic and health care situations.
• Pride Resources: Show PRIDE with HRC!
• Why Say Gay? K-3 Lesson Plans and Resources: Check out these Welcoming Schools lesson plans and resources from HRC.

GLSEN

• Resources: Whether you’re a student, an educator, or an ally looking to support safer and more inclusive schools, you can have a role in creating change!
• Pronoun Guide: This guide is created to help anyone learn how to use people’s correct pronouns. Everyone in your school community should engage in learning, educating, and advocating for the inclusive use of pronouns for all. 
• Erasure and Resilience: The Experiences of LGBTQ+ Students of Color: Erasure and Resilience: The Experiences of LGBTQ+ Students of Color is a series of four research reports that examines the school experiences of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Black, Latinx, and Native and Indigenous LGBTQ youth.
• Webinars on Hosting a Virtual GSA and Supporting Students: In Oct 2020 GLSEN and the NEA (National Education Association) held a virtual GSA Advisors Summit. These webinars cover topics for elementary, middle, and high school GSAs such as starting a virtual GSA, activities for virtual GSA meetings, organizing platforms, discussions on supporting Black LGBTQ+ students, and supporting LGBTQ+ students during the pandemic.
• Research and Education Webinars: GLSEN’s education webinars share real-life stories, relevant data, and effective practices around LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools. GLSEN's resources are full of tips and tools to help you create a safe and affirming learning environment for all of your students.

National Black Justice Coalition

The National Black Justice is  America’s leading national civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+, and same gender loving (LGBTQ+/SGL) people, including people living with HIV/AIDS through coalition building, federal policy change, research, and education. 

• Resources

National Center for Lesbian Rights

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, legislation, policy, and public education.

• Resources

National Center for Transgender Equality

The National Center for Transgender Equality advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender people. In the nation’s capital and throughout the country, NCTE works to replace disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, opportunity, and justice.

• Self-Help Guides

National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance  

The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) is a federation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations. We seek to build the organizational capacity of local LGBT AAPI groups, develop leadership, promote visibility, educate our community, enhance grassroots organizing, expand collaborations, and challenge anti-LGBTQ bias and racism.

• Resources

The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth.

• Resources

Translash

TransLash Media is a nonprofit organization and digital community made up of conversation starters, documentarians, artists, technologists, activists, and allies who are committed to supporting trans/non-binary/intersex/two-spirit people through trans stories to save trans lives. We do so without censorship and erasure from mainstream media. 

TransLash launched a new investigative, limited-series podcast today called The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality.The Anti-Trans Hate Machine examines—over the course of four episodes—the organizations, people, money, and radical ideology behind the anti-trans, legislative backlash currently underway in over 30 states.  A year in the making, TransLash started  work on The Anti-Trans Hate Machine in 2020 with a simple question: "who's behind these bills?" To answer it, TransLash put together a team of twelve producers, researchers and fact checkers to find out. This series is the result of their work.

• Newsweek op-Ed, Press Release, on The Anti-Trans Hate Machine
• Trailer to the series on The Anti-Trans Hate Machine
• Translash Podcast

US Department of Education Resources

• Supporting Intersex Students: Federal civil rights laws protect all students, including intersex students, from sex discrimination.
• Confronting Anti-LGBTQI+ Harassment in Schools: Produced by the Departments of Education and Justice, along with the Office for Civil Rights
• Dear Educator Letter: About Title IX and the resources available to help ensure schools are free from sex discrimination.
• We Stand with LGBTQ+ Students: Here’s a recent OPED from Secretary Cardona.
• Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of COVID-19 on America’s Students (June 9, 2021)
• OCR Blog: Marking the One Year Anniversary of Bostock, With Pride (June 16, 2021)
• OCR webpage: Resources for LGBTQ+ Students