Ways you can improve your school climate

• The Advocate Educator's Handbook: Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive, by Vanessa Ford and Rebecca Kling
• Being There for Nonbinary Youth
• Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students
• Five Ways to Support Your LGBTQ+ Students
• How to Support Someone Who's Trans and Just Came Out to You
• Improving School Climate for Transgender and Nonbinary Youth
• Know Your Rights | Schools
• LGBTI Youth
• Out, Safe & Respected: A Guide to LGBTQ Youth in Schools for Educators and Parents (PDF)
• Resources for Gender and LGBTQ+ Inclusive Schools
• Speak Up at School: How to Respond to Everyday Prejudice, Bias and Stereotypes (PDF)
• Supporting the Transgender People in Your Life: A Guide to Being a Good Ally
• This proposed NYC middle school will be 'genderful.' Here's what that means.
• Transgender Justice in Schools, edited by Linda Christensen and Ty Marshall
• What Does Allyship With Non-binary Students Look Like?
• What Educators Should Know About LGBTQ+ Rights

• Affirming Gender in Elementary School: Social Transitioning
• You can get personalized coaching, as individual educators or as a school, from River Hunter Vooris, whom you can reach at J.River.Vooris@gmail.com or riverhuntervooris.com (click on "Consulting" along the top of their website).

The National Education Association has a series of trainings focused on LGBTQA+ issues in schools. Those trainings are available on NEA's LGBTQ+ Micro-credentials page.

They also have some other related articles and this other list of resources.

Let queer and trans young people know that being queer or trans is, at the very least, acceptable and, more accurately, fantastic. Read, for instance, articles on R2T2 about the importance of fostering queer and trans joy, hope, and strength. You have the ability to help in this way and so many others.

Make sure you also let cis, straight young people know that being queer or trans is fantastic.

What adults working in schools can do is deeply impacted by the kind of community in which they work. Equally important is a school's intensity and kind of religiosity.

Each remaining part of the educator section of R2T2 is broken down by whether you're in a "safe" (read, queer- and trans-friendly) community or not.

When in doubt, consult local lawmakers or a lawyer about what you legally can and can't do.

• • Use "they/them/theirs" as your default, gender-neutral pronouns when talking about others whose gender is unknown.
    • You likely won't even notice doing this once you start — nor will anyone else around you.
    • Almost all of us already use "they/them/theirs" this way in spoken English.
    • We hear it every day, likely multiple times, and probably barely register it.
  • Use all students' chosen names and pronouns
    • However, be sure you know how public a student wants to be. Someone who gives you a new name during attendance likely has a different level of comfort with being out than someone who tells you quietly between classes about a change in pronouns.
    • If you can refer to Christine or Christopher as "Chris," you can learn to use TGNC students' chosen names.
    • If you shake your fist at the driver in front of you and say, "What do they think they're doing??," you can use the same pronouns for students who request it.
    • Much more on pronouns in the adult resources section.
  • If you're LGBTQA+/SGL, keep an eye out in your school and community. You never know where you might find a young person who is (or looks like) Family.
  • But by the same token, don't assume someone's queer or trans by the way that they look, talk, or act. The only person who can definitively state if someone is queer or trans is that person themself.
  • Support your school's Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA, formerly more commonly known as Gay/Straight Alliances).
    • Support other faculty who lead your school's Gender & Sexuality Alliance.
    • If no one's leading it, volunteer!
    • Get the word out about its existence, especially to queer and trans students and their allies/accomplices.
    • For more info on what a GSA is and does, see the national GSA Network's website.
    • Here are three sites on students' rights to form GSAs
      • Federal Officials Reiterate Protections for LGBTQ+ Student Groups
      • Lambda Legal: Gay-Straight Alliances
      • The Right to Establish a GSA in Public Schools: A Basic Primer (PDF)
    • Table or otherwise support students from your school's GSA at Pride and other LGBTQA+/SGL events.
      • Volunteer to copy the handouts they want to have available.
      • Provide water, snacks, and sunblock (in many communities in the US, Pride is outside and during summer).
      • Sign up to table with them, as long as they don't want it to be a young people-only booth. If they do, discuss the pros and cons of adults being present (they show support from the school vs. concerns that they may make other tweens and teens less likely to approach).
      • If your school doesn't have a GSA, go to Pride anyway. One of your students may be there and might be very glad to see you, although they may not approach you about it and you may not see them.
  • Support LGBTQA+/SGL rights for your students and everyone else in your community. See the "Use your" sections of Reflecting Rainbow Tweens & Teens for many ideas.
• Here's an uplifting story of a community where there was overall support but also some queer-antagonistic opposition (which you'll find defined in the glossary): The Pride Flag Flies Again.
• Other ideas or resources:
  • Affirming Gender in Elementary School: Social Transitioning
  • Gender & Sexual Identity
  • GroundSpark Films

Everything below should be read as being preceded by "If you can do so without getting fired or disciplined…"

• If you're LGBTQA+/SGL, keep an eye out in your school and community. You never know where you might find a young person who is (or looks like) Family.
• But by the same token, don't assume someone's queer or trans by the way that they look, talk, or act. The only person who can definitively state if someone is queer or trans is that person themself.
• If students want to start a GSA, support them as much as possible if they face school or community backlash.
• If you cannot speak openly to students about LGBTQA+/SGL lives and identities, come up with a code that will allow you both to talk without getting either of you in trouble. Perhaps you need to have conversations with a student about butterflies or relationships between parents and children in ancient Mesopotamia….
• If needed, remind your school that, if there are any student clubs, the school cannot deny queer and trans students the ability to hold meetings in the school building. Some shamelessly queer- and trans-antagonistic schools have gone as far as banning all student clubs to get around this "problem."