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For Educators
Supportive educators save students’ lives. Having just one visibly supportive educator in a school can ensure that LGBTQ+ students feel safe, welcomed, and encouraged to learn.
Show your support by displaying a Safe Space sticker and poster in your classroom. Learn how to discuss bullying, gender roles, or family diversity with elementary-aged students. Include positive representation of LGBTQ+ people in your curriculum. Inspire your students of all ages and all identities to be kind, support others, and speak up when they see bullying.
Check out the resources in the sections below for specific guides and tools related to GLSEN programs, inclusive curriculum and more!
Resources
GLSEN Safe Space Kit
Designed to help you create a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth in schools, the Safe Space Kit is GLSEN’s Guide to Being an Ally to LGBTQ+ Students. The guide provides concrete strategies that will help you support LGBTQ students, educate about anti-LGBTQ+ bias and advocate for changes in your school. The kit not only guides you through making an assessment of your school's climate, policies and practices but it also outlines strategies that you may use to advocate for change, including posting a Safe Space Sticker or Safe Space Poster in your classroom or office. Click here.
Ready, Set, Respect!
We all want students to feel safe and respected and to develop respectful attitudes and behaviors. GLSEN developed Ready, Set, Respect! to provide tools to support elementary educators like you with these efforts. The kit provides a set of tools that will help you prepare to teach about respect and includes lesson plans that can help you seize teachable moments. The lessons focus on name-calling, bullying and bias, LGBTQ+ inclusive family diversity and gender roles and diversity and are designed to be used as either standalone lessons or as part of a school-wide anti-bias or bullying prevention program. Click here.
GLSEN also offers other Elementary resources including sample lesson plans like:
Inclusive Curriculum
GLSEN research shows that LGBTQ+ students who attend schools with curriculum that is inclusive of LGBTQ+ people, history, and events experience a better school climate and improved academic outcomes.
Curriculum serves as a mirror when it reflects individuals and their experiences back to themselves. At the same time, curriculum serves as a window when it introduces and provides the opportunity to understand the experiences and perspectives of those who possess different identities. An inclusive curriculum should be balanced and include diverse windows and mirrors for every student.
All teachers can use our Inclusive Curriculum Guide to reflect on your existing curriculum and find places to increase your LGBTQ+ representation.
Order a copy of Reading the Rainbow: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Literacy in the Elementary Classroom to see how other teachers have successfully implemented LGBTQ+ issues into their curriculum.
Looking for LGBTQ+ books for your classroom? Sign your school up for our Rainbow Library program to receive FREE LGBTQ+ books for your school's library
Looking to purchase books yourself? We recommend these lists:
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Rainbow Library by GLSEN’s Connecticut Chapter
LGBTQ History
For all of us, learning an LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum can help us better understand our world and our differences. For LGBTQ+ students in particular, it can mean feeling safer at school and hearing homophobic and transphobic remarks less frequently, according to GLSEN research. Looking back at history is the easiest way to get LGBTQ+ inclusivity into any curriculum. That's why we're sharing our resources below, which include an interactive timeline and coloring book as well as many other classroom resources suitable for a range of students ages K-12.
Recognizing these benefits, former GLSEN Chapter leader Rodney Wilson, with the support of GLSEN's founder Kevin Jennings and many others, founded LGBTQ+ History Month in October 1994. While you can use these resources every October, they're perfect for use all year, so that students see the benefits year round.
Lesson Plans
Implementing GLSEN’s free lesson plans and resources can help students develop the skills to interact in our diverse world with greater respect, empathy, and understanding.
Incorporate our lessons, found below, to:
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Foster respect and understanding
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Promote LGBTQ+ visibility and affirmation
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Improve school climate
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Build leadership
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Encourage ally behavior
Ready for LGBTQ+ specific lessons?
Supporting Students of Color
GLSEN’s recent research reports on LGBTQ+ Youth of Color highlight the importance of school-based supports that address students facing racism as well as homophobia and transphobia. Schools nationwide are often hostile environments for LGBTQ+ youth of color, where they experience racism, homophobia, and transphobia. In addition, many LGBTQ+ do not have access to in-school resources that may improve school climate and students’ experiences, including GSAs, ethnic/cultural clubs, supportive educators, and inclusive curriculum.
Here, you will find our collection of research reports exploring the experiences of AAPI, Black, Latinx, and Native & Indigenous LGBTQ+ youth. You will also find a collection of blogs from students, educators, and advocates highlighting how to support this population of students.
Check out this document on Supporting LGBTQ+ Students of Color.