Education Justice Now Archive

LGBTQ history is American history, and all of our students deserve to know that. This October, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating LGBTQ History Month. Here are a few of our favorite resources for learning and teaching about the contributions of LGBTQ people, including lessons, posters, articles and our podcast, Queer America, devoted exclusively to recovering this understudied history.

Saturday will mark a historic moment in the fight to grant LGBTQ people equal access to public life and justice. The first National Trans Visibility March will bring together members of the transgender, gender-nonconforming and non-binary communities with allies in Washington, D.C., and in marches across the nation. We echo the marchers’ call with this question: What can you do to make sure students feel visible and heard in your school? We hope these resources can offer some answers.

Last week, a 6-year-old black girl and another unidentified 6-year-old child were arrested at their Florida school. The girl was handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center. Her fingerprints and mugshot were taken, and she was charged with battery. No child deserves such treatment—and no school should excuse it. Here, we share resources for creating and supporting schools where all children feel safe to learn and grow.

Young people have always fought to create a future that is safer and more just—for themselves and for all of us. As students around the globe walk out this Friday to support environmental justice, we hope you’ll find ways to celebrate and support student action during the climate strike and beyond. Here’s how to start.

In this issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine, learn more about the under-reported crisis of suicide among black children, the ways anti-LGBTQ organizations are targeting schools and so much more. And check out our poster featuring the advice Toni Morrison shared with her students: “If you are free, you need to free somebody else.”