Resourcing Our Students

Examples of the types of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation commonly targeting youth are those limiting their access to life-saving gender affirming care; forcibly outing them to their parents; banning changes to gender markers on birth certificates and other forms of identification; banning them from participating in sports teams or going into restrooms/ locker rooms that reflect their correct gender identity; forcibly misgendering and deadnaming them; preventing them from learning about their identity or community in schools by way of book bans, pride flag bans, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) bans, and attacks on LGBTQ+ teachers; removing them from the custody of an affirming parent of guardian; stopping them from playing the roles of characters who are of the ‘opposite sex’ in school plays and performances; protecting life-threatening conversion therapy; and more. Political analysts expect these types of attacks to continue into the foreseeable future, and to expand in severity and impact. 

In 2024 alone, over 660 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the country. Many politicians have turned to this type of legislation as a means of fear mongering; using the emotions of parents concerned for the health and safety of their children, and feeding them deliberate misinformation with the intent to raise panic amongst the population, turning communities against one another and positioning themselves as saviors who are able to bring back the order and prosperity sought by a society still shaken and fractured by the COVID-19 Pandemic, but only if they are elected into office and given the power and control over people that they seek. 

This rise in bigotry, discrimination, and hatred is calculated and intentional—and it has left a material impact on the youth population, with trans youth taking the brunt of the abuse.  A poll released by the Trevor Project in 2023 found that 86% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported that recent debates around anti-trans bills negatively impacted their mental health, and as a result of the political climate, 45% of trans youth experienced cyberbullying. The Center for Disease Control found that in 2023, about one in four transgender youth attempted suicide, with roughly 10% requiring medical treatment as a result. Around one in four trans youth also reported having skipped school at some point because they felt unsafe. 

In response to this exponential increase in homophobic and transphobic legislation, many legislators across the nation have worked diligently over the years to introduce protections for these impacted communities. Some of these types of bills found across the United States include: 

• Updated anti-bias discrimination training for certain professions such as educators

• Mandating the inclusion of LGBTQ+ topics/peoples/histories in school curriculums

• Bans to book bans and attacks on librarians (in California this is known as the Freedom to Read Act)

• Anti-snitch bills that prevent school districts from firing teachers who refuse to forcibly out students to their families

• Protections for trans students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their choice

• Free menstrual products in men’s, women’s, and gender neutral restrooms at schools

• The construction of more accessible gender-neutral bathrooms on school campuses

• Making name and gender changes on various forms of identification easier and faster

• Providing students with protections against anti-LGBTQ+ bullying

• Banning life-threatening conversion therapy

• Protections for trans students in sports

• Child custody and foster care protections for trans youth

• Gender affirming care and gender affirming care provider protections

• Safe state bills to protect out-of-state individuals seeking gender affirming care in a state where it’s legal

• Healthcare facilities and healthcare insurance nondiscrimination protections

• Housing discrimination protections

• Supporting LGBTQ+ owned businesses through public contracts

• Ending the trans-panic legal defense

• Protecting data relating to gender affirming care and reproductive health care and preventing the non-consensual transfer of this data across state lines

• Updating language in various civil rights protections to include LGBTQ+ peoples more explicitly

• Prohibiting pride flag bans

• Creating financial/tax benefits and breaks for individuals forced to leave a state that has passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws

• Prison nondiscrimination laws

• Protections for LGBTQ+ elders in long-term care facilities

• Making diaper changing stations accessible by including them in men’s and gender-neutral restrooms

• Reforming hate crime and hate group classifications to include acts of transphobia

• Recognizing LGBTQ+ holidays and observances

• Creating various commissions, studies, and task forces to address anti-LGBTQ+ violence and bias. 

Despite the effort to introduce and pass these protective bills, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and protections has remained a defensive rather than offensive battle. With the challenges facing LGBTQ+ youth being laid out, it is clear why they are in need of support. One of the best ways to support students is by resourcing them. Resourcing takes on multiple shapes and forms, and can look a wide variety of ways. It is of utmost importance that those distributing these resources work towards ensuring that they do not perpetuate racism, misogyny, ableism, xenophobia or any other form of oppression in the process. Each student may require any different combination of the following:

Physical Resourcing: this type of resourcing meets the base needs of human beings; that being food, water, shelter, clothes, and sleep. The most obvious solution to issues revolving around physical need is to give students access to these five resources, but access alone does not solve the problem. Many students may feel stigma in seeking these resources, and it may not be obviously apparent to each and every student where they are able to go if they are experiencing the need for physical resourcing. When considering advertising and outreach, consider the accessibility of your materials; is the information translated into multiple languages? Is the font easy to read? Is there high contrast for people with low vision? Is there braille? Is it advertised in the school newspaper or over the morning announcements? Is there an air filter graded MERV-13 or higher running constantly in the room?  Are masks required? Is the space accessible for students with mobility aids? Is the room low-scent or low-light for students with sensory sensitivities? Can students be assured that they are able to receive services discreetly? How are students ensured of their safety in accessing resources?

At minimum, providing students a specified and widely advertised space where they are easily able to get snacks, water, menstrual products, clothes that match their gender identity, and rest is the surest way to make a direct, positive material impact in their life. Depending on age group, safe sex supplies are also an important resource to provide students to maintain their physical health. Even if students are experiencing challenges at home, having a place at school where they are able to escape and meet their basic needs without fear can be the difference between life and death for some youth experiencing hardship. GSAs will often function as this space, but wellness centers, nurse’s offices, libraries, and sometimes even the rooms of specific teachers and faculty will become a space of solidarity and safety for students experiencing challenges related to their identity. At Castro Valley Unified School District, the on-campus Wellness Center provides not only emotional resourcing, but a basic needs pantry that offers students clothes, shoes, food, water, toiletries, basic personal hygiene supplies, and more. Learn more about the Wellness Center in the Supporting LGBTQ+ Families section. These physical spaces can also collect and house the rest of the following types of resourcing for the purpose of knowledge dispersal and empowerment.

Emotional Resourcing: this type of resourcing is incredibly important as LGBTQ+ youth continue to face disproportionately high rates of bullying, violence, abuse, and discrimination. These factors lend themselves to heightened rates of emotional distress and mental illness in LGBTQ+ youth, and until these larger societal problems can be overcome, our students need every tool we have to offer in order to cope with the challenges they face. While licensed counseling and therapeutic resources are ideal for meeting students’ needs on a one-on-one basis, not all school districts are able to secure the funding necessary for on-site staff. While peer counselors, GSAs, and mental wellness clubs may be ways for students to provide support and care for one another and become more involved with their community, it should not be up to the students alone to provide mental health services for one another. Additionally, emotional resources may be useless on their own if not adequately provided alongside physical resourcing, as unmet physical needs may contribute to poor emotional health and can either slowdown or entirely hinder any progress.

Emotional resourcing can look like a wide variety of things, including emotional skills-building workshops that support positive communication and healthy conflict (a local favorite being Soul Shoppe); dating and domestic violence education that is LGBTQ+ inclusive; performing non-judgmental substance abuse education with resources for sobriety, recovery, and alternative stress-relief outlets (noting that LGBTQ+ youth are particularly vulnerable to vaping/nicotine use and addiction, and in many studies are over-represented in comparison to their cisgender, heterosexual, endosex peers); offering low-sensory spaces where students are able to remove themselves when feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated; taking time in classrooms to meditate, ground, and practice emotional identification and literacy; bringing therapy animals on-campus for students to interact with during especially busy and stressful times of the year (ie. in the days leading up to college applications, standardized testing, important exams, and other various academic hurdles); recognizing specific observances relating to mental health, bullying, and violence such as Day of Silence and Transgender Day of Remembrance; and offering a comprehensive and inclusive list of mental health resources both widely and accessibly. 

Legal Resourcing: this is one of the most vital types of resourcing when it comes to combating the fear caused by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and by anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and bullying. Many students are unsure of where to go for legal advice and want to know what rights they have, and it’s critical for the school district to be a trusted place of information where answers and direction can be provided. That is why it is critical for school legal teams to stay up-to-date on LGBTQ+ laws and protections affecting young people, and for school administration to be aware of the political landscape and what their students are facing both in and outside of school. 

Making legal resource lists and “Know Your Rights” pamphlets available on the school district homepage (or another obvious place on the school’s website) is a great start. In order to ensure accessibility, ideally these materials should be translated into multiple languages, with attention paid to what is most prominently spoken outside of English in the homes of the district in which you work. Since not everyone will check the school website, having copies sent out to families, staff, and students individually via email or mail is a way to ensure these resources are received indiscriminately. Examples of specific school-based and youth-based laws and how Castro Valley Unified School District has interacted specifically with LGBTQ+ rights can be found in the School District Board Policies & Administrative Regulations section.

Additionally, offering a variety of Know Your Rights trainings that are geared towards specific topics within LGBTQ+ Law (immigration law, family law, school-based rights, trans-specific protections, etc.) is a great way to engage with students and families, but consideration should be taken as to how attendees are assured of their privacy/confidentiality. Creating a hybrid or entirely virtual event may help people access needed materials while staying anonymous, but consideration needs to be put into ensuring chat/audience moderation. Asking students and families ahead of time what issues they have questions on or what topics they want to know more about can help tailor and streamline these trainings to suit the specific needs of your district.

Educational Resourcing: providing students with an education that reflects their identities, lives, experiences, and needs is critical to ensuring both retained learning engagement and healthy socio-emotional development. There are a plethora of ways to include LGBTQ+ history and lesson plans within a wide scope of topics. The non-profit organization Our Family Coalition offers a website entitled “Teaching LGBTQ History: Instructional Resources For California Educators, Students, & Families,” that offers free resources, lesson plans, and tools for teaching elementary, middle, and high school students about general LGBTQ+ topics and history. Other free use templates and educational materials that may be of interest to school administrators and educators can be found in the Free Use Templates & Educational Materials section.

Additionally, some of the most important educational resourcing that can be done occurs during the sexual education curriculum. Making sure that your sex ed curriculum is inclusive of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and trans and intersex physiology at an age-appropriate level ensures that students can navigate the world and make safe and informed decisions with their bodies.

Community Resourcing: in order for students to thrive, they need to feel safe in their environment. Part of feeling safe in their environment means having people and resources in their community that they can go to for support when met with the various challenges of day-to-day life. Creating spaces such as LGBT Resource Centers, Wellness Centers, Rainbow Clubs, and Mental Wellness Clubs can help students make friends and find people with similar interests, and that can in itself be very empowering and uplifting. For those interested in learning more about how to start a Rainbow Club, further information can be found in the How Teachers Can Support LGBTQ+ Students section. However, it’s also important for the community to be prepared to support and reach out to students, and to be able to affirm visibly and materially their allyship. Building a network of LGBTQ+-friendly alliances with a wide range of intersectional groups and taking the time to collaborate and create programming and outreach to meet the needs of young LGBTQ+ people both in and out of school can make a world of a difference in the quality of life students are able to lead. 

Two local groups were created to meet the needs of our diverse community members: the Castro Valley Community Alliance, a coalition of representatives from the various sects of life within Castro Valley dedicated to standing united against hatred, and the LGBTQ+ Working Group, a multi-disciplinary group of LGBTQ+ and allied educators, students, staff and community members led by queer staff and that reports regularly to the school board. Learn more about them in the Connecting with the Community section.

NOTE: An example of a resource list can be found in the Resources section at the end of the toolkit.