For Educators
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Frames for Talking about Gender, Sexual, and Family Diversity - Inclusive Education
Kids and families aren’t controversial
It’s a matter of respect
We are reflecting and affirming the diversity that already exists in our community
Identity trumps beliefs
Creating safe, inclusive, respectful learning environments: it’s the law
LGBTQ+ Terminology 101 Video
It’s through language that we name and identify ourselves and one another, that we make sense of the world, and that we make each other feel valued and included.
Video created by A Queer Endeavor.
A Queer Endeavor’s Queer-Inclusive Instruction Resource Hub
Below are tools developed by A Queer Endeavor for designing queer-inclusive, standards-based instruction.
Queer(ed) Teaching Practices Snapshots
A Queer Endeavor has synthesized the work of queer pedagogy scholars and their own lived experiences as educators to craft a framework of four queer(ed) teaching practices. Incorporating these practices can better enable educators in supporting all their students to interrogate normativity, power, and oppression.
The snapshots below provide an overview of each teaching practice, along with some tangible starting places for enacting these practices in different contexts. If you’d like more targeted or intensive support in these practices, consider requesting professional development with us.
Introduction:
Practice 1:
Practice 2:
Practice 3:
Practice 4:
Lavender card, a resource for Colorado educators
Dear Colleagues,
To support Colorado educators and stakeholders, and facilitate putting policy into practice, we created a resource that we are calling the “Lavender Card.” The card was inspired by the critical work of the, which created the Red Card, a “Know Your Rights” tool aimed to support undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to assert their constitutional rights. In education contexts, Red Cardshave been used to support undocumented students and mixed-status families, as well as to develop allies’ understanding of immigrant communities’ legal rights.
Our aim here is two-fold. In creating the Lavender Card, we honor and extend the vital work of our activist colleagues, not as an appropriation of the Red Card, but as an act of intersectional coalition building meant to acknowledge the lived realities of those who are continuously rendered to the margins, who are constantly under the thumb of political threat, and whose civil rights remain under siege, namely undocumented and mixed-status families and trans and nonbinary people living in the U.S. Second, the Lavender Card educates about, advocate for, and protect the rights and lived realities of trans and nonbinary youth and adults in the U.S.
The purpose of the Lavender Card is to clearly state the laws and policies in Colorado that protect LGBTQ+ students and trans students, specifically, in P-12 public schools. The cards also provide language that educators and youth-serving adults can use to uphold the law. To be sure,the Lavender Card informs people, educators in particular, of their rights and responsibilities.
We hope that you:
- Embrace and embody our shared commitments to democracy, diversity, and justice.
- Not only use/distribute these cards but also continue learning about the stories and lived experiences of communities who are most vulnerable and under threat in the present moment.
- Stand in active solidarity with those communities and alongside people who embody multiple, intersectional identities and are made vulnerable by the current political context.
- Use the Lavender Card in tandem with Red Cards and other resources as part of a larger project of solidarity
- In the midst of so much confusion and fear, ask, How will we actively leverage law and policy to protect and affirm trans and nonbinary youth?
In solidarity and with fire in our socks,
The AQE Team
Other resources for supporting queer-inclusive instruction
The law is on the side of public school educators when it comes to supporting ALL students and creating schools that are a safe place for everyone to learn and to grow. for more information on these laws on policies.
- Boulder Valley School District (BVSD):
- Boulder Valley School District (BVSD):
- Boulder Valley School District (BVSD):
- GLSEN:
If you are looking for LGBTQ+-inclusive texts to include in your classroom, these are great places to start. Remember to look carefully into a text and take stock of your particular context before deciding if a particular text is appropriate for your students.
- from Dr. Kaplan, BVSD Librarian
- Lee Wind’s “”
- (created by Rainbow Book List Committee of the American Library Association)
- Ǵǰ’s
- ҴǴǻ’s
- “” (provides as comprehensive a list as possible of LGBTQ YA published between 2000-2020)
- Penguin’s “”
With this political moment in mind and in the spirit of collective liberation, this list is meant to highlight other organizations doing amazing work with youth, educators, and justice in education more generally.
Please help us grow this list as a resource by filling out .
Register your GSA and receive free resources!
- PFLAG - , ,
- (Open and Affirming Sexual Orientation and gender identity Support)
- (CO Springs & El Paso County)
- (Fremont County)
- - The Trevor Project
- - Learning for Justice
- : This short documentary explores homophobic language and its consequences among teenagers
- : “A 28-minute bilingual documentary about how Latino families are replacing the deep roots of homophobia with the even deeper roots of love and tolerance.”
- YouTube video.
- : Poet & activist. Their website is a gem, especially their poems “” and ““
- “” blog post written by a young Black, gay man pushing back on what society thinks a “Black” male should be.
- Huffington Post blog on how to be a better ally to trans* teens.
- “” Huffington Post article on portrait project “Agender”–a photo series showcasing embodiments of genderqueer identities.
- “”: Ash Beckham’s talk at Ignite Boulder on eliminating the word ‘gay’ as a pejorative from our lexicon. (a great video to use with students to start a discussion about the use of “that’s so gay.”)
- “” Kai Wright’s coming out story, featured as part of NPR’s “Tell Me More” project.
- “”
- “,” Ericka Sokolower-Shain shares her experience struggling to fit into the gender binary, and Jody Sokolower shares her struggle to confront her own biases and assumptions and support her daughter, who struggles to define her own gender identity.