Dear teacher,

First, let me commend you for reaching out and wanting to be the best support you can be for your LGBTQ students.There is a range of steps you can take to create and nurture LGBTQ-inclusive spaces within your school. As a teacher, it is important to be a safe person that students can trust. One action that you can take is to talk about LGBTQ folks and communities in a positive way. You can integrate LGBTQ topics and programming into your curriculum and ensure that there are books on LGBTQ topics in the library as well as resources for LGBTQ youth accessible to all of your students.

A really important step towards helping teachers and school administrators to be more competent in serving LGBTQ students is to provide ongoing LGBTQ-sensitivity training.Some good resources that can provide information on steps a school can take to become LGBTQ-inclusive include GLSEN at www.glsen.org, Teaching Tolerance at http://www.tolerance.org/lgbt-best-practices, and JFCS’ LGBTQ Initiative at www.jfcsphilly.org.

Thank you for being a strong support and advocate for your students!

~Ally