Search

Yesterday, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama administration’s guidance on transgender students’ rights in public schools. Despite this action, the work to build safe, welcoming and affirming schools for transgender students must continue.

Some people argue “gay-friendly” schools offer needless segregation. Others say they’re the only chance some kids have to make it.

One of my fondest and most salient memories from the past school year happened toward the beginning of the year. Joe had just turned 5. He was making his own book about pirates.

A couple of years ago, my wife casually mentioned that our son’s school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, would be introducing some single-sex classes. I was surprised because I thought any type of segregation was illegal. But after a little research, I found that a sexual revolution has been brewing in our public schools.

The same stereotypes that hurt and limit girls can also hurt boys and any student who does not adhere to binary gender norms.

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dean Hamer shares how his documentary A Place in the Middle, co-directed with Joe Wilson, can help students see the value of inclusion, the power of cultural heritage and their ability to create a more positive school climate.

Editor’s note: The author of this essay prefers the pronoun they. In a poignant letter to their teenage self, Jey Ehrenhalt—a transgender educator and advocate—recalls jarring and painful experiences of their youth and describes how many schools urgently need to become more welcoming and supportive places for transgender students.