Resources to Support Further Learning and Classroom Conversations on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
Below are a number of resources, gathered by Dr. Harper Keenan & Daniel Gallardo Zamora, to support educators and school communities in raising their own consciousness and creating school spaces that support conversations, both individually and collectively, on sexual orientation and gender identity. We firmly believe that creating space for these conversations requires ongoing personal learning and understanding as adults. Therefore, there are a number of resources to support that below as well. We hope that these resources are helpful in expanding one's own knowledge and understanding in order to create more inclusive classrooms, where all students and staff know that they belong.
Teaching and School Resources
The Trans Educators Network is a support and community-building focused organization for trans and other PK-12 educators who don't always fit neatly into systems of gender at school. The Network is open to trans educators and/or anyone whose gender exists outside prescribed lines of male and female, and who works with youth in PK-12 schools. TEN is firmly committed to trans justice, racial justice, and anti-oppression work in education.
Dedicated to the best life for every child and youth, CHEO is a global leader in pediatric health care and research. In this site you will find a variety of resources to help you better understand, cope with and/or support someone with their sexual and gender identity.
Trans Student Educational Resources (TSER)
Trans Student Educational Resources is a youth-led organization dedicated to transforming the educational environment for trans and gender non-conforming students through advocacy and empowerment. Founded in 2011, it is the only national organization led by trans youth.
Trans Day of Resilience (TDOR)
Honoring Trans Lives, Dreaming of Trans Freedom. Founded with the Audre Lorde Project in 2014, the Trans Day of Resilience art project is an annual love offering to trans people of color everywhere. With art as a portal, we imagine and femifest the world we deserve. May this project, for and by trans people of color, help us see ourselves safe and cherished, rested and healed, fully alive. Let’s dream and shape an irresistible future together.
Gender Creative Kids is a reference community organization that has supported trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid youth's affirmation within their families, schools, and communities since 2013. By empowering parents and their children, educating communities, offering innovative and evidence-informed resources, and advocating for the rights of trans youth.
Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) offers literary and creative programming for kids and teens of all ages led by drag queens, kings, and creatures all over the world. DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.
The Transgender Archives at the University of Victoria is committed to the preservation of the history of pioneering activists, community leaders, and researchers who have contributed to the betterment of trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and other gender-diverse people. Their collections comprise the largest trans archives in the world and they are accessible to everyone, free of charge.
Learning for Justice provide free resources to educators work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use their materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create inclusive school communities where children and youth are respected, valued and welcome participants.
Indigenous & Two-Spirit Resources
UNYA's 2-Spirit Collective provides support, resources, and programming for Indigenous youth, who identify as 2-spirit or LGBTQ+ and for those who are questioning their sexual or gender identities. The 2-Spirit Collective ensures that you have non-judgmental, supportive spaces to get together and explore your identities and what that mean to you.
Xwi7xwa Library Research Guide: Two-Spirit & Indigenous Queer Studies
Xwi7xwa Library offers a wide range of carefully curated library Research Guides. The Two-Spirit & Indigenous Queer Studies guide is a particularly helpful place to start when looking for introductory information. Xwi7xwa librarians continually evaluate books, article indexes, websites to find reliable, authoritative information.
The Native Youth Sexual Health Network
The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN) is an organization by and for Indigenous youth that works across issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice throughout the United States and Canada. NYSHN is led by and for Indigenous youth 30 years of age and under.
The Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies
The Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies report and toolkit are part of a multi-year initiative to document the ways that the sexual and reproductive health of Indigenous women, Two Spirit and young people in North America are impacted by extractive industries, and to support their resistance efforts.
Two Spirits, One Voice is an initiative that seeks to bolster support for persons that identify both as LGBTQI and Indigenous –Two Spirit people. This video attempts to educate the general public on the history and barriers that impact Two Spirit people in Canada.
NativeOUT is a nonprofit education and media organization that seeks to create social change in rural and urban communities that benefit indigenous lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two Spirit people.
Injunuity is a mix of animation, music, and real thoughts from real people exploring our world from the Native American perspective. Every word spoken is verbatim, every thought and opinion is real, told in nine short pieces and covering such topics as language preservation, sacred sites, and the environment.
University of Toronto Libraries - Two Spirit and LGBTQIA Indigenous Resources
The Two Spirit and LGBTQIA Indigenous Resources guide is meant as a starting place for research relating to Two Spirit and LGBTQIA* Indigenous communities. Here, you will find research reports, documents, books, films and community resources.
Policies, Guides & Booklets
National Center for Transgender Equality
The National Center for Transgender Equality advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender people. In the nation’s capital and throughout the country, NCTE works to replace disrespect, discrimination, and violence with empathy, opportunity, and justice.
2SLGBTQ+ Organizations & Projects
GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBTQ acceptance. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
The leading national US-based education organization focused on ensuring safe and affirming schools for LGBTQ students to grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment. GLSEN believes that every student has the right to a safe, supportive, and LGBTQ-inclusive K-12 education.
HRC Foundation’s Welcoming Schools is the most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program in the US to provide LGBTQ and gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals. Their program uses an intersectional, anti-racist lens dedicated to actionable policies and practices.
AMAZE takes the awkward out of sex ed. Real info in fun, animated videos that give you all the answers you actually want to know about sex, your body and relationships. AMAZE harnesses the power of digital media to provide young adolescents around the globe with medically accurate, age-appropriate, affirming, and honest sex education they can access directly online.
Gender Spectrum works to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens. They focus on creating gender-inclusive spaces throughout the primary domains of all children’s lives and work with professionals, including educators, social service workers, faith leaders, medical and mental health professionals, government and business leaders and others who need support in navigating rapidly changing gender understandings.
ILGA World – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - is a worldwide federation of more than 1,600 organisations from over 150 countries and territories campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex human rights. They support LGBTI civil society worldwide through advocacy and research projects and give grassroots movements a voice within international organisations.
SIECUS advances sex education through advocacy, policy and coalition building. SIECUS envisions an equitable nation where all people receive sex education, are affirmed in their identities, and have power to make decisions about their own health, pleasure, and wholeness.
Trans Lifeline provides trans peer support for our community that’s been divested from police since day one. We’re run by and for trans people. Trans Lifeline connects trans people to the community support and resources we need to survive and thrive.
The Body Is Not An Apology is an international movement committed to cultivating global Radical Self Love and Body Empowerment. Through information dissemination, personal and social transformation projects and community building, The Body is Not An Apology fosters global, radical, unapologetic self love which translates to radical human love and action in service toward a more just, equitable and compassionate world.
Black Girl Dangerous is a reader-funded, non-profit project. BGD is the brainchild of award-winning writer Mia McKenzie. What started out as a scream of anguish has evolved into a multi-faceted forum for expression. BGD with its focus on social justice seeks to, in as many ways as possible, amplify the voices, experiences and expressions of queer and trans people of color.
Flamingo Rampant is producing feminist, racially-diverse, LGBTQ positive children’s books, in an effort to bring visibility and positivity to the reading landscape of children everywhere. They make books kids love that love them right back, bedtime stories for beautiful dreams, and books that make kids of all kinds say with pride: that kid’s just like me!
Podcasts
Queer America is an exploration of the history of sexual identity and gender identity in the United States. Leila Rupp and John D’Emilio host this new podcast from Teaching Tolerance—a resource to help educators integrate LGBTQ history into their curriculum.
Teacher Education For All! - Curriculum Mapping Project Interviews
This website contains podcasts of interviews with UBC Faculty of Education scholars discussing the implementation of SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) education and curriculum. It is intended as a resource for those studying related topics and for teachers and teacher candidates seeking useful ideas for the integration of SOGI related topics, readings, and so on in their curriculum and instruction.
Welcome to Gender. Sexuality. School. a podcast that features interviews with researchers, teachers, and artists doing cutting edge work around issues of gender, sexuality and schooling. In the first episode of season 3, Tara talks to Professor Harper Keenan from the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia about two recent research projects: Building Blocks: Race, Gender and Early Education project and Drag Pedagogy.
Out at School, is a verbatim audio-play about the experiences of LGBTQ families at school, created from excerpts from interviews undertaken with 37 families living in the province of Ontario, Canada, between 2014 and 2020. The play is divided into 3 parts, with each part ending with an original song composed and sung by Canadian queer folk musician Kate Reid.
We are story architects; building narratives to advance trans stories, culture, histories, and healing. We are conversation starters, documentarians, and activists who are committed to helping trans people in the United States and, ultimately, around the world. Telling stories which advance understanding, knowledge and empathy by emphasizing personal narratives of courage, resilience and quiet bravery are what we are all about.
Hosted by Matthew Winner, elementary school librarian and co-founder of All The Wonders. The Children's Book Podcast features insightful and sincere interviews with authors, illustrators, and everyone involved in taking a book from drawing board to bookshelf.
Ericka Hart and Ebony Donnley lead this "decolonized podcast for lovers on the margins". Ericka and Ebony are partners in love and work. The respect and deep care they share, the fun they have together, is extremely present. And it feels vital since the themes they cover aren't easy ones. Anti-blackness is a recurring one on the podcast, as in life.
All My Relations is a team of folks who care about representations, and how Native peoples are represented in mainstream media. Between us we have decades of experience working in and with Native communities, and writing and speaking about issues of representation. In their Indigiqueer episode, they join forces with two amazing Indigenous queer writers and scholars who are making waves in the literary scene with their poetry, prose, and fiction.
Listen for free every week, as a different student, graduate or LGBT+ producer tells their most #QueerAF story on the podcast by National Student Pride. Hosted by Jamie Wareham, we commission young LGBT+ producers to tell their own stories so long as they are beyond the binary, sex-positive, challenge mental health, sexuality and identity taboos – or have unicorns spewing rainbows everywhere.
Queer Sex Ed is a queer-positive, sex-positive platform for open, honest, and direct communication about sex and relationships. Queer Sex Ed is an imperative statement. When the call to "Queer" Sex Ed, it is a call-to-arms for sexual health educators, schools, parents, and people in all types of relationships to intentionally "queer" the institutions of sexual communication, sexual health, interpersonal relationships, and relationship structure.