Trump signed gay-to-straight programs in all schools nationwide
The State of Schools for Transgender Youth in 2025
In recent years, as the transsexual community has get increasingly visible, we’ve seen more and more trans youth begin to reside as their legitimate selves. Parents are also increasingly likely to be supportive of their trans children, which leads to young people feeling more free to be who they are. Unfortunately, anti-trans extremists want to create it impossible for LGBTQI+ youth to be themselves in schools. These efforts, as described by the Movement Advancement Proposal (MAP), include banning or fining teachers and schools for even talking about LGBTQI+ people or issues, pulling books off library shelves, and banning teachers from supporting LGBTQI+ students. In concise, opponents want LGBTQI+ youth to be treated like they don’t exist. Those who disagree could face firings, fines, or even imprisonment.
The research is clear: affirming school environments are lifesaving for LGBTQI+ youth. Specifically, The Trevor Venture found that attending a supportive academy was the most meaningful factor lowering the risk of attempted suicide for transitioned youth.
Every student deserves the freedom to bring t
LGBTQ Rights
Know your rights Back to Understand Your Rights main page
The legal landscape for LGBTQ people is constantly evolving. If you think you have been discriminated against and would like our assistance, please visit our Report LGBTQ and HIV Discrimination Page and we can help you figure out whether you are protected under federal or state laws.
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Employers with 15 or more employees are prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Perform from discriminating on the basis of sex, and the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2020 (Bostock v. Clayton County), that firing someone on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is sex discrimination. In addition, many states and cities have laws banning this kind of discrimination, and some of those laws apply to smaller employers.
If you believe that your rights have been violated
If you think that you have experienced discrimination at work, you can file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), or with your state human rights enforcement agency where applicable. Try
Victory for Lakeland Students as Gay-Straight Alliance Allowed to Form
Affiliate: ACLU of Florida
April 30, 2013 10:10 am
Kathleen High School Students and ACLU Advocated for Club to Fight Anti-LGBT Bullying
April 29, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
LAKELAND, FL – A group of students at Kathleen Steep School in Lakeland, Florida have been informed after months of delay that school administrators will authorize them to establish a Gay-Straight Alliance student club at the school. The students had reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida for assistance in getting the club recognized.
Rory Teal and Brenna Pelland, two seventeen-year-old 11th graders at Kathleen High School had been working for months to establish the GSA in order to confront bullying and promote tolerance for lesbian, gay, bisexual person, and transgender students at Kathleen High School, having first contacted administrators about the club in November 2012.
“We are really ecstatic that the GSA is going to be allowed to start creating a safe space where students can be themselves,” stated Pelland. “We want our school to be a place where people are respected
Background On Trump Executive Order Attacking LGBTQ+ Students, Their Educators, and the Freedom for All Children to Learn
by Kathryn Smith •
On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that attempts to dictate to students, their parents, and educators what they can read, learn, say, and who they can be. It utilizes inflammatory and dangerous language to bully LGBTQ+ youth and allies who attempt to help them, and attempts to censor fact-based curriculum that teaches about our nation’s history. This order directs the Departments of Learning, Defense, and Health and Human Services to perform with the Attorney General to develop a approach within 90 days that includes a plan to eliminate federal funding for K-12 schools that hire in what the command characterizes as “anti-American ideologies,” including education that it says is “based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.” It also encourages the prosecution of teachers and officials who respect a student’s transition.
This order directs agencies to take necessary administrative action, including promulgating regulations, to implement these directions, but that process will take A raft of legislation in the statehouses taking aim at LGBTQ students this year draws from the newly ascendent discourse about parents’ rights, curriculum transparency, and schools purportedly indoctrinating students via critical race theory and other ideas. But what is driving it? To fetch a better perception of the rapidly evolving political landscape and accompanying rhetoric, EdWeek spoke to political scientists, historians, LGBTQ advocates, legal scholars, and the lawmakers themselves. The picture that emerges is complex. Old fears about gay people are being united with newer concerns—and newly developed political tools. Parents are largely divided about instructional issues on LGBTQ matters. And the political rhetoric has gotten far more intense, disappearing some advocates gaping at its frankness. “You know, the way it used to be written when they ran bills almost 10 years ago, I estimate, was that schools ‘shall not promote any other sexuality other than heterosexuality.’ There was a little bit of indirectness about the language. This is just hitting you in the face,” said Chris Sanders, the executive director of the TeWhat’s Driving the Thrust to Restrict Schools on LGBTQ Issues?