awareness and compassion for their peers, and a youthful excitement for the future that they only get to see and experience if they are guided safely through their education in their formative years.
Foreword contributed by PostSecret
Although many books offer a foreword with insights from one person about why the book’s topic matters, there was simply no way that any one person could speak on behalf of the estimated two million American LGBT+ youth, their families, and LGBT+ educators. Instead, the author chose to seek out voices that represent these experiences and their stories. What follows is a contribution from PostSecret, with each postcard representing countless individuals with identical or near-identical experiences and stories.
PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project. In the 15 years since Frank Warren created PostSecret, he has received more than one million secrets, mailed to him from all over the globe. The PostSecret website is the most popular ad-free website in the world, having had more than 900 million views to date. Thousands of secrets have been on tour at museums throughout the world, including at America’s Smithsonian Museum.
This project has become such a phenomenon largely because of how one person’s secret has been found to be the secret of many. As such, to see the secret of one is to have the opportunity to identify that this one secret speaks for countless others who hold that same secret or that same experience inside of their hearts.
The following secrets have been personally chosen and graciously contributed to this book by Frank Warren, as he continues to support the mental health, suicide prevention, and acceptance of all people through PostSecret, a goal this book shares with the entire PostSecret community of contributors.
Introduction
Before we began this book, let’s take a minute to get really real. One of the biggest questions I find most people ask themselves before attending a conference, listening to a speech, or spending time reading a book is Who cares? For this reason, I will focus this book only on topics when there is a clear answer, not just to Who cares? but also to Why should I care?
This isn’t because I believe you are incapable of making these connections yourselves, but because I recognize that, by the sheer nature of being an educator, each reader is likely to be significantly overworked and very, very underpaid. In many situations, books that are written for people of a profession are written by people who have never worked within that profession. This results in an entire textbook, reference material, or mandated required reading that works well in theory, but which professionals are swift to acknowledge could never work in practice.
This is why this book will be laid out to make it most accessible for you to find the information you need when you need it, and it will allow you to skip entire chapters if they do not apply to the grade level you teach.
Section I offers foundational knowledge, including terminology and frequently asked questions. This will provide all readers with the opportunity to gain or review information, ensuring that they are up to date in current best practices regarding language and research.
Section II provides scenarios that allow readers to try out what they learned in Section I. Scenarios offer opportunities to think through various real-life school situations. Each scenario is followed by questions to answer as well as guidance so that the readers’ answers can be deconstructed, to highlight best practices and to gain further insight into the best ways to meet the needs of the student, student’s family, and/or staff member within the scenario. This section can be utilized individually, in small groups, or as a collective. This is a great way to test yourself privately, to collaborate within teaching teams, or to bring a teacher-training seminar together to turn theory into practice!
Section III turns the hypothetical scenarios into real-life action! This section will guide readers in assessing their own school settings, provide scripts to reach out to supervisors to request to discuss making changes in areas where improvements have been identified, and to make alterations within one’s own control. This provides the opportunity to discover where your school is successful, gives insights into how to work with your supervisors to make your school more LGBT+ inclusive, and offers methods to improve your own classroom, office, or workplace setting.
The goal of this book is not to make a reader become an expert in this field, but rather to provide foundational knowledge that encompasses the immediate needs of the LGBT+ people within your school system, in a way that causes as little disruption to classrooms and schools as possible. Also, lesson plan ideas within this book are intentionally set to require little to no preparation time, and little to no expense to purchase supplies or materials. While a reader is certainly welcome to expand any of the lesson plans provided to be used within more than one class period or to incorporate additional supplies and materials, it is not required.
It is my hope that the information you will read will allow you not just to find implementation opportunities within what you are already teaching, but also that it will help you to understand that the nuances and ways of being mindful of the LGBT+ community can cause benefits to students, staff, family, and the community overall.
Section I
The Foundation:
Terminology and Insights
Section summary
In this section, you will find foundational information related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, as well as to other communities that are under the “sexual orientation and gender identity” umbrella. This includes considerations of safety, allyship, terminology, and frequently asked questions.
How to use this section
This section can be utilized individually or collectively. If you are reading this on your own, consider your current knowledge base and assumptions before each section, then read on and compare your thoughts with the information provided. This will allow you to spend as much or as little time in this section as necessary based on the insight you already have, correcting your misperceptions and filling in knowledge gaps as you read. If you are reading this in a small group setting, please encourage individuals to take time to think independently, then for the groups to share their thoughts with one another. After, the answers from the book can be provided, allowing all participants to compare their thoughts and the group’s discussion with the correct answers. If the group is large, breakout groups can be assigned to go through this process in a more manageable way, thus allowing everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts and assumptions as they
