Starting a student group for GLBT? middle schoolers?

[eilonwy]

My niece Chibi is not gay, bi or trans but she has several friends who are and she wants to start a support group in her middle school (she's in seventh grade). She's enlisted two of her gay friends to help with this project as well as teacher support already, so she came to me looking for help with the next step. I think it's wonderful but I have no idea where to even look for ideas, so I'm hoping someone here can point me/us in the right direction. Any suggestions?

[FtMPapa]

You might want to try the learning at school forums.

Such groups are often called "GSAs" - gay straight alliances, and if you do a search, you'll probably find some great resources.

Hope that helps.

[cejae]

This is great! There are a ton of resources out there - though most are directed at high school age kids. The first place I would have her start is with the GSA Network (http://www.gsanetwork.org/). The Safe Schools Coalition also has a wealth of resources (http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/). If the GSA network doesn't have age appropriate materials, let me know and I'm happy to contact the founder of the network to pick her brain for you.

Depending on what state she's living in she might have supportive laws behind her (between 6-10 states do at this point). Similarly, should she encounter resistance at the district level, precedent has been set that under the Federal Equal Access Act a school must allow GSAs to meet or ban all school groups (there is one school district that managed to skirt this law...I think that's under appeal right now.).

I have a ton of resources for your niece and/or her teacher should they want them. I do research/write books about sexuality/homophobia in schools and often discuss with teachers/parents about how to make their schools more welcoming places. So please please please feel free to private message me and I can give you my contact info to pass on to your niece if she isn't already overwhelmed with the info I provided .

What a great girl!

CJ

[eilonwy]

Fabulous, thank you! She's calling it GLSA for the time being, actually-- I'm just not sure if that's a working title or what they plan to call it. And yes, I think she's a great kid too. Oh-- and I did cross-post to Learning at School.