Blog Posts for Students & Schools
Know Your Rights: Transgender Rights in New England
We’ve come a good way towards establishing legal protections for transgender people in New England in the past several years. In 2011, both Connecticut and Massachusetts added gender identity to their anti-discrimination laws, joining Rhode Island (2001), Maine (2005) and Vermont (2007) in providing protections in employment, housing and credit, and, in all but Massachusetts, public accommodations (like restaurants, bars, parks, stores, hospitals, shelters, etc.). But there is still work to do.
Into the Woods: Providing a Different Kind of Counsel at Camp for Transgender & Gender Variant Youth
The last time I went to summer camp was nearly 35 years ago. Beginning when I was seven and continuing into my early adolescence, I spent between four and eight weeks each summer at overnight camp. The experience of being among peers and away from home was formative and life-changing, as it is for thousands, probably millions, of children throughout the world. I’ll never forget those long summer afternoons surrounded by friends playing kickball for hours followed by dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup washed down with a tall cup of bug juice), a night game of capture the flag, then milk squad, and staying up late ignoring the counselors’ warnings to “get to sleep.
Another GSA is Born
I recently received the exciting news that we had helped a high school student and his friends in Maine form a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA). I would have been happy to sue to found a GSA but it was just as satisfying to persuade the school to do the right thing because it was right for the school. Indeed, GLAD does a lot of work behind the scenes.
Know Your Rights: An Introduction to GLAD’s Legal InfoLine
Legal InfoLine Manager Bruce Bell begins a regular weekly blog post today.
Imagine a School Culture of Dignity and Respect for All
Yesterday I testified on behalf of GLAD in front of the General Court’s Joint Committee on Education in support of a comprehensive bill to prevent school bullying. The bill before the committee, H. 483, is an excellent starting point and has the potential to ultimately result in a law that would create safer schools for Massachusetts students, including those who are LGBT.
Did you go to your high school prom?
LGBT students have dealt with that beloved/dreaded high school ritual - The Prom - in various ways throughout history. Some of us muddled our way through opposite-sex “dates”, pretending to have the time of our lives while secretly longing to slow dance with our best friend. Some of us truly did have a great time, spending the evening with a best friend who was also queer. Some skipped the Prom entirely. Some - more, these days - actually did get that special slow dance with the very person they wanted.