LGBTQ+

by
LGBTQ kit displayed on desk

This kit is intended to be a starting point for libraries to reach and support LGBTQ+ patrons and members of their community. It includes several books for both adults and children, activities and programs for LGBTQ+ people including sharing their story, engaging and dialoguing with the community, and receiving resource lists and information about local services.

There are also several activities for those who are not LGBTQ+. Learn new ideas for starting a related works book club and story time events to help discuss LGBTQ+ topics with children, teens and anyone in your community.

Also included in the kit are resources for library staff to review programming ideas and best practices for serving the LGBTQ+ community. Key to this kit are resources to help your library convene a community conversation.

Audience

People who are LGBTQ+

Programs and activities for those in the LGBTQ+ community including telling their story, dialoguing within the community, and receiving resource lists and information about local services.

People Learning About LGBTQ+ people

  • Participate in a facilitated activity on assumptions.
  • Take part in a community conversation.
  • Participate in a book club event to read related works and discuss with others.

Internal Staff

Learn how to create an environment that feels welcoming, informative and supportive, including ideas for reducing policy barriers. Learn how to host conversations that explore public perceptions, help to debunk myths around LGBTQ+ people, and strengthen community ties.

Library staff can:

  • participate in facilitated activities,
  • review best practices for serving LGBTQ+ people,
  • establish partnerships with community service providers,
  • research local services for LGBTQ+ people,
  • create resources list bookmarks for takeaway,
  • organize, promote and facilitate a community conversation, and
  • organize and facilitate a book club event to read related works and discuss with the public.

Contents

Admin Materials:

  • Kit red binder with information and activities.
  • Clipboard with evaluation form.

Activity Props:

  • Interaction Activity: That’s So Gay Trivia Game for organized gameplay with patrons in the library.
  • Role-playing Activity: Coming Out Stars Game
    • Binder Including Instructions, and Paper Star Cut-out Template
    • Paper Star Cut-out colored sheets  (4 sheets of each color)
    • Laminated Game Cards (12 sets)
  • Creation Activity:
    • Laminated Table Tent Master Copy (binder pocket)
    • History of LGBTQ+ in Libraries Laminated Info Sheet (binder pocket)
  • Tell Your Story Activity:
    • Laminated StoryCorp guide sheets for audio recording guidance
  • Book Club discussion Activity:
    • CSL Book Club suggestion –  Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
  • Storytime Activity:
    • Julian is a Mermaid

Sample books for possible inclusion in your collection:

  • Sample books Children’s books for patrons.
    • Julian is a Mermaid
    • Who are You?
    • Sparkle Boy
  • Sample books for adult patrons
    • Is it a Choice?
    • What Does God Think?
    • Queering the Countryside
    • Homosexuality: Opposing Viewpoints
    • Trans Bodies, Trans Selves
  • Sample books for Teen patrons
    • GLBTQ: The Survival Guide…
  • Sample DVD for Adult patrons
    • Out in the Open 

Community Conversations

Fostering Dialog Across Divides (spiral bound manual) providing step by step guidelines on facilitating large, potential controversial conversations with community members.

Streamables

An Introduction to Transgender People
National Center for Transgender Equality
Published on Jul 11, 2016
Transgender identity, in their words
CNN
Published on Jan 31, 2017
LGBT Rights: The Power of a Single Conversation
Freethink
Published on Jun 12, 2017

Fifty Shades of Gay
iO Tillett Wright

Chris Edwards: “BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some” | Talks at Google

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/happened-small-town-transgender-daughter-transitioned/story?id=53245389

Luchina Fisher: What happened in my small town when my transgender daughter transitioned

Best Practices for Conducting an Interview

Booklists

Books – Children

I Am Jazz
Jessica Herthel
From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl’s brain in a boy’s body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn’t feel like herself in boys’ clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. (Copy of book in Resource Kit, multiple copies available through the CSL Book Club Resource.)

Mommy, Mama, and Me
Lesléa Newman
A baby enjoys a number of fun activities with her two mothers.

Daddy, Papa, and Me
Lesléa Newman
Rhythmic text and illustrations with universal appeal show a toddler spending the day with its daddies. From hide-and-seek to dress-up, then bath time and a kiss goodnight, there’s no limit to what a loving family can do together. Share the loving bond between same-sex parents and their children.

This Day in June
Gayle E. Pitman
Celebrate Pride (or any day of the year) with this festive picture book.

Jacob’s New Dress
Sarah Hoffman
Jacob wears what he’s comfortable in: a new dress.

Books – Teen

Like Water
Rebecca Podos
When her father is diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, eighteen-year-old Vanni abandons her plan to flee her small New Mexico hometown after high school graduation and instead spends the summer keeping herself busy with part-time jobs and boys, but that changes after she meets Leigh, whose friendship dares Vanni to ask herself big questions and make new plans.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters – Book One (Graphic Novel)
Emil Ferris
“Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late 1960s Chicago, and narrated by 10-year-old Karen Reyes, Monsters is told through a fictional graphic diary employing the iconography of B-movie horror imagery and pulp monster magazines. As the precocious Karen Reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, we watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfold”–Front cover flap.

If I Was your Girl
Meredith Russo
Amanda struggles with keeping her transgender identity a secret as she navigates life in a new town and new school after a traumatizing incident in her old hometown.

Books – Adults

Balls: It takes Some To Get Some.
Chris Edwards. Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2016.
A witty and refreshing memoir about transitioning, as told by Chris Edwards who corrects his gender from female to male. With a voice that is brave and bold, Edwards details his journey as a trans man living in a time before the term “transgender” even existed. You can access his talk on the via this website.

Cuz: or, the Life and Times of Michael A
Danielle Allen
In a shattering work that shifts between a woman’s private anguish over the loss of her beloved baby cousin and a scholar’s fierce critique of the American prison system, Danielle Allen seeks answers to what, for many years, felt unanswerable. Why? Why did her cousin, a precocious young man who dreamed of being a firefighter and a writer, end up dead? Why did he languish in prison? And why, at the age of fifteen, was he in an alley in South Central Los Angeles, holding a gun while trying to steal someone’s car?
In this Ellisonian story of a young African American man’s coming-of-age in late twentieth-century America, and of the family who will always love Michael, we learn how we lost an entire generation. (Available in multiple copies through the CSL Book Club Resource.)

Autonomous
Annalee Newitz
Judith “Jack” Chen is a pharmaceutical pirate: by reverse-engineering prohibitively expensive drugs, she can make antivirals and other therapies available to the poor. Unfortunately, one of the drugs she duplicates is resulting in a series of lethal overdoses, and now she has to fix it and expose the truth about the corporation that created the original. Tracking down Jack is -Paladin, a military-issue robot from the African Federation, and his human partner, Eliasz. As Jack and Paladin’s paths bring them closer together, the black-and-white truths of the corporate and military worlds begin to bleed into gray. Jack’s liaisons with lovers of various genders and Paladin’s own gradual evolution contribute to a skillful inspection of attraction and identity that feels right at home in Newitz’s fragmented, frenetic society. The cofounder of the sf website io9.com takes some of today’s key social and technical issues (the nature of artificial intelligence, the notion of property and ownership) and wraps them in a compelling, original story line acted out by memorable characters.

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity
C. Riley Snorton
The story of Christine Jorgensen, America’s first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives-ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence.

¡Cuéntamelo!: Oral Histories by LGBT Latino Immigrants
Juliana Delgado Lopera
Published in a bilingual English and Spanish edition. Winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Anthology. A stunning collection of bilingual oral histories and illustrations by LGBT Latinx immigrants who arrived in the U.S. during the 80s and 90s. Stories of repression in underground Havana in the 60s; coming out trans in Catholic Puerto Rico in the 80s; Scarface, female impersonators, Miami and the ‘boat people’; San Francisco’s underground Latinx scene during the 90s and more.

Lives of Great Men: Living and Loving as An African Gay Man – A Memoir
Chike Frankie Edozien
From Victoria Island, Lagos to Brooklyn, U.S.A. to Accra, Ghana to Paris, France; from across the Diaspora to the heart of the African continent, in this memoir Nigerian journalist Chike Frankie Edozien offers a highly personal series of contemporary snapshots of same gender loving Africans, unsung Great Men living their lives, triumphing and finding joy in the face of great adversity. On his travels and sojourns Edozien explores the worsening legal climate for gay men and women on the continent; the impact homophobic evangelical American pastors are having in many countries, and its toxic intersection with political populism; and experiences the pressures placed on those living under harshly oppressive laws that are themselves the legacy of colonial rule – pressures that sometimes lead to seeking asylum in the West. Yet he remains hopeful, and this memoir, which is pacy, romantic and funny by turns, is also a love-letter to Africa, above all to Nigeria and the megalopolis that is Lagos.

Tailor-made
Yolanda Wallace
Before Grace Henderson began working as a tailor in her father’s bespoke suit shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she established a hard and fast rule about not dating clients. The edict is an easy one for her to follow, considering the overwhelming majority of the shop’s clients are men. But when Dakota Lane contacts her to commission a suit to wear to her sister’s wedding, Grace finds herself tempted to throw all the rules out the window. Dakota Lane works as a bicycle messenger by day and moonlights as a male model. Her high-profile career, gender-bending looks, and hard-partying ways garner her plenty of romantic attention, but she would rather play the field than settle down. When she meets sexy tailor Grace Henderson, however, she suddenly finds herself in the market for much more than a custom suit.

Other Booklists on this topic

Stonewall Book Awards: http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt/award/stonewall
Rainbow Book List: https://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/
Over the Rainbow Book List: https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/overtherainbow/

Websites

Colorado Statewide LGBTQ+ Resources

  • Colorado Name Change Project – www.namechangeproject.org
    Their goal is to help navigate Colorado’s court system as well as Federal and State Agencies to quickly and easily change your legal name and/or gender marker.
  • Colorado Queer Youth Summit – http://www.coqueeryouthsummit.org/
    The summit is held each Winter, bringing over 200 youth to participate in youth-led and co-led workshops. It was established in 2008 by a coalition of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, pansexual, queer, two-spirit, same-gender-loving, and ally youth-serving organizations. The coalition seeks to create a space that is “For Youth – By Youth” with intentional focus on providing youth the support to realize their own potential, recognizing that strong communities are best build from within. Many resources listed on the website.
  • Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) – https://www.colorado.gov/cssrc
    The mission of the Colorado School Safety Resource Center (CSSRC) is to assist educators, emergency responders, community organizations, school mental health professionals, parents and students to create safe, positive and successful school environments for Colorado students in all pre K-12 and higher education schools. They have online trainings and tools.
  • One Colorado – http://www.one-colorado.org/
    A statewide advocacy organization dedicated to securing and protecting equality and opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Coloradans and their families.  They work toward this goal by effectively advocating for LGBT Coloradans and their families, lobbying the General Assembly, executive branch, and local governments on issues like safe schools, relationship recognition, and LGBT health and human services.  Their vision is a fair and just Colorado.
  • PAVES (Polysexual Alliance for Visibility, Education, and Support) – https://paves.ngo/
    The mission of PAVES is to, through outreach and awareness campaigns, ensure that polysexual individuals know they are not forgotten and are never alone.
  • SAGE of the Rockies – http://www.glbtcolorado.org/sage/
    Offers activities and events that focus on health, housing, legal and financial planning, legacy, and social connection, specifically for LGBT persons age 50+.  The Center and OutBoulder are affiliate members of the nation wide network, enabling them to administer the programs in their respective communities.
  • Survivors Organizing for Liberation (SOL) – http://solcolorado.org/
    (Physically located in Denver, but services statewide) Formerly known as Colorado Anti-Violence Program, offers support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed, and questioning (LGBTIQ) victims of violence and hate crimes, as well as educational resources for the community.
  • Trans Youth Education Support (TYES) – https://youthseen.org/tyes/
    TYES is a Colorado statewide group supporting all gender expansive (non-binary & binary transgender, gender fluid, gender questioning, genderqueer, agender, bigender, pangender) youth and their families. TYES is dedicated to helping parents support their gender expansive youth, and to help families find the information, resources, and understanding they need.

Boulder & Longmont

  • Boulder Valley Safe Schools Coalition– http://www.bouldersafeschools.org/
    (Located in Boulder) A volunteer group working to make Boulder Valley schools safe and welcoming for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning students, parents, and staff.
  • OASOS (Open and Affirming Sexual Orientation/ Gender Identity Support) – http://pflagboulder.org/pflag-resources/oasos/
    (Located in Boulder County) OASOS provides advocacy and weekly education/support/activity groups for LGBT youth ages 13-20 in Boulder and Longmont.
  • The Open and Affirming Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity Support (OASOS) Program –http://www.bouldercounty.org/family/lgbtiq/pages/oasos.aspx
    (Location Longmont.) Offers free and confidential services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersexed, and questioning (LGBTIQ) youth, including: peer support groups in Boulder and Longmont, advocacy and a variety of support/counseling services, referrals to health and community services, free testing for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and more.
  • Out Boulder – http://www.outboulder.org/Calendar/Transgender
    (Located in Boulder.) Has several Transgender Support Group meetings and activities which include the Longmont area, for more information, visit their website.
  • Project Visibility – http://www.bouldercounty.org/family/seniors/pages/projvis.aspx
    (Physically located in Boulder with Statewide availability.) An award-winning training for service providers that highlights the lives, needs, and concerns of local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) elders in Boulder County. The training consists of a 20-minute video, power point presentation, and discussion.
  • St. Vrain Safe Schools Coalition – https://www.stvrainsafeschools.org/
    (Located in Longmont.) Monthly meetings 3:30-4:30 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Meetings are free and open to the public. Call 303-678-6259 for more information. Article: “Students work for safer schools” at: http://counseling.stvrain.k12.co.us/safeschools1.pdf

Colorado Springs

  • Inside/Out Youth Services – http://www.insideoutys.org
    (Located in Colorado Springs.) Inside/Out Youth Services is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Their mission is to support at-risk lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth.
  • PAGE, Peak Area Gender Expressions – http://cospage.wix.com/pagecosprings
    (Located in Colorado Springs.) They offer support groups for transgender people, friends and family.  This group is socially focused with opportunities to express yourself in public outings with experienced individuals of like mind.  They also have resources concerning transgender issues including, health, legal, activism, and shopping in the Colorado Springs area.  They meet 7pm the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church. They also have Support groups for GenderQueer (Building Real Identities anD Gender Expressions – BRIDGE group), SOFFA (Family Group), and Military.

Denver

  • Gender Identity Center of Colorado – www.giccolorado.org
    (Located in Denver with Statewide availability for some services)  They have recently expanded services focusing on Counseling, Support, and Education.  They offer low cost (sliding scale) counseling and guidance in transition by professionals.  Counseling is available now over Skype with the first two appointments in person. A Speakers Bureau offers speakers to educate any group about Transgender or related subjects.  Contact to schedule an informative presentation. Support groups meet throughout the week and special events occur throughout the month.
  • The GLBT Center – http://www.glbtcolorado.org/
    (Located in Denver) GLBT Community Center of Colorado (The Center) opened in 1976 and over the years has grown to become the largest community center in the Rocky Mountain region, giving voice to Colorado’s all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and playing a pivotal role in statewide initiatives to reduce harassment and discrimination. Today they are focused on fulfilling their mission by ensuring that every member of the LGBTQ community has access to the programs and resources they need to live happy, healthy, and productive lives.
  • GLBT Center of Colorado Transgender Programs – www.glbtcolorado.org/transgender
    (Located in Denver.) The Center provides programming, support and services tailored for Colorado’s transgender community. These include weekly transgender social and support programs, a transgender speakers bureau, and ongoing educational and networking sessions throughout the year.
  • PFLAG Denver – http://www.pflagdenver.org/
    Offers specialized support for persons striving to understand a loved one’s sexual orientation or gender expression and associated issues. A New Families Group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month in Denver.  There is also a Open to All Support Group at the same time – 6:30 PM. These times do occasionally vary, so check the current newsletter, website calendar, or call to confirm this month’s schedule. There are 6 other groups within Colorado so check the main website for a list.
  • Rainbow Alley – http://www.glbtcolorado.org/site/c.anKIIPNtEqG/b.487673/k.D904/Youth.htm
    (Located in Denver.) 24 hour crisis pager for young LGBTQ youth in crisis: 303-461-1650. Rainbow Alley is Denver’s only drop-in center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning young people, 12-21 years of age.
  • TransAction – http://www.ittakesavillagecolorado.org/programs/transaction.htm
    (Located in east Denver off Colfax Ave.) Join their exciting, fun, and educational programs where they share information, support each other and learn how to stay healthy, safe, and proactive. They meet every Wednesday from 3-5 pm. Free HIV and STD testing is offered every day from 10am until 3pm.
  • TRUE Center at Children’s Hospital
    https://www.childrenscolorado.org/doctors-and-departments/departments/endocrinology/true-gender-diversity-center/
    (Located in Denver.) The only comprehensive care center in the Rocky Mountain region specifically set up for gender-diverse children, adolescents and young adults. They embrace you for who you are, so you can become who you’ve been all along: your true self.

Fort Collins

  • Lambda Community Center/Rainbow Peaks Youth Group – http://www.lambdacenter.org
    (Located in Fort Collins.) Their mission is too offer education for the LGBT and straight community, develop out-reach and collaboration with other agencies, work towards membership involvement, and be involved in political advocacy for equal treatment under the law.  Sunday: Rainbow Peaks Youth Group (20 and under.)
  • NoCoPride – https://nocopride.wordpress.com/
    Support groups and other social activities in the Fort Collins area are now found at NoCoPride.com.  Eclectic Transgender Support & Social Group is the place for education, support, and social activities for the Transgender/Genderqueer/Intersex communities of Northern Colorado. They have a public Facebook page “Eclectic of Northern Colorado.”

Pueblo

  • Outfront Pueblo – sponsored by The Southern Colorado Equality Alliance (SCEA) –http://www.socoequality.org/outfrontyouthgroup.htm
    A safe place for LGBTQ youth ages 15-21 to have fun and meet new people.  A Support Group: 2nd and 4th Friday at 5:30 pm. This group is designed for your need of support. Various topics are discussed. Recreation activities and social events at least every last Saturday of the month at 6pm.
  • Pueblo Transgenerations Support Group – https://www.socoequality.org/transgenerations
    (Located in Pueblo.) Transgender Support Group: Meets every 1st and 3rd Saturday at 6pm at the Colorado Wins building. This is a safe and moderated open drop-in support group for those who may be questioning their gender or feel that their gender or sexual identity falls somewhere outside of societies perceived parameters of gender. This is a safe space and forum for those who identify as Gender Queer, Gender Variant, Bi-gendered, Pan-gendered, Trans Butch, Trans Fem., Transgender, Transsexual, FTM, MTF, or identify with multiple genders or shun all.

National LGBTQ+ Resources

  • Human Rights Campaign (HRC) – http://www.hrc.org/
    The Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy organization, envisions an America where :LGBTpeople are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community. Founded in 1980, HRC effectively lobbies in Congress, provides campaign support to fair-minded candidates, and works to educate the public on a wide array of topics affecting LGBT Americans, including relationship recognition, workplace, family, and health issues. The HRC Foundation engages in research and provides public education and programming.
  • The LGBT National Help Center – http://www.glnh.org/
    The LGBT National Help Center is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to meeting the needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and those questioning their sexual orientation and gender identity. Their Gay & Lesbian National Hotline, which began in 1996, is a primary program of the LGBT National Help Center. They have 15,000 local resources for cities and towns across the country.
  • National LGBTQ Task Force – www.thetaskforce.org
    The National LGBTQ Task Force is the country’s oldest national LGBTQ advocacy group. Their mission is to advance full freedom, justice and equality for LGBTQ people by building a future where everyone is free to be themselves in every aspect of their lives.
  • Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays (PFLAG) – https://www.pflag.org/
    Uniting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) with families, friends, and allies, PFLAG is committed to advancing equality through its mission of support, education, and advocacy. PFLAG has 400 chapters and 200,000 supporters crossing multiple generations of American families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Support

  • Suicide.org – http://www.suicide.org/gay-and-lesbian-suicide.html
    A non-profit suicide prevention informational and educational resource whose website offers support and links to articles pertaining to LGBT youth suicide. The site’s homepage also has links to multiple suicide prevention hotlines (with both talk and text options) and resources for suicide survivors and the family and friends of suicidal individuals.
  • The Trevor Project – http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
    A national suicide and crisis prevention resource for LGBT youth, including a 24-hour hotline (866-4-U-TREVOR/866-488-7386), as well as a Q&A forum, live chat, blog, and many other resources for youth, educators, and parents.
  • Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) – Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC)
    Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) uses innovative strategies to advocate for the legal and human rights of children born with intersex traits. Their work is grounded in a sense of respect and compassion for the children, parents, doctors, and intersex adults involved.
  • Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) – http://www.glad.org/
    Founded in 1978, GLAD works nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on sexual orientation, HIV status, and gender identity and expression.
  • Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund – http://www.lambdalegal.org/
    The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is the largest legal organization in the United States. Since 1973, the staff has worked to secure civil rights for gays, lesbians and persons with HIV via education, public policy work and litigation.
  • Transgender Law Center (TLC) – http://transgenderlawcenter.org/
    Transgender Law Center works to change law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression. They envision a future where gender self-determination and authentic expression are seen as basic rights and matters of common human dignity.

Youth, Families, and Schools

  • Family Equality Council – https://www.familyequality.org/
    Family Equality Council connects, supports, and represents the three million parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer in this country and their six million children. They work to ensure equality for LGBT families by building community, changing hearts and minds, and advancing social justice for all families.
  • Gay, Lesbian & Straight Educators Network (GLSEN) – http://www.glsen.org/
    The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Educators Network is the largest national organization of parents, educators, students and other concerned citizens working to end homophobia in K-12 schools, and to ensure all students are valued and respected, regardless of sexual orientation. Their site details their conference calendar, provides a regional chapter locator, and offers a “tool-kit” or resources to use in schools.
  • GSA Network – https://www.gsanetwork.org/
    GSA Network is a next-generation LGBTQ racial and gender justice organization that empowers and trains queer, trans and allied youth leaders to advocate, organize, and mobilize an intersectional movement for safer schools and healthier communities.  “GSA” has historically stood for Gay-Straight Alliance, however many clubs have expanded the name of their clubs beyond the binary Gay-Straight terminology. Some examples include Genders & Sexualities Alliance, Queer Students Alliance, Pride Club, etc.
  • It Gets Better Project – http://itgetsbetterproject.com/
    The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.
  • Students and Gender Identity – A Toolkit for Schools – https://rossieronline.usc.edu/students-and-gender-identity/
    A collection of tools and resources to support conversations surrounding gender identity in the classroom. This guide is to help teachers, school counselors and school communities work together to create a safe and nurturing school climate for all students.
  • Trans Student Educational Resources – www.transstudent.org
    Trans Student Educational Resources is a youth-led organization dedicated to transforming the educational environment for trans and gender nonconforming students through advocacy and empowerment. In addition to our focus on creating a more trans-friendly education system, our mission is to educate the public and teach trans activists how to be effective organizers. Trans Student Educational Resources contacts schools, gets information, supplies trans resources and provides support for creating change in your school and beyond.

Transgender

  • Bathroom Bill Legislative Tracking – tinyurl.com/BathroomBillTracking
    Hosted by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), the ‘Bathroom Bill’ Legislative Tracking site shows legislation brought up in each state and where the States stand on the issue.
  • GenderSpectrum – https://www.genderspectrum.org
    Gender Spectrum helps to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens. They provide an array of services to help youth, families, organizations and institutions understand and address concepts of Gender identity and Gender expression, including how societal, cultural, organizational and community definitions of gender can be detrimental to any young person who does not fit neatly into these categories. They have many resources and trainings.
  • Legal Recognition of Nonbinary Gender (United States) – tinyurl.com/NonbinaryGenderRecognition
    This is part of a Wikipedia page detailing State Legislation on recognizing a third gender designation on legal identification.
  • National Center for Transgender Equality – www.transequality.org
    The National Center for Transgender Equality is a social justice advocacy organization that works at the local, state, and federal level to change laws, policies and society. Their website has information by state for name changes and gender changes on legal documents.

Veterans

  • American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) – http://aver.us/
    American Veterans for Equal Rights is the oldest and largest chapter-based, all-volunteer national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Veterans Service Organization (VSO) in the United States, and the nation’s only LGBT VSO recognized by the Veterans Administration. It is a Veterans Service Organization of active, reserve, and veteran service members dedicated to full and equal rights and equitable treatment for all present and former members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
  • OutServe-SLDN – http://www.outserve-sldn.org/
    OutServe-SLDN represents the U.S. LGBT military community worldwide. The mission is to educate the community, provide legal services, advocate for authentic transgender service, provide developmental opportunities, support members and local chapters, communicate effectively, and work towards equality for all.

Seniors

  • Gay & Lesbian Association of Retiring Persons (GLARP) – http://www.gaylesbianretiring.org/
    The purpose of the Gay & Lesbian Association of Retiring Persons is to develop and operate retirement communities that are openly LGB-friendly and to promote, provide and support education on aging.
  • Services & Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders (SAGE) – https://www.diversitybestpractices.com/news-articles/sageusa.org
    The mission of SAGE is to lead in addressing issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) aging. In partnership with its constituents and allies, SAGE works to achieve a high quality of life for LGBT older adults, supports and advocates for their rights, fosters a greater understanding of aging in all communities, and promotes positive images of LGBT life in later years.
  • To Survive on this Shore – https://www.tosurviveonthisshore.com
    Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults. Seeking subjects whose lived experiences exist within the complex intersections of gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and geographic location, they traveled from coast to coast, to big cities and small towns, documenting the life stories of this important but largely underrepresented group of older adults. A project by Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre.

Bisexual

  • BiNetUSA – http://www.binetusa.org/
    America’s oldest advocacy organization for bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer-identified and unlabeled people, BiNet USA facilitates the development of a cohesive network of independent bisexual and bi-friendly communities; promotes bisexual and bi-inclusive visibility; and collects and distributes educational information regarding sexual orientation and gender identity with an emphasis on bisexual, pansexual, fluid, queer (bi+) communities.
  • Bisexual.org – http://bisexual.org/
    Bisexual.org is a project designed to introduce the Bi community to the world. They bring faces and voices of the bi community to the world, share accurate information, answer questions, and provide resources for further learning.
  • Bisexual Resource Center – http://www.biresource.net/
    The Bisexual Resource Center (BRC) envisions a world where love is celebrated, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. Because bisexuals today are still misunderstood, marginalized and discriminated against, the BRC is committed to providing support to the bisexual community and raising public awareness about bisexuality and bisexual people.

Other LGBTQ+ Resources

  • The Power of a Single Conversation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmlfnr151rI
    Published on Jun 12, 2017 by Freethink.  After Californians voted against gay marriage in 2008, Dave Fleischer, head of the Leadership LAB at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, decided he had to do something different to reach people. His team decided to talk to as many people who disagreed with them as they could. They connected with people using personal stories to  make a deeper connection with the issue. And the result of the over 15,000 conversations showed that talking to someone face to face could have a deep and lasting impact on people’s opinions on gay and transgender rights.
  • 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey: Colorado State Report 2017 update (external PDF)
    This report discusses the experiences of respondents living in Colorado. It is the largest survey examining the experiences of transgender people in the United States, with 27,715 respondents nationwide

Facilitation Resources

  • Aspen Institute
    The Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries provides access to an online community working together to address the transformation of public libraries in the digital age. Access the  Action Guide, Version 2.0. Organized into three main modules—a Learning Pathway, Leading Pathway, and Implementing Pathway—to enable library and community professionals to commit to focusing on a specific set of objectives—one pathway at a time.
  • Harwood Institute
    The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation teaches, coaches and inspires people and organizations to solve pressing problems and change how communities work together.
  • Public Conversations – Essential Partners
    Essential Partners has worked for more than 25 years to facilitate conversations and equip people for difficult conversations. Their goal is to foster constructive dialogue where conflicts are driven by differences in identity, beliefs & values. They created the Fostering Dialogue Across Divides: A Nuts and Bolts Guide from the Public Conversations Project book.
  • Everyday Democracy: Ideas & Tools for Community Change
    Everyday Democracy helps people and organizations build capacity to engage communities in creating change. They created the guidebook Organizing Community-Wide Dialogue for Action & Change Everyday Democracy
  • The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
    Using seven design principles and a simple method, the World Café is a powerful social technology for engaging people in conversations that matter, offering an effective antidote to the fast-paced fragmentation and lack of connection in today’s world. They created the guidebook Café to Go! A Quick Reference Guide for Putting Conversations to Work, World Café
  • At The Table Colorado
    At the Table Colorado (ATTC) brings people from all walks of life together, during the same week, to participate in a series of free community-wide conversations about what makes their neighborhoods/communities/regions great and what can be done to make them even better.

Downloadables

Activity Resources

Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Books Activity

Creating a Little Free Library

Coming Out Stars

That’s So Gay!