Affirm gender and sexual diversity within the school community

Schools tend to be unsafe, unsupportive places for LGBTQ youth. Generally, teachers and administrators are provided little professional development (professional development) focused on gender and sexual diversity. Efforts to provide educators with gender and sexual diversity-focused professional development are slowly expanding, but still too focused on individuals. To navigate those challenges the authors have designed a “Teacher Institute” for local teachers, preservice teachers, educational leaders, and teacher educators to participate. The institute focuses on knowledge building, critical self-reflection, dialogue, action, and practice in two, 2.5 hour segments.