Supporting Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Diversity in K-12 Schools

This book reviews timely, pragmatic interventions and strategies to support LGBTQ students in K12 schools.  

Where formal programs affirming  diversity of gender expression and sexual orientation are not yet in place, contributors provide insights and practical tips for  creating a positive, safe school environment. Topics include how stigma based on gender expression or sexual orientation can affect children and adolescents in school performance and risk-taking behavior, and how schools can flip the narrative on  bullying and victimization to one that promotes strengths and school connectedness. Teacher and school staff training issues are also addressed, along with suggestions for advocacy on the small scale and at local, regional, and state systems levels. 

In this book school counselors and psychologists, administrators, teachers, and other community stakeholders will find steps they can take to translate and implement the ever-growing body of scientific theory and research on equitable education of gender minority and sexual minority children, youth, and families. 

Megan C. Lytle, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). Dr. Lytle’s clinical and research expertise is in multiculturalism with a particular focus on the health and suicide disparities that are experienced by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) individuals. She completed two research-based internships: one with the International Association of Applied Psychology nongovernmental organization at the United Nations and a predoctoral internship in the Program of Research and Innovation in Disparities Education track at the URMC. Dr. Lytle received her PhD in counseling psychology from Seton Hall University. As a National Research Service Award Fellow and KL2 Scholar, she began developing a research portfolio on the prevention of suicide, attempted suicide, risk-related deaths, and antecedent risks amid transgender and gender-diverse communities. She is a licensed psychologist and, until 2018, was cochair of the Committee on Children, Youth and Families of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 44, Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.

Richard A. Sprott, PhD, received his degree in developmental psychology from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), in 1994. His early work was on social and language development in early childhood, and he has a long history of evaluating educational programs for migrant farmworker families in the Midwest. Dr. Sprott is currently directing research projects focused on issues facing homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning youth and on identity development and health and well-being in people who express alternative sexualities and nontraditional relationships. He also teaches in the Department of Human Development and Women’s Studies at California State University, East Bay, and teaches graduate-level courses at various universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, including UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Holy Names University. He is cochair of the Committee on Children, Youth and Families of APA Division 44. All of these efforts highlight the ways in which stigma, prejudice, minority dynamics, health, language, identity development, and community development intersect and affect each other.

This book reviews timely, pragmatic interventions and strategies to support LGBTQ students in K12 schools. Where formal programs affirming diversity of gender expression and sexual orientation are not yet in place, contributors provide insights and practical tips for creating a positive, safe school environment. Topics include how stigma based on gender expression or sexual orientation can affect children and adolescents in school performance and risktaking behavior, and how schools can flip the narrative on bullying and victimization to one that promotes strengths and school connectedness. Teacher and school staff training issues are also addressed, along with suggestions for advocacy on the small scale and at local, regional, and state systems levels. In this book school counselors and psychologists, administrators, teachers, and other community stakeholders will find steps they can take to translate and implement the evergrowing body of scientific theory and research on equitable education of gender minority and sexual minority children, youth, and families.

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