Much progress still to be made toward acceptance for LGBTQ+ students

Going to school can be a mixed bag for many students. Some thrive in the academic and social settings that school has to offer. They enjoy classroom learning, participate in extracurricular activities and engage in sports. On the flip side, others struggle to learn in the classroom, avoid participating in extracurricular activities and never find their way in sports. A third group is somewhere in the middle — they go to school, learn, socialize and go home without incident.

Students who identify as LGBTQ+ are in each of these scenarios. However, more often than not, they struggle to find their way through their school feeling supported, affirmed and valued. And if the student identifies as transgender, the obstacles they face on a day-to-day basis can seem insurmountable with the lack of school policies to support their education.

To address some of these issues for LGBTQ+ students, Silver State Equality, Nevada’s statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, established its LGBTQ+ Student Advisory Council in 2022. The council is made up of LGBTQ+ students and adult mentors from throughout the state who work to identify changes that need to be made at schools to improve the school climate for students. It set out to hear from LGBTQ+ students from across Nevada by embarking on a listening campaign and distributing an online survey to identify the needs of LGBTQ+ students.

The findings of the survey are unsettling.

Eighty percent reported that they have experienced discrimination because of their LGBTQ+ identity from those in authority. Nearly half of students surveyed said that they had been deliberately excluded by peers within the past six months, and 60% had been bullied in the past six months. These realities undoubtedly contribute to the more than 33% of students surveyed who said they don’t feel secure at school.

At the core of these findings is the mental health of LGBTQ+ students. One of the recommendations from the report is to increase investments by state and local governments in the mental health of young people to expand the number of mental health providers in Nevada. Specifically, more mental health services are needed for LGBTQ+ youths, including therapists trained in LGBTQ+ issues.

Another recommendation coming from the report is to pass anti-bullying laws that explicitly include LGBTQ+ students. Inclusive policies should specifically name and protect LGBTQ+ students because those policies are critical for creating safe and supportive schools for all youths. Bullying has a detrimental effect on students’ ability to learn at their full potential, while simultaneously negatively affecting their overall state of mind.

A third recommendation is to provide more diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging training to school staff and administrators with the goal of helping schools better meet the needs of students from all walks of life.

The recommendations of the LGBTQ+ Student Advisory Council stand in stark contrast to some of the horrible commentary spewed by outside groups at Clark County School District board of trustee meetings that seek to disrupt our pro-equality community and values in Southern Nevada.

Specifically, CCSD board of trustees attendees have engaged in demeaning ANTI-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender rhetoric that calls for a decreased focus on diverse and inclusive policies and practices, and the banning, removal and recategorization of LGBTQ+ themed books.

Calls for book bans are happening all across the nation in a coordinated manner and often focus on passages from books that are not even part of a school’s curriculum.

Moreover, the demeaning language expressed during public comment also targets parents, teachers, staff and administrators.

The equality movement has spent decades encouraging parents to accept their LGBTQ+ children. Now that more parents are doing just that — especially parents of transgender children — others are attacking these parents for supporting and loving their children by making outlandish, harmful and disrespectful statements at school board meetings.

We have faith that CCSD will do what’s best and what’s needed for LGBTQ+ students, especially transgender students who need and deserve an education that will springboard them into a productive life that includes a fulfilling career and sense of well-being.

It’s important that we listen to the voices of our LGBTQ+ students who want lawmakers, decision makers and community members to do their part to create a world and school environment that is healthy, just and fully equal, so they can better learn, grow and thrive in school.