Cody Marx (he/him/his) (@codymmarx) is a queer, public high school English language arts teacher in New England. He is passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ students and educators alike, and he is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education degree to further that work. Read on to see how Cody addresses the needs of queer and genderqueer students in his classroom.

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Since the beginning of 2022, at least 12 states have proposed legislation that, in varying forms, seeks to ban educators from discussing topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom, as if P-12 educators are implementing curricula designed to convert their straight, cisgender students. Yet the number of Americans who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community has been growing steadily with each new generation regardless of what is being taught in the classroom.

The reality is that a student is more likely to be bullied if they are queer or genderqueer than if they are not. The reality is that a student is four times more likely to commit suicide if they are queer or genderqueer than if they are not. And the reality of 21% of adult Gen Z’ers being queer or genderqueer suggests that record numbers of LGBTQ+ students are currently being educated in American school systems. So how can we, as educators who use PLC time to audit curricula for racial diversity and spend prep periods reviewing special education plans to support individual student needs and success, not also work to intentionally support our LGBTQ+ students?

5 Focused Tips for Ensuring that You’re Inclusive of Queer & Genderqueer Student Identities

Work to educate yourself on supporting LGBTQ+ students

Assuming that teachers are experts on the backgrounds and identities of all of their students is a Herculean expectation. I don’t know any educators who share the same perspectives or lived experiences as every single one of their students. I certainly don’t. As a gay man, I understand the experiences of queer students learning in an environment that is predominantly heteronormative, but as a cisgender person, I can struggle to empathize with the needs of transgender and genderqueer students since I don’t have those same experiences. 

My background and identity limit the innate knowledge that I can use to relate to students, but this limitation is not a source of shame – not unless I let it define the scope of my teaching ability. I see this limitation instead as a learning opportunity. The best educator is one who is committed to growth, which is why I first recommend taking stock of one’s beliefs regarding areas in which they are not well-versed, such as supporting the specific needs of LGBTQ+ students.

In order to check oneself, I suggest taking a look at Harvard University’s Project Implicit. This free virtual laboratory administers several Implicit Association Tests, which measure “the strength of associations between concepts (e.g. black people, gay people) and evaluations (e.g. good, bad) or stereotypes (e.g. athletic, clumsy)” with the goal of helping participants realize any previously unknown biases that they might hold. Project Implicit has several test designs, including two for transgender/cisgender and straight/gay biases, and its results (which will suggest your preference, or lack of, for one group or the other) may surprise you. 

But recognizing one’s biases, unconscious or otherwise, isn’t enough.

Admitting that you aren’t as supportive an ally as you could be is meaningless unless you’re willing to take further steps to strengthen your allyship – and starting small is fine! My advice on next steps is to educate yourself if you find a deficit in your understanding of LGBTQ+ perspectives and/or issues. I suggest starting with Read This to Get Smarter, “an approachable guide to being an informed, compassionate, and socially conscious person” by Blair Imani, a queer writer who includes a specific chapter on sex, gender, and sexual orientation.

Make yourself a visible ally

Depending on the culture of your learning environment, being a visible ally (even without being a vocal ally) may be enough to make a difference for the queer and genderqueer students in your classroom or office. Three simple (and clear) ways to demonstrate your allyship require no spending, no training, and no fuss.

• Don’t over complicate things. If your state laws forbid overt gender identifiers, you can simply give students a space to share their pronouns if they wish in a general get-to-know-you activity. For example, in the free ELA profile printable in this post, one of the boxes asks students to add their name by prompting, “As Shakespeare muses, “What’s in a name?”

Under that, there is space to include more information: “Write your name plus any information you would like to add.” By making this open-ended, students have the option of adding anything they would like regarding their name. It could be the meaning behind their name, something they like about their name, a nickname they want to be called, or the gender and name they identify with. 

• Use classroom decor strategically. You can use classroom decor to be a visible ally. It can be as simple as putting up a poster from Canva that reads, “All are welcome in this classroom.” (See if you can spot the visible ally posters in this post: A Dolly Parton Retro Classroom Theme.) You can also talk to your school’s GSA (gender-sexuality alliance, formerly gay-straight alliance) adviser if you have one. They might have a pride flag they’d be willing to loan you for your desk, or they might have a stack of Safe Space stickers to adorn in a visible spot (like the hallway-facing side of your door).

• Consider sharing your pronouns with your students – it’s easy! On the first day of school, you might say something like, “It’s so nice to meet you all. My name is Mr. Marx and my pronouns are he/him/his. I’m so excited to be learning with you all this year.” Or you might display your pronouns in a more semi-permanent way somewhere in your space. Perhaps on a bulletin board or a white board you have the spelling of your name and your email address displayed; you could easily add your pronouns there, too, for visitors and new students to refer to. 

Your straight/cisgender students may not ever notice these strategies at play, but to your LGBTQ+ students, any or all of these practices will signal that you are supportive of them and their identities, and when they find themselves in a situation requiring an adult ally in the building, they’ll know where to find you.

Be an ally with your actions

This work is important, sometimes life-saving, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. My advice for supporting your LGBTQ+ students at the most basic level isn’t any different from how you support all students, so it should be a no-brainer: Show your students respect, advocate for their needs, and be an ally for all learners. 

• Be an ally against book banning. To start, you might consider working with your librarian to get a list of non-banned LGTBQ+ books that you can recommend for free-choice reading. Then, think of ways you can be an ally against book banning. Maybe you write to your representatives. Perhaps you make a banned books week display. Possibly you display a poster like this one: I Read Obscene Books (full back story on these posters here).

• Respect student’s name choices. Most teachers wouldn’t hesitate to call James by his preferred nickname Jimmy, so what difference does it make to you if the student whose parents named them Taylor would rather go by Leo in the classroom? On the first day of school, I give students a private survey that includes an item asking students what they’d like me to call them in class, and I observe those wishes until a student notifies me of a name change (which can happen at any time without any notice).

• Assess the gendered language you’re using in the classroom. Gender is a spectrum, not a binary. We can no longer assume that our classes are made up of only boys and girls, especially since we may never know who is questioning their gender identity or is not yet ready to share their true gender identity. So over the past few years, I’ve made a concentrated effort to rid my vocabulary of language that unnecessarily calls attention to gender. For instance, I no longer start class with a “Hello, boys and girls,” and I would never split the class into a boy group and a girl group since these actions exclude genderqueer students who don’t feel that they can fit themselves into the boxes labeled Boy and Girl. 

Address hate speech in your classroom

The educator who allows hate speech a safe space in their classroom does a disservice to every student who is present to hear it. So when it happens, call it out. 

When you hear students (or colleagues) intentionally misgendering or deadnaming (using a genderqueer person’s birth name after they’ve already transitioned to using a new name) others; when you hear students (or colleagues) using homophobic or transphobic slurs; when you hear students (or colleagues) using LGBTQ+ terms in a derogatory way (i.e. “That’s so gay”) – call it out.

Make a point of stopping or interrupting the conversation and calling attention to the offensive language. Be clear in your position that such terms or behaviors are disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community and allies alike, and they are unacceptable in your classroom or office space. This could be a chance for you to educate the uninformed about how hurtful their words can be, and it’s possible for you to make that point in a way that is firm but not alienating to the speaker with whom you must continue to work.

But allowing hate speech to continue in your space, a space that must be accommodating to all students, and expecting your queer and genderqueer students to flourish as they should, is not possible. 

Audit your curriculum for LGBTQ+ inclusion

In an ideal world, your allyship wouldn’t be confined to the four walls of your classroom or office. Instead, you and your colleagues and your administrators would co-construct policies and systems that are designed specifically for underrepresented communities like that of your LGBTQ+ students and families. Much of this work would look at the content of your students’ classes.

We know that curricula should flit between representing both windows and mirrors as a way of challenging our students to consider perspectives outside of their own while also ensuring that they feel validated in school. In my experience, this balance often concerns racial and ethnic diversity even though one’s identity does not consist solely of their race and ethnic background. While I acknowledge that this particular work requires resources (professional development time, educator passion, often administrator approval, perhaps money) that not all departments and schools will have, I encourage you to consider your curriculum using the following prompts to guide your LGBTQ+ representation audit.

• Do your state educational standards include any mention of LGBTQ+ education? If not, which standards have opportunities to include aspects of LGBTQ+ education?
• How do your curricular materials currently include LGBTQ+ perspectives? If they don’t, why don’t they?
• Do any of your texts feature queer characters? If not, why don’t they? Which texts with queer characters can you add?
• Were any of your texts written by queer writers? If not, why not? Which queer voices can you add to your language arts class?
• Does your current approach to social studies include queer history? If not, why not? How can you add queer history and queer historical figures to your history lessons?
• Does your current approach to science include the science community’s reaction to queer scientists and their contributions? If not, why not? How can you feature queer scientists and their contributions in your science lessons?
• Does your current approach to wellness extend to queer-inclusive health? If not, why not? How can you add queer-inclusive health to your wellness lessons?

For more information on auditing your curriculum, I suggest checking out Ashley’s blog post called “How to do a Diverse ELA Curriculum Audit!”

Engaging in this vital work is not for the weak. Confronting heteronormative systems and standing up for allyship and queer and genderqueer equality is not easy. You will make mistakes as I have – as I do. There will be tribulations and set-backs, and when you feel like you have learned it all, there will be new developments to unpack, new beliefs to unlearn. 

But you will be a better educator because of these efforts, because of your dedication to supporting your queer, genderqueer, questioning, and closeted students, and they will be better because of you.

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Thank you so much for sharing, Cody! Your insight is invaluable. Book banning and censorship in my state (Tennessee) and so many others is beyond frustrating and scary for teachers working hard to create inclusive classrooms. To everyone who is still learning, trying, and working to better support all students despite it all, we see you, and more importantly, your students do too.