Elizabeth J. Meyer – författare

While there have been countless studies of bullying and harassment in schools, none have examined the key gender issues related to these behaviors. In her new book, Meyer does just that and offers readers tangible and flexible suggestions to help them positively transform the culture of their school and reduce the incidences of gendered harassment. The text features sections that speak specifically to administrators, teachers, counselors, student leaders, and community and family members.

Use this youth-friendly guide to build more just and liberatory school communities.Much change is needed to make school communities more affirming and inclusive of gender and sexual diversity. This timely book is written for secondary students and their adult allies who are working to make schools more supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people, and their families. Grounded in scholarship, the text offers information, ideas, guidelines, inspiration, and resources to support grassroots efforts to envision and build more just and liberatory school communities. The author shares case studies of youth activism and profiles of these LGBTQIA+ activists to show what is possible when young people take action to improve their communities. Meyer explicitly acknowledges the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community and discusses working in coalitions to address related forms of injustice, including racism and white supremacy, ableism, colonialism, and classism, as well as biases around religion, immigration status, language, and culture. This hands-on guide is readable and accessible for use in extracurricular clubs or as a source for classroom assignments in grades – 2.Book Features: Written in a language appropriate for students and adults working together in student clubs like GSAs or after-school community centers.Provides figures and activities that can be used to guide action planning.Demonstrates that some of the best change happens when it is led by youth.Moves away from the dominant discourse that focuses on harm reduction, risk narratives, and reducing bullying and harassment. Includes a chapter that discusses relevant laws and policies.Offers a companion website that provides updated links and resources for readers at elizabethjmeyer.com/queer-justice.

Use this youth-friendly guide to build more just and liberatory school communities.Much change is needed to make school communities more affirming and inclusive of gender and sexual diversity. This timely book is written for secondary students and their adult allies who are working to make schools more supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual people, and their families. Grounded in scholarship, the text offers information, ideas, guidelines, inspiration, and resources to support grassroots efforts to envision and build more just and liberatory school communities. The author shares case studies of youth activism and profiles of these LGBTQIA+ activists to show what is possible when young people take action to improve their communities. Meyer explicitly acknowledges the diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community and discusses working in coalitions to address related forms of injustice, including racism and white supremacy, ableism, colonialism, and classism, as well as biases around religion, immigration status, language, and culture. This hands-on guide is readable and accessible for use in extracurricular clubs or as a source for classroom assignments in grades – 2.Book Features: Written in a language appropriate for students and adults working together in student clubs like GSAs or after-school community centers.Provides figures and activities that can be used to guide action planning.Demonstrates that some of the best change happens when it is led by youth.Moves away from the dominant discourse that focuses on harm reduction, risk narratives, and reducing bullying and harassment. Includes a chapter that discusses relevant laws and policies.Offers a companion website that provides updated links and resources for readers at elizabethjmeyer.com/queer-justice.

This volume is about the education of gender and sexualities, which is to say it explores how gender and sexuality identities and differences get constructed through the process of education and «schooling». Wittingly or not, educational institutions and educators play an important role in «normalizing» gender and sexuality differences by disciplining, regulating, and producing differences in ways that are «intelligible» within the dominant or hegemonic culture. To make gender and sexuality identities and differences intelligible through education is to understand them through the logic of separable binary oppositions (man-woman, straight-gay), and to valorize and privilege one normalized identity within each binary (man, straight) and simultaneously stigmatize and marginalize the «other» identity (woman, gay). Educational institutions have been set up to normalize the construction of gender and sexual identities in these ways, and this is both the overt and the «hidden» curriculum of schooling. At the same time, the «postmodern» times in which we live are characterized by a proliferating of differences so that the binary oppositional borders that have been maintained and policed through schooling, and that are central to maintaining highly inequitable power relations and rigid gender roles, are being challenged, resisted, and in other ways profoundly destabilized by young people today.

This volume is about the education of gender and sexualities, which is to say it explores how gender and sexuality identities and differences get constructed through the process of education and «schooling». Wittingly or not, educational institutions and educators play an important role in «normalizing» gender and sexuality differences by disciplining, regulating, and producing differences in ways that are «intelligible» within the dominant or hegemonic culture. To make gender and sexuality identities and differences intelligible through education is to understand them through the logic of separable binary oppositions (man-woman, straight-gay), and to valorize and privilege one normalized identity within each binary (man, straight) and simultaneously stigmatize and marginalize the «other» identity (woman, gay). Educational institutions have been set up to normalize the construction of gender and sexual identities in these ways, and this is both the overt and the «hidden» curriculum of schooling. At the same time, the «postmodern» times in which we live are characterized by a proliferating of differences so that the binary oppositional borders that have been maintained and policed through schooling, and that are central to maintaining highly inequitable power relations and rigid gender roles, are being challenged, resisted, and in other ways profoundly destabilized by young people today.

Supporting Transgender and Gender-Creative Youth brings together cutting-edge research, social action methods, and theory on the topic of transgender youth and gender creative kids. The chapters included specifically address issues in education, social work, medicine, and counseling as well as challenges and recommendations for families and parents. It is well researched and accessible to a broad audience of individuals invested in improving the social worlds of gender diverse children and youth.

Issues related to gender and sexual diversity in schools can generate a lot of controversy, with many educators and youth advocates under-prepared to address these topics in their school communities.