Breaking Barriers: LGBTQ+ Education and Empowerment

By Diane Sherron, education expert, LGBTQ+ activist, and blogger

Things may have changed for the better for the LGBTQ+ community when we compare it to how they were treated and looked upon thirty or fifty years ago. There's more understanding, acceptance, and equality on the horizon today than ever before. But it’s still far from perfect, and there’s so much room for improving their quality of life. This especially goes for young LGBTQ+ students who are facing numerous challenges.

Creating a safe, empowering, and uplifting environment for LGBTQ+ students in their education is crucial. We need to work together to break the barriers and help them strive. Below, we'll break down the biggest challenges they face and the solutions that we have to work on.

Image Credit: Pexels

Safe School Environment

The number one fear LGBTQ+ students have is that they’ll be rejected, bullied, or frowned upon. 67% of them feel isolated and lonely. This is often the case, as other students lack the basic general knowledge about the LGBTQ+ community or are taught that different automatically means bad.

This is why schools need to create a safe environment for everyone to feel welcome and equal. Here's how it's done: - Inclusive school policies - Educating school staff on LGBTQ+ issues - Supporting LGBTQ+ school organizations - Organizing workshops for students

Diversity, acceptance, and inclusiveness are something that schools need to teach and reinforce.

LGBTQ+ Inclusive Curriculum

The next thing schools need to do to create truly inclusive classrooms is to work according to an LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum. This refers to teaching students about the LGBTQ+ community through different subjects and not pretending like they’ve never existed.

Typically, that would include: - LGBTQ+ history - LGBTQ+ important events and dates - Important figures from the LGBTQ+ community