Today I was able to interview GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) with the LGBTQ group. This was a very enlightening and inspiring experience, complete with freebies. We learned about how the organization is operated  and how they support schools and young people. They take part in many different events that raise awareness and help adolescents feel supported around issues of their sexual orientation. Zoe, Lulu, Sam and I met with Camille Beredjick and Brian Murphy at GLSEN’s national office in the Financial District. After our questions we were offered a tour and had the chance to meet many of the people who work at GLSEN. The LGBTQ group worked really well together on this fieldwork and I am so happy to have had the chance to learn about this important organization.

LGBTQ Social Justice Group (SJG): Can you give us an overview of GLSEN’s work?

Brian (B): We work to make sure that schools are safe and students are safe regardless of gender identity. We have thirty-eight chapters that work I different communities all over the U.S.

SJG: How many volunteers do you have working for GLSEN now?  

B: We only have two in the National Office but all of our chapters are volunteer run so we have a couple dozen board members and there are probably thousands of volunteers across the country and those people are teachers, some of them are retired, they’re parents, they’re students, so it really runs the gamut.

Camille (C): And the chapters are set up in a pretty formal way. There is a formal process to go through, we have to approve you, you need to have your own board and submit something like a constitution for the chapter.

B: So even though we’re spread out across the country we work very closely. We have to make sure that they are doing things that we know are effective and not accidentally making things worse in their communities.

SJG: What is the most rewarding part of your job and working in GLSEN?

C: So many things are rewarding. The mission is really the best part. Everybody is here for the right reasons, we’re all very committed to the work and the cause. No matter what work you are doing in your daily routine it’s all going back to the greater mission of helping students succeed. A lot of us have been there and know what it’s like to be like the students we’re trying to work with, so it’s exciting to know that everybody is here for the right reasons.

B: Since we’re the national office we spend a lot of time in the office behind computer screens. We know that we’re doing good work but you don’t always see it first hand like the way the volunteers at a school would see it. So it’s always nice when we get to interact with students and parents and educators at our events. It reminds us that these are real people whose lives we’re really impacting. I went to film school and so I get to film and interview people for GLSEN and it’s very cool to get to know people and learn about their stories in their own words.

SJG: Recently Bill de Blasio made the decision not to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because they discriminate against the LGBTQ community. What’s your position on that?

B: I don’t know if GLSEN has an official position on that but as individuals we think that it’s really cool. Last year our Cincinnati chapter was supposed to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cincinnati and at the last minute they were told they couldn’t. So a bunch of local politicians there pulled out of the parade which was really cool, and then a handful of people who were marching in the parade marched with GLSEN signs to show that they support GLSEN. So it’s cool to see that movement continue and to make sure that we have a place at the table – or in this parade!

SJG: How did you get involved with GLSEN?

C: I started working here 6 months ago, but I had known about GLSEN through college activist work, it’s the leading anti-bullying organization in the country. It was always on my radar as being a place where people do really good work, and are involved and passionate. I graduated from college 6 months ago. I was really lucky to get a job here, it’s been wonderful.

B: I’ve been here for a little over 2 years, I had also heard about GLSEN for awhile, I didn’t know about the Day of Silence in high school but I heard about it after high school. I participated in solidarity out of high school, and so when I heard of the job opening that I have now I was really excited. I was actually working for myself at the time and thought that I wanted to continue doing that, but then I met the team at GLSEN and I realized that it was really something that I could get behind. It’s very cool because some of our staff were student leaders when they were in school and organized programs, and now they’re here at the national office.

C: I didn’t know about GLSEN in high school but when I got to college I was like wow, there are students who do Trans Day of Remembrance and who do Ally Week and all of these activist things? I had no idea that you could do all of these things in high school, so I was just blown away and very jealous.

SJG: What is your goal for helping others?

B: I would just like people to be comfortable with who they are, and to own their stories and experiences, and to speak their truth and be real. I’m totally channeling Janet Mock’s book Redefining Realness which is amazing.

C: One of the most important things is to respect each other and to engage in healthy dialogue and understand if people’s stories don’t necessarily complement each other there is a space for all viewpoints to be treated respectfully.

SJG: How do you raise awareness?

C: We do much to mobilize our youth and our students who work with us, which is one of the major ways we get out there. We have about 4000 GSAs who work with us so we try to work as closely as we can with them to spread the word about Day of Silence and Ally Week, and our other campaigns. We work with a lot of social media to get the word out, and with educators to help promote all of our campaigns.

B: We’ve been around long enough that we’ve built up a network of connections. We have our Think Before You Speak public service announcement campaigns for a number of years, and create public ad campaigns for the media. We were just in the NYT and it was all donated ad space, and we placed one of our students on CNN last year. We do talk shows and use main stream press to get the word out and to reach new people.

SJG: What inspired you to join this organization?

C: I did LGBTQ activism all through college so I knew upon graduating that I wanted to work with students and young people, LGBTQ specific. I was writing a blog interacting with LGBTQ youth working with people, giving advice and helping in whatever way I could.  And so this job was perfect because that’s who I like working with.

B: She’s famous on Tumblr!

SJG: What’s your Tumblr?

C: Gaywrites.org

B: I wasn’t out in the middle of high school, and I think that I knew one person who was gay, and a few people who might have been bi, but they were loners, and I didn’t have a model for how you could be an openly queer person. I know that loads of people in the US aren’t comfortable and can’t come out, but there are also tons of LBGTQ youth who are out and awesome and organizing, and just being themselves and living their lives, and that’s super inspiring.  If I can give back and do my part in supporting young people. I learn so much from them and they have so much that they can teach us as a society, so I want to do my part to play backup for them.

C: Same here, I was very closeted in middle school and high school, so i’m kind of here on behalf of all the people who are like i was in high school, and for those i wish that i could have been like – all those students who are activists.

B: I can’t even imagine being in 8th grade and going to a LGBTQ organization.

SJG: Are there parts of your job that are different than what you expected?

C: Lots of my job are different than I expected! I’m the digital communications assistant which primarily means I assist Brian with internet things and writing in social media, but I’m also the lowest rank and so I do paperwork and schedule the conference rooms, manage an online store which takes up half of my life. There are many little things that go into helping a nonprofit work, so it’s important to know that it’s a formal organization and that we don’t just hold hands in a circle and sing kumbaya and have big ideas. It’s a business so there’s a lot of work that goes into making it function.

B: Someone has to pay the bills.

C: I understand that I am the new kid here so it’s my responsibility to work my way up. I knew that that was going to be part of the job, and I still get to do the things I like to do – writing and editing.

B: The one part of my job that is different than expected is that i do a lot of video stuff, which was not in my job description, but I like video so I went to my boss and said that this needs to be part of our online strategy, so they trusted me enough to let me buy a camera and lights and microphone, and slowly but surely we’ve been able to ramp up our youtube presence. I would spend my entire day doing video if I could. So that’s been a fun and exciting difference.

SJG: What words of advice would you give to an adolescent member of the LGBTQ community?

C: It depends on where they are coming from because everyone has a different background or situation, so for some people you could say that you are in a safe community surrounded by support, so go ahead, come out, be an advocate. And the there are other people who aren’t in a safe situation and so the words of advice you would give them are to be true to yourself and accept yourself, but also keep in mind your safety, and if coming out right now is going to endanger your wellness or having a roof over your head, then maybe hold off for a little while. The only universal thing you could tell everyone is to come to terms with who you are and accept it, love yourself, know that you are important and that there is support out there for you.  But you can’t direct people to a certain action without knowing where they are and where they come from. Just because you are LGBTQ you don’t need to subscribe to a certain kind of behavior or identity. Maybe you are an LGTBQ person and you aren’t very passionate about LGBTQ activism and you want to be an environmental activist instead. Or maybe you don’t want to be an activist, and instead you want to paint or be a doctor. You are free to be you and nobody is going to judge you for it.

SJG: What are some things that the average person could do to help the LGBTQ discrimination cause?

B: Well a really easy one is that if you are in the U.S. you can write to Congress and ask them to support the Safe Schools Improvement Act. That’s our central piece of policy legislation that we are pushing at the moment and you can find that by going to GLSEN.org. We have a form that you can use to send a letter to Congress, or you can call them. Another thing is that you can get educated and learn and listen, to friends and family and GSA meeting to hear what the students have to say. If you feel compelled you can speak out on social media, whether it’s retweeting things that GLSEN says or sharing your own opinion.  And of course you can always donate to GLSEN.

C: If you are a teacher you can put up safe space stickers and posters, and we have a safe space kit for teachers so that LGBTQ people know that it’s safe to talk to them and that they’ll be accepting and respectful. We get a lot of positive feedback from students saying that it made a big difference.

B: The kit also comes with resources on how they can actually create a safe space.

SJG: What are issues and solutions that you present to Congress?

B: We have 2 bills:

1) Safe School’s Improvement Act (SSIA) is about making sure that students are safe and respected in schools. Like anti-bullying legislation and it protects students based on sexual orientation, gender identity expression, race, ethnicity, religion, gender. It puts guidelines in place for reporting.

2) Student Non-discrimination Act (SNDA) is more about protecting students from each other almost, whereas SSIA is more about protecting students from the school.

SJG: How would you define gender expression?

B: Oh goodness. Good questions! Gender identity is how you identify personally which may or may not be how you express it to the world. Gender expression is sort of your outward expression. So I identify as male and I also generally present myself in a fairly masculine manner which is how I put it out to the world.

SJG: How do you teach kindergarteners in a way that it appropriate for their age?

C:  Our research shows that one of the biggest causes of bullying in elementary school can be gender nonconformity and differences in gender expression. So a lot of times a boy will be bullied for playing with dolls or a girl for acting in masculine ways, has short hair, or plays with trucks. They aren’t thinking that they will be gay or trans when they grow up, it’s just that we enforce gender expression very closely and so bullying will come from that difference in the way someone presents and their gender assignment. We try to teach the importance of accepting everybody and that its ok if a boy plays with dolls and if a girl plays with trucks. We aren’t telling them to accept gay people specifically but in certain ways we are because we are increasingly seeing students who have same sex parents, so that can be brought in by reading books that show families that have same sex couples.

B: Respecting diversity and inclusion. GLSEN did a research study called From Playgrounds to Prejudice which created a resource for early child educators called Raise our Respect. It provides information on age appropriate themes in the classroom.

SJG: What role do straight people play in GLSEN?  

B: Our founder Kevin Jennings was gay and a teacher, 25 or 30 years ago, and he had a straight student who came to him and said that they should start a club for gay and straight people to work together and call it Gay Straight Alliance.  Recognizing that gay and lesbian teachers were ostracized or forced to stay in the closet, he and other gay, lesbian and straight teachers came together and it started a teacher support network. The “straight” in the name is a legacy for how it began with gay and straight people coming together. Now we do a lot of work around gender, identity and the whole spectrum of sexual orientation and gender expression, and obviously straight students and teachers are involved in the movement.

C: We do Ally Week which this year focused on how can you be a better ally, how do you show to the world that you are an ally more than just placing a sticker on your chest saying that you support gay people. You have to support that though actions. So we try to teach people how they can support LGBTQ youth and use their privilege as a straight person for good not evil.  They might have access to resources that an LGBTQ person wouldn’t.

SJG: What makes your program unique from others?

B: I think that we are THE national organization working with LGBTQ issues in K-12 schools. There are other organizations who are working on a variety of issues but not the LGBTQ issues in K-12. We really focused on the educational environment.

C: And our research really sets us apart. Our research department is really well known and we have so much data and so many years of work that support the claims that we make and the work that we do, so all of the solutions that we propose have years and years of evidence showing that they work. We have teachers and students telling us exactly what the problems they have are and the solutions that they found and so all of our recommendations are really strongly supported, which is not something that a lot of the organizations can do, so we take great pride in our research department.

SJG: How many schools do you work with?

B: We don’t work directly through schools. We work with community groups, chapters or students themselves or educators, so there’s not an official GLSEN student club in the schools. Some people are really involved and active with us and others we work with on an occasional basis.

C: Some people are involved in events like Day of Silence and don’t realize that it’s a GLSEN event and so we want to bridge that gap and show that if you are doing these things you are already connected with GLSEN.

SJG: What are some of the resources that you give to teachers to use in the classroom?

C: The Safe Space Kit is the best known and includes a 42 page guide about the different things you can do to support LGBTQ students – that’s the starting point.  From there we have several fuller research reports including the National School Climate Survey which is the one massive surveys that we give each year that we then use to provide information about LGBTQ student experiences.

B: We also have lesson plans on our website that teachers can download and use in their classrooms.

SJG: We are doing a psa in digital art and making posters related to LGBTQ, youth suicide, tolerance and discrimination, acceptance and bullying.

B: GLSEN has a resource about LGBTQ suicide so that it can be talked about in heathy ways.

SJG: Just one more thing, can we take a picture with you?

B: We’d love that!