Welcoming gays

I hold the church personally responsible for any LGBTQ person who walks away from God and Christianity. Every week, I get emails from individuals all across the nation who are packed of desire to be a part of a church. They want to go on the church-wide mission trip, join the choir, serve in the youth group and attend a miniature group.

These are people who long to serve God, join with other Christians and be a part of a wider community.

Here’s the heartbreaking part: they write to me because the church won’t let them do those things and they don’t know what to do. Their church has found out they are LGBTQ and because of this are no longer welcome to join in these church activities they long to be a part of.

The worst are the emails I get are from young people who are no longer allowed in their youth collective or who are bullied at church camps because of their sexual orientation. You might not think this is a big deal, or would just tell that person to go to a different church. You might be so used to the idea that those in the LGBTQ community are not welcome at church that this does not alarm you.

But WAKE UP. THIS NEEDS TO GREATLY ALARM YOU.

People are being turned away fro

LGBTQ+

Schools that actively work to welcome and affirm LGBTQ+ students, families and staff improve the school climate for the whole school community. When students feel safe and affirmed, they can thrive both academically and socially.

Affirm

LGBTQ+ inclusive schools:

  • Welcome all children, families and staff
  • Promote gender equity and support transgender, non-binary and gender expansive students
  • Proactively labor to prevent and mention bias-based bullying with an intersectional, anti-racist lens
  • Foster sympathetic and respect for all people

Gender, Parents/Caregivers, Homosexual

Gender and Children: A Place to Begin

Creating schools that nurture academic achievement, provide physical and emotional safety and welcome all students are frequent goals for all educators. In order for students to feel supported and empowered…

Gender, Homosexual

Developing a Gender Inclusive School

Creating schools that nurture academic achievement, provide physical and emotional shelter and welcome all students are common goals for all educators. As educators, one can create gender-expansive environments that affirm…

Responding to Questions, Family, LGBTQ+

How to Make Your Educational facility More Welcoming for LGBTQ Families

As school administrators and teachers encounter more diverse family structures, the burden is on us, as educators, to learn from their experiences and actively work to create a more welcoming school people in which everyone feels accepted.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with gay and lesbian parents about some of their experiences with their children’s schools. The majority of them spoke about positives; however, they said there are still many areas for growth.

Before we dive into what they distributed, it’s important to grasp a bit about heteronormativity. Heteronormativity is the assumption that all people are heterosexual by default, and research suggests that schools are, by default, highly heternormative cultures. We hold educators working in schools who view the earth through a heterosexual lens and therefore may not be aware of the some of the challenges facing same-sex families.

Through the voices of gay and lesbian parents, we can learn a lot about the steps we want to take in instruct to create more-inclusive university communities.

School Documents, Databases, and Communication

Ask yourself

Rainbow Map

2025 rainbow map

These are the main findings for the 2025 edition of the rainbow map

The Rainbow Map ranks 49 European countries on their respective legal and policy practices for LGBTI people, from 0-100%.

The UK has dropped six places in ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Chart, as Hungary and Georgia also register steep falls accompanying anti-LGBTI legislation. The data highlights how rollbacks on LGBTI human rights are part of a broader erosion of democratic protections across Europe. Read more in our push release.

“Moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defence of tradition or public stability, but in life designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”

  • Katrin Hugendubel, Activism Director, ILGA-Europe


Malta has sat on uppermost of the ranking for the last 10 years. 

With 85 points, Belgium jumped to second place after adopting policies tackling hatred based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. 

Iceland now comes third place on the ranking with a score of 84.

The three

What Do You State to ‘That’s So Gay’ & Other Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments?

It doesn’t matter if it is a first grader who might not know what the synonyms “gay” means, a sixth grader trying to sound cool or a tenth grader “teasing” a companion. All of these scenarios have the potential of creating an unsafe classroom or school environment and must be addressed. So, what can caring adults do?

Download PDF

Descargar En Español

STOP IT…

Keep it simple with speedy responses:

  • “Remember, we don’t apply put-downs in this class.”

  • “Do you know what ‘gay’ means?"

  • “It’s not OK at this school to employ ‘gay’ disrespectfully to intend something is bad.”

  • “You may not have meant to be hurtful, but when you use the pos ‘gay’ to mean something is bad or silly, it is hurtful.” Follow-up with, “Do you comprehend why it is hurtful?”

  • “Using any derogatory word to tease someone is harassment and is unacceptable.”

  • “Even if you didn’t mean to offend people who are gay, it is repulsive to call this assignment gay (or queer); if you don’t like something, then say you don’t like it!”

  • “It is never OK to say, ‘you act like a miss (or look like a boy)’ as a put-down.”

  • “Using a slu
    welcoming gays