Show your PRIDE: Boost your Superpower Skills to Support LGBTQ+ Youth

By BA Laris

Bias-based harassment, discrimination and victimization based on sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical issue in schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) young people1. Homophobia and transphobia have a negative impact on a broad range of mental and physical health areas2 including a higher risk of STDs and unplanned pregnancy3. It also results in negative academic consequences (lower grade point average, absenteeism, disconnection from the school community, depression, and low levels of self-esteem) for LGBTQ+ students.?

?Research, practice, and lived experiences have all provided strategies and best practices for building more inclusive classrooms, schools, and home environments. dfusion Inc., is excited to be involved in several forthcoming resources for parents and teachers to develop skills to accept and welcome LGBTQ+ youth. To celebrate PRIDE month, we are sharing a few tips and resources from our work in this area.??

?Developing Educator Skills?

SkillFlix? for Educators is a digital collection of sequenced training videos to improve educators' skills leading sexual health lessons with youth. The training focuses on specific skills, divided into Microskills ?,? to create safe and supportive learning environments. The training is delivered in bite-sized Microskills videos and covers 20 distinct skill that an educator needs to effectively facilitate inclusive sexuality education, including one skill of 12 videos dedicated to creating? LGBTQ+ inclusive classrooms. One of our favorites is the skill that models how to use inclusive language for anatomy and behavior lessons.? In this Microskills video, our health educator models these steps with a classroom of students to help educators see how this can be done seamlessly in a lesson.?

The Microskill steps to use inclusive language for anatomy and behavior lessons are:?

1. Refer to body without gender terms ?
2. Separate gender from orientation or behavior ?
3. Use inclusive relationship terms ?
4. Explain behavior doesn’t equal orientation ?

Interested in learning more about this Microskill or the Skillflix for Educators resource? Contact Mia Barrett, project director [email protected]??

Building Parents’ and Caregivers’ Superpowers??

dfusion is partnering with Mathematica and federal partners on the development of a new elearning course for foster parents. Recognizing that approximately 30% of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+ (compared to about 11% in the general population), it is critically important to support parents with specific strategies to help adolescents cope and thrive. Parents and caregivers can develop their own superpowers to support and show acceptance as youth navigate their own story of sexual orientation and gender identity.?

When trusted adults voice their support out loud for LGBTQ+ people, it can go a long way to create positive health outcomes for youth. Here are 3 concrete ways you can have a positive impact:?

• Make it clear that slurs or jokes based on how someone expresses their gender (gender identity) or who they are attracted to (sexual orientation) are not tolerated.??
• Verbalize your disapproval of derogatory or negative jokes or slurs when you hear or see them in the community or media.??
• Watch movies or shows that include positive LGBTQ characters and situations to create opportunities for conversations.?

Interested in learning more about ways parents and caregivers can support LGBTQ+ youth? Contact BA Laris, Senior Program Manager [email protected].?

Developing inclusive curriculum

Several dfusion staff examined the effectiveness of an LGBTQ-inclusive sex education high school curriculum, FLASH, in collaboration with Public Health-Seattle King County and ETR. To support healthy sexual decision making, all youth need to receive sexual health education that is comprehensive and inclusive of all genders and sexual orientations5. Despite this, much of the guidance on making sexual health education curricula inclusive merely states that it should be done and offers simple recommendations. In order to provide educators with more concrete strategies,? the developers of the High School FLASH comprehensive sexuality curriculum have created a thoughtful and intentional process to integrate, test, and revise materials using 5 essential strategies throughout the curriculum. [Check out the FLASH curriculum.]?

One of these strategies is “Ensure relevance of content.” The curriculum provides clear statements that provide visibility and create relevancy with the existing content for young people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. For example, the birth control lesson in High School FLASH starts with “this lesson is for everybody—people who are having vaginal sex now or who will in the future, and teens of all sexual orientations and genders. Even if someone won’t ever need birth control, learning about it now will help them act as health educators for their friends and families on this important topic.” This simple statement helps ensure the content feels relevant for young people who are having vaginal sex now or in the future, and those who may be having sex that can’t result in a pregnancy. [A full journal article “High School FLASH Sexual Health Education Curriculum: LGBTQ inclusivity strategies reduce homophobia and transphobia” is currently under review for publication.]?

?Interested in learning more about the use of tailored inclusivity strategies to create sexual health education that is relevant and affirming for all students, improving sexual health outcomes overall? Contact BA Laris, Senior Program Manager [email protected] or Kari Kessler, Educator/Consultant III.

Public Health – Seattle & King County [email protected] .?

?Harassment and bullying of LGBTQ youth is harmful and traumatizing. Parents, caregivers, teachers, peers, and community can learn skills and take action to stop victimization and create safe and welcoming spaces We encourage you to share and explore more ways to expand your superpowers, for youth of all genders and orientations to? live in happier safer world.?