Affirming Gender Expansive Students at School: Educator Workshop
Bias directed to our LGBTQ+ students has become drastically more frequent and severe in school communities across the country. The current social and political climate in the United States continues to create unique challenges for our queer, transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive students. With every passing year, it has become more and more evident that our schools, homes, and community spaces need to be safe and affirming for queer youth. We refuse to lose any more of our queer youth to suicide. With these workshops, we aim to work with local educators, parents, and community members on making our area a safer place for queer youth, and in turn, queer adults and families.
Join us on Saturday, February 7th from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST, for this Educator Only event to explore best practices in supporting gender expansive students at school and responding to LGBTQ+ discrimination in school settings.
This 90-minute-interactive session will provide parents/caretivers with a framework for:
❖ understanding the impact of recent federal and state guidelines impacting the support of LGBTQ+ students in public schools.
❖ using the reproducible resources from the Gender Inclusive Schools text to implement systems-wide changes for supporting gender-expansive students at your school.
❖ standardizing responses to challenging questions about LGBTQ+ inclusive practices and proactive education about gender-expansive identities
❖ advocating for whole-staff and small group consultations and professional development
Training Location:
4th Floor Event Space, Chattanooga Library (Downtown Branch), 1001 Broad St, Chattanooga, TN 37402
Parking/Arrival Information:
2-hour free parking can be found in the EPB Parking Garage located adjacent to the Downtown Library at 1-99 E 10th St, Chattanooga, TN 37402.
Paid Metered parking spots are available surrounding the Downtown Library for purchase with change, a credit/debit card or through the ParkMobile app. Additional paid lots near the Downtown Library, located on Broad Street and Carter Street.
CARTA’s free electric shuttle is another great option for getting around Downtown, Northshore, and St. Elmo
More information can be found here.
Registration is free but mandatory to protect the safety and privacy of attendees. Please reach out to info@genderinclusiveschools.org if you have any questions or concerns.
About our Community partners:
Moms for Social Justice is a grassroots non-profit focused on creating a more equitable future.
Since its inception in 2017, Chattanooga Moms for Social Justice has welcomed new founders and grown our social community to nearly 3,000 strong. MSJ’s mission is simple: we’re building a local movement of citizens to engage in, advocate for, and act in the service of social justice issues in an effort to improve the community for all generations.
We accomplish this by being active in our local elections (some of us even running for office), collaborating with other local community members and organizations to further their efforts, holding roundtable discussions and social justice hours, and through our Classroom Library Project initiative
Now in its fifth year, Moms for Social Justice is excited to continue to grow the grassroots movement and create positive change not just in the Chattanooga, but all across the country.
The Seed Theatre’s mission is to support marginalized communities (particularly LGBTQ+, BIPOC and their families) in Chattanooga, TN by providing resources, education, support and community while celebrating differences through arts and culture.
Since its founding in 2019, the Seed Theatre is one of the only designated LGBTQIA+ safe and sober spaces in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We serve LGBTQIA+ persons with a specific focus on queer youth. We facilitate support groups, provide free gender affirming garments, coordinate mutual aid efforts and create critical inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ individuals in the greater Chattanooga, Tennessee area. The Seed Theatre operates as a hub of networks, resources, programs and mutual aid, focused on supporting LGBTQIA+ folks.
We believe that in a state like Tennessee, that is actively stripping away the fundamental human rights of our queer community, our activist efforts to support individuals finding authenticity, peace & acceptance in spite of the hate of our state is a critical mission in the current political landscape
About the Facilitator:
Dave Edwards is a queer person and career educator who has served in almost every role in preK-12th grade school communities. After getting started as a paraprofessional in an Autism classroom in Saint Paul Public Schools, he went on to work as a special education teacher, middle/high school classroom teacher, special education coordinator, Dean of Students, and Assistant Head of School. From 2015-2018, Dave made the jump to higher education as lead instructor for the nontraditional teacher licensure program in Emotional Behavior Disorders at the University of MN Twin Cities. He was an undergraduate and graduate professor in the teacher preparation program at Hamline University from 2018 to 2020 before devoting his efforts full-time to Gender Inclusive Schools. Dave is the proud parent to a transgender daughter, and his family's experience with the discrimination she experienced in kindergarten directly informs his vocation of helping school communities create safe learning environments. Dave serves on the board of the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition and his family is heavily involved with Transforming Families MN. Dave has been quoted in national publications such as the New York Times, The Advocate, Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, and NBC News. His book, Gender Inclusive Schools: How to Affirm and Support Gender-Expansive Students, was published in September of 2024.
*This is an educator only event due to the specific content of the session. We have a dedicated session for parents/caregivers the same day from 10:00 am to 11:30 am EST.
*Can't attend our session but want to bring a group training to your school community? Send an inquiry to info@genderinclusiveschools.org.
Are you able to support the event financially? Head to https://givebutter.com/geIX7C