Know Your Rights for Parents, Educators, and Allies

Young people know their own identities best and deserve support from their parents, caregivers, and communities.  

It’s up to adults to make sure the young people in their lives have the resources they need to succeed. That’s especially true for LGBTQ+ young people, who statistically are less likely to have a supportive home environment: according to the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth described their home as gender-affirming.   

You can support the young people in your community by advocating for policies that protect their identities and their ability to participate in all the activities and spaces that their peers do. You can also provide resources and create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students. Research what’s available in your community before you get started and see if there are people already working on behalf of LGBTQ+ young people who could use your help. 

Parents, educators, and allies who don’t want to see their schools turned into a political battlefield should remember what’s at stake when their school board is up for election.  

Up and down the ballot, every vote counts. People across Virginia should vote their values, including in local school board elections. 

In the meantime, it’s up to adults to make sure the young people in their lives have the resources they need to succeed. To stop bad school policies from passing – and to advocate for good ones – form coalitions with other stakeholders in your community. Show up to school board meetings together, and encourage others to do the same. Alert your local press.  

Remember: school boards are elected to represent parents, educators, and allies like you. 

Young people know their own identities best and deserve support from their parents, caregivers, and communities. 

Trans and nonbinary students deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. That includes being addressed with their chosen name and pronouns. Studies like this one published in 2018 in the Journal of Adolescent Health have shown that using a child’s chosen name is associated with lower depression, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior.  

Schools may refuse to update a student's official record absent a legal name/gender marker update. When your child undergoes the legal name and gender marker update process, be sure to update their official records and school documents to match their new legal name.  

Equality Virginia and Virginia Equality Bar Association host regular clinics to support trans and nonbinary people with name and gender marker changes. You may want to sign up for their email list to stay posted of future clinics. BaryLaw and Burroughs Law Office, P.C. also provide legal representation to families seeking to update their child’s name and/or gender marker on identity documents. 

For more information on changing name and gender markers in Virginia, check out the National Center for Transgender Equality’s general resources here and a resource specific to minors here. 

Young people know their own identities best and deserve support from their parents, caregivers, and communities.  

If your child comes to you with questions or concerns about their gender identity or sexual orientation, the most important thing that you can do is to listen. Let them know that you love and support them no matter what. Take your child seriously if they want to change their name or pronouns.  Let your child take the lead, and don’t push them to talk before they’re ready.   

LGBTQ+ students deserve to feel safe and welcome at schools. Gender & Sexuality Alliances or Gay Straight Alliances (GSA) are student-organized clubs that serve multiple purposes and are open to LGBTQ+ students and allies.  

GSAs help combat harassment and create a space where students can come together to share their experiences, discuss anti-LGBTQ+ harassment they may experience at school, and debate different perspectives on LGBTQ-related issues. Being able to talk openly and honestly with each other is essential to making young people feel safe at school and build community with their peers.  

The federal Equal Access Act (EAA) requires high schools that receive federal funding to treat student clubs, including GSAs, the same as other clubs. That means if your high school allows students to form other student clubs, your high school cannot prevent you from forming a GSA (as long as it meets all other criteria for club formation). GSAs must also be provided the same resources and access to school facilities as other clubs.  

Schools have the ability to regulate what teachers post in their classroom and what the teacher presents during class. However, school officials should not violate their own policies in disciplining teachers; doing so can imply that such treatment is discriminatory.

Generally, cases like Pickering v. Bd. Of Educ. Of Tp. High Sch. Dist. 205, Will County., Ill and Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist. found that the First Amendment protects your speech if you are speaking as a private citizen on a matter of public concern.  

By contrast, the same cases found that the First Amendment does NOT protect your speech if you are speaking while performing job functions within the scope of your employment, because that speech is generally considered to be speech on behalf of the school district. The exact details of when schools can discipline teachers for speech are complex and fact-specific; consult with an attorney if you are uncertain about taking a course of action.

Examples of when a school likely cannot discipline you: 

• You write a letter to a local newspaper in support of a controversial ballot measure unrelated to your work. The school cannot discipline you for this letter.  
• You write a letter to a local newspaper that is critical of the school board for one of its actions or policies. The school likely cannot discipline you for this letter because you were expressing an opinion on a matter of public concern. 

State and local lawmakers are doubling down on their crusade against a complete, accurate, and inclusive education. Educators and school staff are being put in an untenable position of having to navigate the law and act in the best interest of their students. To protect yourself, here's what you can do:

• Know your school division’s policies: Read up on the policies of your local school division. If you can’t find it, email a principal or superintendent for a copy of it. Sometimes, a school administrators may ask you to do something that violates division policy on the treatment of LGBTQ+ students or employees. This is why it’s important to get the division policy in writing.  
• Reach out to VEA or your local chapter: Reach out to VEA for legal advice and assistance when you believe a division policy violates state and/or federal law or if you are or believe you will be disciplined for refusing to comply with a division policy.