CHICAGO \u2014 In the last few months, Milo can\u2019t help but notice how the mood among his fellow students at Chicago\u2019s Jones College Prep has shifted. What\u2019s led to the change isn\u2019t a development at the school itself, which is relatively friendly to queer and transgender students and where Milo, a senior, leads the Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA. Instead, it\u2019s how President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and others have moved to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and transgender people in particular, including students.<\/p>\n
In response, GSA clubs in Chicago Public Schools are mobilizing to support students as well as staff during a difficult and volatile period. The groups are emphasizing self-care and helping people understand the political and policy changes taking place. Students in them are also organizing public events and speaking out about curriculum, student behavior, and ensuring policy that affirms LGBTQ+ students is actually used in schools.<\/p>\n
CPS currently has a robust set of guidelines for supporting trans and gender nonconforming students and staff. But ultimately, schools and other systems that serve students \u201cneed to make it clear that queer and trans kids are a priority to them and their support goes beyond just words\u201d and don\u2019t just treat them like \u201ctalking points,\u201d said Milo. \u201cWhen members of our community are being targeted, that ripple is felt throughout the entire community,\u201d Milo said.<\/p>\n
In his first day in office, Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, including one declaring that the federal government would only recognize two sexes, male and female. The U.S. Department of Education has also tossed out protections for gender identity in schools adopted by the Biden administration and told educators they must share information about students\u2019 gender identity with parents. Before too long, Chicago and the state felt the effects of these dramatic policy shifts. In early March, two conservative groups filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Illinois State Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools, targeting the extension of Title IX policies to include gender identity. The federal Education Department promptly opened an investigation.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the department told states that in 10 days, they must certify that their schools aren\u2019t engaging in what the Trump administration believes are illegal efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. States that don\u2019t comply will lose their federal education funding, the administration said. There is movement afoot to bolster current policies focused on supporting students like Milo. A tentative contract agreement between the Chicago Teachers Union and the district announced earlier this week includes a commitment to having one staff person in each of the district\u2019s 18 geographic networks provide support to GSAs and LGBTQ+ students, staff, and families. It also allows for schools to have a staff member volunteer to serve as a \u201cGender Support Coordinator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corey Lascano, a CPS teacher and GSA advisor, said she expected conservative groups to leverage the Trump administration\u2019s revisions to Title IX policies to target LGBTQ+-affirming policies in districts like CPS, which is why these new provisions are important. Lascano said a lot of her conversations with students have focused on protecting themselves, both now and in the future. \u201cI had a conversation just today with a student regarding where they are going to college and what safety looks like for them in a state like Florida or Texas,\u201d Lascano said. \u201cTo some degree, they can\u2019t fully be themselves without getting pushback.\u201d<\/p>\n
That kind of support and counseling from teachers means a lot to students like Maggie, a Kenwood Academy student and GSA member. In the wake of the 2024 election, Maggie said more teachers began being vocal about their support for LGBTQ+ students and posting signs with slogans such as \u201cTrans Rights Are Human Rights.\u201d \u201cSometimes it can be really hard as a queer student to know what teachers to trust,\u201d they said, \u201cso being able to have teachers who are very vocal is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some state and local education leaders have made it clear that Trump administration policy does not match theirs. In February, Illinois Superintendent Tony Sanders publicly reaffirmed the state\u2019s commitment to teaching the contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans throughout history in accordance with the state\u2019s Inclusive Curriculum Law. Sanders\u2019 letter came in response to a letter from the federal Education Department advising educators that their schools were at risk of losing federal funding if they continued with diversity initiatives.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not necessarily enough for teachers like Lascano. She said CPS needs to stand firm in its stance to stand with LGBTQ+ educators and communities by enforcing the state law about inclusive curricula, not just highlighting it. \u201cYou can have the most inclusive curriculum in the world, but [it doesn\u2019t mean anything] if your principal is telling staff members they don\u2019t need to teach any of the lessons with a trans character in it because it would violate their right to believe in only two genders,\u201d Lascano said. Milo said he\u2019s taking a course called Gender and Sexuality in History, but wants to see LGBTQ+ histories and experiences integrated more into standard courses. \u201cStudents shouldn\u2019t have to choose an elective to learn their own history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a similar dynamic about how students and staff act and the resources available to them. Julio Flores, program director for the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, an organization that advocates families with LGBTQ+ youth experiencing challenges at schools, said he has received several requests from schools seeking professional development to be proactively supportive. \u201cSome young people are not wanting to use they\/them pronouns for a nonbinary person because they think the executive order says they don\u2019t have to,\u201d said Flores, referring to Trump\u2019s directive. There\u2019s been a rise in students\u2019 casual use of homophobic, transphobic, and ableist language, said Julie Merrell, Kenwood\u2019s GSA adviser. They noted that the increase they have observed has been incremental. \u201cIt\u2019s not like one day it was amazing and now it\u2019s bad,\u201d they said. \u201cStudents have dealt with being misgendered and deadnamed and made to feel like they can\u2019t be themselves my entire teaching career.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an out nonbinary educator, Merrell said they are misgendered constantly by colleagues, including support staff members. \u201cI think that cis allies really need to show up by calling each other in and educating each other, so the work isn\u2019t always on trans students and staff who are feeling increased anxiety at this moment,\u201d Merrell said. In addition to districtwide resources for reporting Title IX violations, Kenwood has an anonymous reporting system where students can report incidents \u2014 including allegations of homophobia or transphobia \u2014 to the principal. \u201cI don\u2019t know how seriously the staff take it, but students don\u2019t seem to take it seriously or trust it,\u201d Maggie said. There are other issues that official policy doesn\u2019t always capture. Merrell said there are challenges to implementing student gender support plans when staff or administrative capacity is an issue. And community resources are not always equally accessible, Lascano noted. \u201cThe North Side has very strong support and coalitions and organizing, but on the South Side and the West Side, community resources are more limited,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need parents who are actively supporting queer and trans teachers, actively supporting their schools\u2019 GSAs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Lascano hopes that official moves like the language focused on LGBTQ+ students in the preliminary CTU contract \u2014 which she helped to write as part of a committee \u2014 represents progress. \u201cIt ensures another layer of safety not just for queer and trans staff but for students as well,\u201d she said. In March, the CPS Office of Student Health and Wellness hosted an event called the Galaxy Summit that was a gathering of GSAs from across the city, which teacher and GSA advisor Lindsey Williston brought students from her school to attend. \u201cThey know it\u2019s a bigger world, but to see it all in one room gives them comfort,\u201d Williston said. That\u2019s the kind of community building that gives Milo hope. \u201cIn a big city like Chicago, these connections are all around us and send a really strong message of support to people who might not be able to find that themselves,\u201d Milo said. Students say what they need from the adults in their school communities is quite simple: believe them. \u201cWe know who we are,\u201d said Maggie from Kenwood. \u201cIf we say \u2018I think I\u2019m trans\u2019 or \u2018I think I\u2019m gay\u2019 or \u2018I think I\u2019m bi,\u2019 we mean it, and we deserve to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Introduction to the Issue CHICAGO \u2014 In the last few months, Milo can\u2019t help but notice how the mood among his fellow students at Chicago\u2019s Jones College Prep has shifted. What\u2019s led to the change isn\u2019t a development at the school itself, which is relatively friendly to queer and transgender students and where Milo, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/bcc-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/03\/pexels-gabby-k-9587939-1.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1298&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18019,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18017\/revisions\/18019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}