Illinois schools will teach LGBTQ+ history despite federal pushback
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Despite the Trump administration's persistent attacks on transgender people, Illinois public schools are not changing their curriculum that includes transgender history.
Why it matters: Studies have shown that creating a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ students through history lessons, professional development for teachers, and gender and sexuality alliance groups leads to more positive outcomes for LGBTQ+ students.
- LGBTQ+ youth who found their school to be LGBTQ-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide, according to the Trevor Project's 2022 survey.
Flashback: Illinois passed the Inclusive Curriculum Law in 2019. It requires public schools to "accurately portray the political, economic, and social contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals" in lessons.
Threat level: One of Trump's recent executive orders directed the Department of Education to find ways to cut funding for programs that support LGBTQ+ issues and another directed federal agencies to rescind documents that include guidance on LGBTQ+ issues.
State of play: Illinois State Board of Education Superintendent Tony Sanders has promised that Trump's executive orders will not affect transgender inclusion in the state's curriculum.
- "The study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is American history. In other words, in Illinois, we strive to affirm, uplift, and support all our students and their families," Sanders said last week.
- Chicago Public Schools, the state's largest district, requires all staff to train on how to support transgender, nonbinary and gender non-conforming students.
Zoom in: Gender and sexuality alliance groups (formerly called gay-straight alliances) in schools are common now, but when Shannon Sullivan started the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance in 2007, it was a different landscape.
- "I knew young people trying to start gay-straight alliances who were not having success with their administrations. I certainly knew teachers, lots of teachers, who were not prepared in any way to really be working with kids or preventing bullying and harassment, preventing the use of exclusionary school discipline for kids … Some transgender kids were getting dress code infractions and being sent home," Sullivan tells Axios.
Yes, but: Sullivan says the state maintaining its commitment to LGBTQ+ students is a positive sign as it appears they're not succumbing to threats of potential funding cuts.
- "One of the takeaways for me is 'Don't comply in advance,'" Sullivan says.