Exploring the Intersection of Identity, Politics, and Education for Black LGBTQ Students
From reinforcing biases to jeopardizing safe, inclusive school spaces, the latest round of misinformation and policy proposals could have lasting implications for Black K-12 kids.
During his third run for the White House, Donald Trump made hostility toward LGBTQ+ rights an integral part of his campaign.
He vowed to roll back federal anti-discrimination policies based on sexual orientation and gender and promised to exclude gay and transgender people from civil rights protections. Trump also repeated false claims that public K-12 schools are facilitating gender transitions without parental consent: “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation.”
Now that he’s heading back to the Oval Office, school-age LGBTQ+ youth are flooding crisis hotlines, fearful about what Trump 2.0 means for them and their safety—including Black LGBTQ+ kids, who are uniquely more vulnerable to Trump-inspired threats, bullying, and violence than their white peers.
“The misinformation and rhetoric emboldens other students, teachers, and administrators to view Black LGBTQ+ students as a problem and treat them as such,” Corryn Freeman, executive director of Future Coalition, a nonprofit that supports young progressive leaders of color, tells Word In Black.
The promises of Trump and his allies, she says, “[stifles] their experience in schools [and] is an infringement on the rights of young people.”
Data also speaks to this reality. A recent study determined that laws that strip away protections for LGBTQ+ young people led to increased suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by as much as 72%. At the same time, The Trevor Project — the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people — reported a nearly 700% increase in crisis-level calls and other means of contact since the election.
LGBTQ+ youth of color made up a third of those callers, according to the organization.
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