Best Practices — Table of Contents

  1. Guidelines & Frameworks - guidelines, checklists, best practices from schools & professional organizations
  2. Communicating - terminology, strategies, and printables to help students & teachers talk with, write to, or inform teachers, guardians, parents, and families (including español/Spanish, 中文/Chinese, and more languages to come)
  3. Athletics & Sports - best practices for supporting transgender athletes in schools across 50 states

1. Guidelines, Frameworks, & Best Practices

  • GenderInclusiveBiology’s best practices summary sheet (Google Doc)

  • GLSEN Transgender Student Model District Policy (pdf)

Coming Soon

  • More languages!

En Español (Spanish)

  • Cómo Hablar Sobre El Género y La Orientación Sexual (Talking about Gender & Sexual Orientation) - A Toolkit for All Families (pdf)

2. Communication

Strategies & Guides

  • Cómo Hablar Sobre El Género y La Orientación Sexual (Talking about Gender & Sexual Orientation) - A Toolkit for All Families (bilingual English & Spanish pdf)

  • Audio LGBT Glossary for Burmese, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, & Vietnamese (html)

  • LGBTQ Glossary for Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, & Korean from Asian Health Services (pdf)

  • Intersex Information Toolkit for Spanish, Italian, German, French, Arabic, Farsi, Dutch, Russian, Serbian, Polish, Icelandic, Bulgarian, & Greek from OII Europe

Printables

  • GenderSpectrum’s Gender Communication Plan (pdf)

  • Somos Familia’s Conceptos Básicos (español/Spanish, pdf)

Examples

  • Newsletter re: Continuing Gender Education Conversations (Miraloma Elementary School, San Francisco) (pdf)

  • English-Spanish (bilingual) Family Newsletter re: LGBT Pride Month (Marshall Elementary School, San Francisco) (docx)

  • Chinese-only newsletter - API Queer Trans Oral Histories from API Equality (pdf)

Some Non-English Terms

Español/Spanish

  • Terms

    • e (pronounced: ess/iz) - Latines, Elles, Les, nines

    • -@ (pronounced: ao/oa) - Latin@s, Ell@s, L@s, nin@s

    • -x (pronounced: eks/ex) - Latinx, Ellx, Lxs, ninxs

  • Articles

    • Why ‘LatinX’ Is Succeeding While Other Gender-Neutral Terms Fail to Catch On (Time ) (pdf)

    • This Young Girl Explains Why “Les” Is an Important Gender Neutral Pronoun In Spanish (Remezcla) (pdf)

    • Muxes, Mexico’s Ancient Third Gender (Slate) (video & article)

Vietnamese

  • asexual: vô tính

  • crossdresser: mặc quần áo người khác phái

  • FTM: chuyển giới nam

  • gay: đồng tính luyến ái nam (men)/nữ (women)

  • gender: giới tính

  • gender identity: bản sắc giới tính

  • genderqueer: đồng giới tính

  • hormone therapy: liệu pháp hormone

  • intersex: lưỡng tính

  • MTF: chuyển giới nữ

  • sexual orientation: khuynh hướng tình dục

  • transgender: chuyển đổi giới tính

  • transitioning: tái phát, trở thành ác tính

  • unsure/questioning: không chắc chắn/ thắc mắc

  • Source: Asian Health Services

Chinese

  • asexual: 無性戀 (wúxìngliàn)

  • crossdresser: 變裝者 biànzhuāngzhě

  • FTM: 女性變男性 nǚxìngbiànnánxìng

  • gay/lesbian: (男/女)同性戀 (nán/men; nǚ/women) tòngxìnglìan

  • gender: 性別 xìngbié

  • gender identity: 性別認同 xìngbié rèntóng

  • genderqueer: 性別酷兒 xìngbié kù er

  • hormone therapy: 激素治療 jīsù zhìliáo

  • intersex: 雌雄同體 cíxióngtóngtǐ

  • MTF: 男性變女性 nánxìngbiànnǚxìng

  • sexual orientation: 性取向 xìngqǔxiàng

  • transgender: 跨性別 kuàxìngbié

  • transitioning: 變性過渡 biànxìngguòdù

  • unsure/questioning: 不確定 bùquèdìng

    Source: Asian Health Services

3. Athletics & Sports

  • TransAthlete - 50-state survey of high school transgender athlete policies & laws

Caption: Map of the 50 states of the United States, showing high school policies for transgender student athletes in each state as of September 2019.

 

Coming Next

 

FAQs

How do I advocate for my students AND protect my job?

I’m new to this & I’m not sure if it’s “science".”

No one’s ever complained to me about it so it must never happen.

I don’t have any queer or trans kids. Why should I update my practice?

I’m 100% sure this has nothing to do with science. Are you trying to insert politics into science? Don’t you know science is objective and unbiased?

Myths & Misconceptions

Speaking Truth to Power

“I want everyone to get used to using accurate language for body parts and functions without assuming that there are only two sexes and that everyone within a particular sex is the same. It’s important to be able to communicate about our bodies in accurate ways.”

(Source: AIDS Community Care Montreal & sextEd. Inclusive Sex Ed Language Checklist (pdf)

 

Trans/Nonbinary educators!

SUBSCRIBE to the Transgender/Nonbinary Educators Network (TEN)!

 

We are 3 NGSS biology teachers curating a free, centralized biology curriculum resource for all educators supporting staff and students along the gender spectrum.
If you have a resource to add to the list, please contact us so we can update our collection.