LGBTQIA+ & Allied Educators and Library Workers
Educators and library workers have found themselves on the front lines of an intense war against LGBTQIA+ lives. 2024 has been another record-breaking year in a line of record-breaking years of policies that have been introduced at the state and local levels that target LGBTQIA+ youth, educators, library workers, and LGBTQIA+ content in books and curriculum. There have been efforts across the country and here in San Diego County to ban, deface, and remove LGBTQIA+ inclusive books in libraries, prohibit LGBTQIA+- and race-inclusive curriculum in schools. School boards are banning Pride flags, defunding LGBTQIA+-affirming mental health spaces, and attempting to pass and implement “forced outing” policies that violate trans students freedoms.
Putting themselves out front in these fights to protect access to LGBTQIA+-inclusive and affirming spaces in schools and libraries are LGBTQIA+ and allied educators and library workers. Some institutions are fully behind their workers as they put themselves out there, and some of these folks are out front without the support of their library or school employer.
Many LGBTQIA+ youth find their first safe spaces at school or at a library, and sometimes, those former “library kids” and students become educators or library workers to continue to create those safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ youth now.