As educators, we strive to build a safe and supportive environment for all our students as well as our colleagues. In this extended episode, you’ll hear from a few Arizona educators who identify as gay or lesbian and a former teacher whose son came out as gay during his middle school years as we together discuss the LGBTQ+ experience within the world of education.

Host Donnie welcomes Maria and Mike to the podcast to share about the bright moments and the challenges they’ve experienced because of their identities and the impact of that on their teaching and education work, while Stephanie shares about her son’s experience.

Mike and Donnie also share about some of the challenges of being men in a female-majority workplace. 

Donnie and today’s guests talk about the need for training and professional development related to caring and supporting for LGBTQ+ students and staff.

Here are some resources connected to today’s episode:

• Learning for Justice’s Gender and Sexual Identity Resources
• The Safe Zone Project
• GLSEN

Learn more about the Arizona K12 Center at azk12.org.