Our Goal

The goal of our project is to video interview LGBTQ families across Ontario about their children’s experiences in school and share our findings from these interviews with teachers, community educators, and other LGBTQ families.

We use the initialism LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer) with the intention of including people who identify as transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual, agender, gender queer, gender variant, and/or pangender. We understand the names people use to describe their gender and sexual identities are always evolving and that the most important thing is to be respectful and to use names that people prefer.

​Progress Report

To date -October 2, 2018 - we 
  • have conducted video and audio interviews with 36 parents/families in five Ontario cities (Toronto, Ottawa, Sudbury, London, and St. Thomas) and surrounding suburbs and rural communities and 
  • are currently curating and uploading the last set of video clips onto our website.  
Teaching Gender and Sexuality at School:  Letters to Teachers by Tara Goldstein will be out in December 2018

In a set of letters to teachers, Tara addresses a full range of issues facing LGBTQ students and families at elementary and secondary school. She also talks to teachers about normalizing LGBTQ lives in the curriculum, challenging homophobic and transphobic ideas, and building an inclusive school culture that both expects and welcomes LGBTQ students and their families.  The book also includes a terrific nuanced glossary of terms and definitions written by team member benjamin lee hicks.

You can pre-order the book at https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-Gender-and-Sexuality-at-School-Letters-to-Teachers/Goldstein/p/book/9781138387140

A selection of our video clips...

Click here for more!

Music from ​Out at School:
Pushing the Envelope

Music from ​Out at School:
​Let Love Be The Way

"Pushing the Envelope" and "Let Love Be The Way" are songs composed by research team member and musician Kate Reid from our verbatim theatre project Out at School​.  The monologues, the visual images, and the songs in ​Out at School are based on the excerpts from our interviews with LGBTQ families.

"Pushing the Envelope"
​​Written and performed by Kate Reid, 2017
Recorded by Stew Crookes
Produced by Stew Crookes and Kate Reid

Musicians
Kate Reid: vocals, acoustic guitar
Stew Crookes: pedal steel
Doug Friesen: stand-up and electric bass
Roger Travassos: percussion


"Let Love Be The Way"
​​Written and performed by Kate Reid, 2018
Recorded by Stew Crookes
Produced by Stew Crookes and Kate Reid
Assistant engineering by Andrew Scott

Musicians
Kate Reid (vocals, acoustic guitar)
Andrew Scott (drums, percussion)
Kurt Nielsen (bass)
Todd Lumley (piano and synth)