Youth Pride urges school committee to protect and support GSAs and LGBTQ youth

Rush Frazier, executive director of Youth Pride, told the North Kingstown School Committee on March 18 that school-sanctioned gay–straight alliances (GSAs) provide essential supports for LGBTQ youth and urged the committee to affirm policies and practices that protect students who are queer, trans and gender-expansive.

Frazier said GSAs do not “take nothing away from the classroom experience,” describing them as “a weekly oasis during tumultuous times” where students can study and build community. He told the committee that research links LGBTQ-inclusive curricula and school supports to lower rates of bullying and suicide attempts.

The presentation came during the committee’s presentations and recognitions segment. Frazier summarized the Youth Pride center’s services in Rhode Island, including one-to-one mental health care, homelessness diversion and rapid rehousing, case management, a basic-needs pantry and support for GSAs in middle schools, high schools and colleges. He urged committee members to show students “that belonging means having the right to co-create and make demands upon society,” and to prioritize “collective care.”

School committee members did not take action at the meeting. The presentation was followed by a brief period for questions; committee members asked whether there were exemplary local districts and about enforcement or implementation mechanisms for supportive practices, and Frazier said supports vary across the state and that more consistent public action is needed.

Why it matters: GSAs and school-level supports are tied to student mental-health outcomes in national research. The presentation adds to a record of community advocacy the committee has heard on student safety and inclusion while the district reviews related policies and the broader redistricting and program-planning work now underway.