DPSF supports passing a DPS LGBTQIA+ and Gender Supports Policy

Durham Public Schools Foundation (DPSF) expresses our unequivocal support for the DPS Board of Education to pass a strong LGBTQIA+ and Gender Supports Policy. We are grateful for the students, educators, caregivers, district and school administrators, and community advocates who have been working to bring this policy forward. 

We believe that a strong LGBTQIA+ and Gender Supports Policy will celebrate diversity and difference, provide guidance for schools to create classroom and school-wide environments that foster compassion and safety for all, and will put forward a robust and evidence-based process for preventing and addressing discrimination within all of our school communities. 

Across Durham, school communities have been working for years to foster inclusion, safety and respect for all students, regardless of their gender identity or expression. Just this fall, DPSF funded projects at four schools to offer LGBTQIA+ and gender diverse training, materials and support. We are committed to continuing to partner with schools to create welcoming, inclusive environments where every student can succeed. 

There is real urgency to provide safe, nurturing environments for every DPS student to thrive. DPSF is partnering with Durham Public Schools and Duke Health on the WHOLE Schools Movement because young people across the country, including here in Durham, are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. The essential basis for learning is that everyone in the whole school feels they are safe, supported and belong. The pandemic has only increased isolation, anxiety and barriers to learning, and historically marginalized students have been most significantly impacted. Youth suicides are on the rise across the state, increasing by more than 50% from 2019 to 2020. In 2021, 12% of cisgender female students and 25% of LGBTQ students attempted suicide, compared to 5% of their cisgender male peers and 5% of their heterosexual peers.

In honor of Transgender Day of Rememberance this November, our teammember Felix Pitman shared this perspective: 

We all have a responsibility to keep our trans friends, siblings, children, students, colleagues, neighbors, and loved ones safe. Trans people have existed just as long as any other humans have, and we’re not going anywhere. We refuse to be erased, we refuse to be silenced, and we refuse to be anyone other than our true selves. When doing something as simple as using someone’s correct pronouns is literally a direct form of suicide prevention, why would we steep in our own willfulness instead of practice life-saving inclusion? Be someone your trans community can count on. Be someone who prevents another lost life.

DPSF is proud to join the call for LGBTQIA+ inclusion in our school communities. We support the Board of Education as it considers how to advance a thoughtful policy while responding with urgency to student safety and mental health concerns.