LGBTQ+ Youth Embraced Their Power in San Francisco
Over 150 trans and queer youth from Northern California gathered for a day of community building and leadership development at the Youth Empowerment Summit (YES!) Read More
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Key Accomplishments
GSA Network has a strong track record of success in LGBTQ+ youth organizing in communities of color and has gained national recognition as a leader that is able to achieve and implement systems change. We have demonstrated the strength of our youth leadership development and advocacy model, our alliance building, and national movement building to create equitable school climates for LGBTQ+ youth. Since our founding in 1998, we have:
- Shifted the national narrative on bias based bullying away from punitive discipline and towards alternative models that keep LGBTQ+ youth in schools, and worked in collaboration with our education justice allies to eliminate or limit the use of willful defiance
- Shifted the political narrative for transgender and gender nonconforming youth (TGNC) in schools through the launch of TRUTH, a gender justice campaign that counters the negative messaging and perception of TGNC youth
- Expanded our organizing strategy to engage LGBTQ+ youth of color and low-income youth in rural regions of the country through the launch of GSA Network Southeast and GSA Network Midwest
- Grown the network of GSA clubs in California from 40 clubs to more than 1,100 clubs and provided training and support to approximately 18,000 youth activists and organizers annually.
- Helped to pass 11 key laws to protect LGBTQ+ youth and create safer schools in California, including the School Success and Opportunity Act of 2013.
- Launched the National Association of GSA Networks in 2005 to unite statewide organizations supporting GSAs and accelerate the growth and impact of the GSA movement nationwide. We have built political alignment with organizational partners in 19 states across the country to bolster local organizing and advocacy efforts, and connect those efforts to national racial and gender justice campaigns led by LGBTQ+ youth of color
- Developed a unique, replicable model of youth-led social justice organizing to address racial and gender justice in schools in New Mexico, Texas, and DC.
