Building an Affirming, Liberating World for LGBTQIA+ Youth with Melanie Willingham-Jaggers
On this episode of Grow Kinder®, host Andrea Lovanhill speaks with Melanie Willingham-Jaggers (they/she), the Interim Executive Director at GLSEN, a national nonprofit that works to ensure K–12 education is safe and affirming for all students, including LGBTQIA+ youth.
A lecturer at City University New York in the Master of Applied Theater program, Melanie has extensive experience in social justice organizing within and beyond the LGBTQIA+, immigrant, disabled, incarcerated, and other marginalized and intersecting communities. From 2016 to 2019, they served as board chair of The Audre Lorde Project, one of the oldest centers for community organizing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color in the New York City area. And before joining GLSEN in 2019 as deputy executive director, they served as the program associate director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
In this conversation, Melanie talks about the critical importance of having windows and mirrors for students, and they share their insights into how schools can create a safe, inclusive, and affirming environment for LGBTQIA+ youth, educators, and families.
You can follow Melanie on Twitter at twitter.com/themelster. To learn more about GLSEN, visit glsen.org.
Visit the links below for some of the resources mentioned in this episode.
LGBTQ+ Student Rights Guide:
https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/LGBTQ-Student-Rights.pdf
LGBTQ+ Educator Rights Guide:
https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/LGBTQ-Educator-Rights.pdf
“Erasure and Resilience: The Experiences of LGBTQ Students of Color” Reports:
• glsen.org/AAPI
• glsen.org/black
• glsen.org/latinx
• glsen.org/native
GLSEN 2021 Legislative Agenda
• https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/2021-Legislative-Agenda-Policies-Inclusive-LGBTQ-Students-Schools_0.pdf
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