GLSEN

History

1990s

1990

• Kevin Jennings, a high school history teacher in Massachusetts, leads a coalition of gay and lesbian educators to form what was then called the Gay and Lesbian Independent School Teacher Network.

  1993

• In Massachusetts, the Governor's Commission released its report, Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth.

  1994

• GLSTN became a national organization with the founding of the first chapter outside Massachusetts in St. Louis.
• GLSTN launches the first LGBT History Month in October with official proclamations from the governors of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

  1995

• GLSTN hired its first full-time staffer, founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings.
• GLSTN accredits chapters for the first time.

  1997

• GLSTN staged its first national conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, in response to the legislature's effort to prevent the formation of GSAs in the state by banning all student groups.
• GLSTN changed its name to GLSEN in order to more reflect the importance of straight educators in shaping safe schools.
• Kevin Jennings meets with President Bill Clinton at the White House to discuss anti-LGBT bias in America's schools—the first meeting of its kind in the Executive Office of the United States.

  1998

• Out of the Past, a GLSEN-sponsored documentary developed as a resource for high school history classes, wins the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and is broadcast nationally on PBS. Eliza Byard, the film's co-producer, would become GLSEN's Deputy Executive Director in 2001.

  1999

• GLSEN conducts the National School Climate Survey—the first and only national study regularly documenting the experiences of LGBT youth in schools. The survey is conducted and published biennially.
• GLSEN, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a coalition of national education, mental health, and religious organizations release Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel, which provides authoritative statements about how “conversion therapy” is harmful to youth. Sixteen years later, President Barack Obama would call for an end to the practice.

  2000s

2000

• The Chicago chapter of GLSEN was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

  2001

• Students ask GLSEN to become the first national sponsor of the Day of Silence. Participation grows from hundreds of college students to thousands of middle and high school youth.

  2002

• GLSEN begins a partnership with the National Education Association, which asks school districts to protect LGBTQ students and staff by adopting policies that protect students from bullying and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

  2003

• U.S. Representative Linda Sánchez introduces the Safe Schools Improvement Act, an LGBT-inclusive federal anti-bullying bill that includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

  2004

• GLSEN's No Name-Calling Week launches as an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds.
• Vermont becomes the first state to pass an LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying law that includes protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.

  2005

• GLSEN and Harris Interactive release From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America, A Survey of Students and Teachers, the first national study of the general population of secondary students and teachers to address LGBT issues. This study documents disparities between LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ students and finds that LGBT students were more than three times as likely to not feel safe at school.
• GLSEN's Jump-Start National Student Leadership Team develops an idea that turns into the first Ally Week that is now in schools nationwide every October.

  2006

• GLSEN launches the “Think Before You Speak” public service announcement initiative with the Ad Council, the nonprofit advertising company's first LGBT-focused campaign.

  2007

• GLSEN helps develop the New York City Department of Education's “Respect for All” initiative.

  2008

• Lawrence King is murdered by his eighth-grade classmate at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California. GLSEN's Day of Silence is held in Larry's honor as students from more than 8,000 schools participate.
• Lance Bass films a public service announcement in the GLSEN office that is viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube.
• GLSEN releases, The Principal’s Perspective: School Safety, Bullying and Harassment, a report conducted in collaboration with the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

  2009

• Eleven-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover takes his life after enduring anti-gay bullying at school. His mother, Sirdeaner Walker, becomes a GLSEN spokesperson and later joins GLSEN's National Board of Directors.
• GLSEN releases Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools, the organization's first report that focuses specifically on the experiences of transgender students. The study finds that transgender youth face much higher levels of harassment and violence than LGB cisgender students, and as a result, miss more school, receive lower grades and feel more isolated from their school community.
• GLSEN releases, Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students of Color in our Nation’s Schools. The study focuses specifically on the school experiences of LGBTQ students of color and provides insight into the ways in which LGBTQ students’ school experiences differ based on race or ethnicity. The report finds that the majority of LGBTQ students of color faced both LGBTQ-based harassment and race-based harassment at school.

  2010s

2010

• GLSEN officially launches the Safe Space Campaign, designed to give educators the tools to be visibly supportive allies to LGBTQ students. The campaign goes on to place a Safe Space Kit in every school in the United States.

  2011

• GLSEN's Executive Director Eliza Byard participates in the first-ever United Nations international consultation to address anti-LGBT bullying in schools.
• Several representatives from GLSEN attend the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, pressing for effective federal action to address bullying, and highlighting bullying prevention programs and approaches that benefit all students.
• The White House names GLSEN a “Champion of Change”, honoring the organization's two decades of work to fight bullying, violence, and stigma directed at LGBTQ people in K-12 schools and for GLSEN's efforts to prevent suicide among at-risk youth.
• GLSEN, the Anti-Defamation League, and National Public Radio's StoryCorps launch “Unheard Voices,” an oral history and curriculum project that will help educators integrate LGBTQ history, people and issues into their instructional programs.

  2012

• GLSEN releases Strengths and Silences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in Rural and Small Town Schools. The report documents the experiences of more than 2,300 LGBTQ students who attend secondary schools in rural areas. Findings demonstrate that compared to LGBTQ students in urban and suburban areas, LGBTQ students in rural schools are more likely to hear negative comments about gender expression and sexual orientation; feel unsafe at their schools due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and experience verbal and physical harassment and assault due to these characteristics.
• A GuideStar/Philanthropedia survey of 110 experts on LGBTQ issues names GLSEN one of the country's top three LGBTQ nonprofits making significant contributions on a national level.
• GLSEN partners with the leading school mental health professional associations, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American School Counselors Association, the School Social Workers Association of America, and the American Council for School Social Workers, to conduct a national study of school mental health professionals on their preparation and practices related to LGBTQ youth in schools.

  2013

• GLSEN convenes first-ever research symposia on LGBTQ students’ experiences and homophobic and transphobic bullying internationally at the World Comparative Education Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina – with more than 15 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Israel, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Slovenia, South Africa, and Turkey. GLSEN, in partnership with UNESCO, also coordinates an all-day strategic planning meeting with the global group of experts to coordinate collective resources and reduce homophobic and transphobic prejudice and violence in schools globally.
• GLSEN publishes Out Online: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, the first national report to examine the online experience of LGBTQ youth. While LGBTQ youth experience nearly three times as much bullying and harassment online, they also find greater peer support, access to health information, and opportunities to be civically engaged.
• Transgender Student Rights, a youth-created grassroots organization, becomes a GLSEN program.
• By youth nomination, GLSEN Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard speaks at the Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action event at the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Fellow speakers include Presidents Obama, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. GLSEN is the only representative from an LGBTQ organization to speak at the event.

  2014

• GLSEN partners with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Association of Teacher Educators to research and support the inclusion of LGBTQ issues in teacher preparation.
• The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education issues official guidance making clear that transgender students are protected from discrimination under Title IX, stating that “Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.”
• The GLSEN National School Climate Survey finds that school climate for LGBTQ students has improved somewhat over the years, yet remains quite hostile for many. LGBTQ students in the survey experienced lower verbal and physical harassment based on sexual orientation than in all prior years, and the lowest physical assault based on sexual orientation since 2007.
• The Safe Schools Improvement Act, federal legislation that would require schools to adopt LGBTQ-inclusive anti-bullying policies, garners its highest support yet, with 208 bipartisan co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives and 46 in the U.S. Senate.

  2015

• GLSEN's No Name-Calling Week generates nearly 1,000,000 impressions of #celebratekindness on Twitter.
• GLSEN and Chilean partner organization Todo Mejora release a Spanish-language version of the GLSEN Safe Space Kit to be used in Chilean schools.

  Campaigns and programs

GLSEN's Day of Silence

GLSEN's No Name-Calling Week

GLSEN's Ally Week

Think Before You Speak campaign

GLSEN Research

GLSEN National Student Council

GLSEN Chapters

GLSEN Respect Awards

Fistgate controversy