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Our Position

We want to live in a world where we all are accepted, welcomed, and loved for exactly who we are. In this world, we all feel a profound sense of self-worth, safety and support to express our identities and explore our sexualities. We have equal access opportunities and our contributions are valued, regardless of gender.

This requires dismantling deeply held notions of gender by providing all people – and especially children and youth – with the support and information they need to explore, understand and articulate their own way of being in the world without shame or fear. It means embracing consent-based interactions, where all people have the right to determine what they want for their own bodies. It means celebrating each individual’s self-expression, whether through dress, gesture, behavior and/or activity. 

Mental health is prioritized for all people. All schools offer inclusionary sex education and abundant, culturally appropriate mental health resources. Culture creators – filmmakers, artists, musicians – are representative of all people and are encouraged to share and normalize their experiences.

The ultimate freedom is being able to say, “This is who I am,” and have people accept it. 

The Issue

Assigned even before birth, gender roles define our society’s expectations of how we should think, feel and move through the world. They attempt to dictate every detail of our lives – what clothes we wear, who we interact with and how, what dreams we pursue – and they have concrete consequences on our physical and mental wellbeing.

People of all genders and sexual orientations are harmed by cis-hetero-patriarchy. Rape culture ensures that female-bodied people are never safe from physical and emotional harm – and that they’ll be blamed for being victimized if they speak up. Their labor is under-valued and often uncompensated, and their professional aspirations in careers of all kinds will be cut short by glass ceilings. The mental health of male-bodied people suffers because toxic masculinity requires them to deny and repress emotions. Homophobia restricts their behaviors with the threat of physical and emotional abuse. 

While cis-gendered, heterosexual people are boxed in by narrow gender norms, LGBTQ+ folks are othered and marginalized. Policies have excluded them from receiving basic human rights and often refuse to recognize them at all. They are the target of bullying and hate crimes, and LGBTQ+ youth are particularly at risk, since the important adults in their lives – who have a great deal of power over them – may deny, reject or punish them for their identities. School environments reinforce gender norms in dress codes, bathrooms, and sex education. As a result, LGBTQ youth have higher rates of homelessness and suicide than cis-gendered and heterosexual youth.