Wisconsin Public School District Publishes Another Pro-LGBT Video On YouTube

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Wisconsin’s Madison Metropolitan School District published a pro-LGBT video on YouTube that features students discussing issues related to “coming out.”

Many children in the school district’s 2019 “Happy Coming Out Day” video announce their preferred gender pronouns. Young people in the video also speak about “coming out” and offer advice about “coming out” and advice about supporting students who identify as LGBT:

“My name is Miller and my pronouns are they, them theirs and I’m non-binary,” one child declares during the video.
“I identify as pansexual,” another child announces.
“I identify as a bisexual cisgender,” a girl proclaims.
“Teachers should make more of an effort to like get kids pronouns right,” Miller says later in the video.

Another child cautions against segregating students by gender, noting that some students may not identify as distinctly male or female: “It’s bad to separate groups into boys and girls because some people might not feel that they fit into boys or girls, they might feel in the middle.”

According to Madison.com the school district is involved in offering training on LGBT topics through “Out For Safe Schools”:

The video is one of a few initiatives the district has added in recent years to support its LGBTQ+ students and staff, including 17 designated Welcoming Schools. Those buildings offer books and curriculum while focusing on creating an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ students.

This year, the district has also joined the Out For Safe Schools program, which is featured in the video that debuted Friday. Sherie Hohs, the district’s LGBTQ+ social worker, said the district has trained more than 250 staff members through the program since August.

The Los Angeles-based initiative gives staff “very practical information to be visible allies for our LGBTQ-plus youth,” Hohs said, and more staff have expressed interest in future training sessions.

Adults at the end of the video declare their support for LGBT-identifying students and note that adults carrying the card shown in the photo below, “have done extra training and care about being an ally to LGBTQ+ students.”

While this 2019 video highlights students, it follows a similar video published by the school district in 2018 that highlighted “LGBTQ+ staff,” according to Madison.com: “The video last year was distributed to all of the schools, and parts of it were shown to many classes — though it wasn’t mandated, said district spokeswoman Rachel Strauch-Nelson, a gay woman featured in last year’s video.”