A gender and sexuality alliance at an Eagle County school has received a $10,000 grant to implement a student-led plan to make schools safer and happier for LGBTQ+ students.

The grant comes from It gets bettera nonprofit that empowers, empowers, and connects LGBTQ+ people around the world through storytelling initiatives. Funding is part of It Gets Better’s 50 states, 50 grants, 5,000 voices Grant initiative, the largest organization designed to provide LGBTQ+ youth with resources to make their schools a comfortable and joyful place for themselves.

Student members of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance applied for the grant last year in partnership with Mountain Pride, an Eagle County nonprofit founded in 2022 to improve the experience of the LGBTQ+ community and allies in the mountains of Colorado. Eagle County is the only Colorado It Gets Better grant recipient out of this year’s 25 recipients, and the third Colorado recipient in the three years the grant has been offered.

Mads Partridge, chief executive of Mountain Pride, said receiving the grant was “so exciting”.

“The students were excited,” Partridge said. “I think it really shows them that their voices matter and that Mountain Pride, It Gets Better and Eagle County want to raise their voices and show that they have power and can make an impact. We can take that money and do strong work to impact not just our space, but the culture of the school.”

Support local journalism

Donate

Why are gender and sexuality alliances important in schools?

There are several gender and sexuality alliances in Eagle County School District’s middle and high schools, all of which are “student-led and supported by Mountain Pride,” Partridge said. “The pillars of Mountain Pride’s work are community, education, advocacy and resources, so we worked with student leaders, educators, counselors and the school district to support or build these student groups in schools.”

Clubs provide a safe space for LGBTQ+ students by featuring student-led activities that range from fun events to discussions about issues affecting them in school and life, giving students a platform to advocate and make their voices heard.

“At every GSA in Eagle County, the main goal is to make it a safer place for kids,” said Liam Dunn, senior at Eagle Valley High School and co-leader of the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

“You hear so many experiences from … LGBTQ+ youth in school and how much it can affect mental health, how much it can affect people’s education,” Dunn said. “This is a place of education, and unfortunately LGBTQ+ youth go through discrimination every day, which shouldn’t happen, but GSA … is a place where kids can come together to find a community, to find a sense of belonging. “

After hearing about the grant, “I was so happy because it opens so many doors for us to do things to benefit our school,” Dunn said.

Working with the students was “amazing. These students are so energetic and make me want to be a better person and live in an authentic way, as many of them show,” Partridge said. “The reality is that they can appear that way, but there’s still harassment, there’s still pushback about having a GSA and being open. So it’s really a catch-22 of this strong authenticity, but then this reality of what’s still going on in schools.”

“(Students) want spaces where they can truly be themselves free from bullying and harassment and where their peers can thrive in school. What is so exciting about this It Gets Better scholarship is that it shows students that people believe in their ability to change to create a better environment in our schools,” said Partridge. “With this grant, we can support these youth-led initiatives as they raise their voices, advocate for teacher training and safe spaces, and celebrate it all in the same effort. It was amazing to witness.”

How do students plan to put the It Gets Better grant into practice?

In applying for the It Gets Better grant, the students wanted to “make the school a better place for our LGBTQ+ youth here,” Dunn said.

Their grant application included three specific goals: educating teachers about the LGBTQ+ student experience, more inclusive policies and access in schools, and a fun end-of-year celebration through the Queer Prom.

The teacher training component will include LGBTQ+ student-based content about how incidents such as bullying, mispronunciation and misidentification affect them and how teachers can intervene on behalf of bullied students.

“Our teachers do so much in the classroom and it’s so incredible, and they have to show up for every student, and showing up for every student also means understanding the experiences of the students,” Partridge said.

“There are some teachers who can be disrespectful, but I just don’t really get it,” Dunn said.

While some schools, such as Eagle Valley High School, already have gender-neutral bathrooms, they are not always easily accessible for every student. Some of the grant funds will already increase access to these restrooms for students in need.

“There are a lot of kids who find it really important to have gender-neutral bathrooms because they’re afraid to go into any of the bathrooms because of the bullying that can come along with that,” Dunn said.

Queer Prom, which is open to all high school students in Eagle County, is a dance with fun activities and serves as a space for LGBTQ+ youth to come together and meet others who are like them, “and have that safe place to be who it’s you they are and they are not judged,” Dunn said.

The Eagle County School District supports students’ school improvement efforts

While the school district has consistently supported Gender and Sexuality Alliances, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is not unheard of in Eagle County, and Partridge is bracing for backlash as students implement her action plan in schools.

“I can definitely see that there is pushback. Ever since Mountain Pride has been an organization, we’ve had pushback from saying we shouldn’t be here, we shouldn’t be working with the youth in our schools. We’ve had school board meetings to local board meetings where we keep hearing that,” Partridge said. “But the district supports LGBTQ+ youth in our schools. It supports them to have GSA and to be able to use their voice.”

“We are happy to see our students show initiative, compete for a national scholarship and earn $10,000,” said Eagle County School District Superintendent Phil Qualman. “We believe it is important for students to develop their independence and leadership skills, and this grant award shows they are moving in that direction.”

For students, the grant provides the opportunity to influence their school culture in a way that improves their lives and the lives of LGBTQ+ students. Receiving the grant “makes me an even more proud student to be able to come to school in a school where we’re influencing change,” Dunn said. “I am proud of every single person at GSA; we made it happen, we really worked together to make that change. And it makes it a safer place for me, including… It gives me a little more peace of mind knowing that we’re taking steps to make sure kids feel safe at school.”