165. Affirming LGBTQ+ Students Means More than Just Surviving Right Now

“If we’re surpassing the safety of children to satisfy community attitudes, then we’re failing—period.”

This episode of Teaching While Queer dives deep into the lived realities of queer teachers and LGBTQ+ allies fighting for truly inclusive schools in 2025. Drawing on Bryan’s conversation with Josh Qua, a queer educator and special education coordinator in New Orleans, we tackle the urgent need for radical empathy, queer visibility, and defending the power of choice—especially as anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and book bans sweep the country.

In this episode, queer educators and allies will:

• Learn five actionable strategies to normalize queer existence, defend student choice, and build affirming support networks in even the most conservative schools.
• Feel seen and validated through honest stories about overcoming isolation, resisting erasure, and finding radical joy.
• Get practical steps for auditing classroom representation, supporting queer colleagues, and keeping student safety front and center—no matter the political climate.

This podcast is for every LGBTQ+ teacher, ally, and anyone dreaming of schools where every student and educator is truly affirmed.

Take the first step in building radical, joyful, affirming schools—tap play and join the movement.

Support the podcast and spread the message with merch from Equalitees.Me!

This podcast explores the challenges and successes of queer representation in education, tackling topics like burnout, tokenism, doxing, and the role of advocacy in building inclusive classrooms, safe spaces, and anti-bullying strategies. It centers support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, aromantic, agender, two-spirit, and non-binary teachers, and addresses how gender identity in schools can be honored to combat isolation and foster community.

The podcast explores the challenges and successes of Queer representation in education, addressing issues such as burnout, tokenism, doxing, and the importance of advocacy in creating inclusive classrooms, safe spaces, and anti-bullying strategies, with a focus on supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual, aromantic, agender, two-spirit, and non-binary teachers and gender identity in schools to combat the feeling of isolation and lack of community.

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