Teaching While Queer

Teaching While Queer About Us
Teaching While Queer began as a podcast in 2022 and evolved into a not-for-profit organization in 2024 to support queer educators around the world.

Teaching While Queer provides queer folks working in education with a community to feel less alone and unload the burden of identity politics so you can work & live as your authentic self. Our Mission
Teaching While Queer’s mission is to create safe schools and communities where every educator can teach, every family can belong, and every child can learn regardless of actual or perceived sexual or

ientation or gender identity. Our Values
Teaching While Queer believes that all educators and youth deserve to feel safe and welcome in our schools and communities. Community
We believe in the power of authentic connection and community by fostering the wellbeing of Queer educators, honoring lived experiences, promoting safety within school communities, offering resources, and a safe space. Service
We provide support for all Queer Educators through mentorship, coaching, financial support, crisis mitigation, and referrals to resources we are unable to accommodate. Advocacy
We create culturally responsive classrooms and communities by elevating the pillars of diversity, inclusion, equity, access, justice, and belong at every level. Education
We provide professional development opportunities which promote collaborate toward innovative solutions to challenges, helping to enhance queer educators’ problem solving skills thus promoting educational independence for their students.

Why should you join us for the Q***ring Education Conference this October? Here are five pretty good reasons. 🏳️‍🌈We hav...
08/21/2026

Why should you join us for the Q***ring Education Conference this October? Here are five pretty good reasons. 🏳️‍🌈

We have two days packed with sessions from educators, researchers, advocates, artists, and community leaders from across the U.S. and around the world.

There’s a lot to choose from, and thankfully, you don’t actually have to choose. Every session will be recorded and available to registered attendees for up to six months after the conference.

Join us virtually October 10–11 as we build coalitions for a more inclusive future in education.

Register at TeachingWhileQ***r.org/events

***ringEducation ***ringEducationConference ***rEducators

08/19/2026

Tomorrow on Q***ring Education, I’m talking with Matt Brim!

Matt is a professor of q***r studies at the College of Staten Island and the executive director of CLAGS, the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.

We talk about how he found his way into q***r studies, what’s happening in higher education right now, the work Ctr for LGBTQ Studies, CLAGS is doing to support LGBTQ+ research and emerging scholars, and what it looks like to keep doing this work when funding and institutional support are being pulled back.

We also get into the reality that not everyone can respond to this moment in the same way. Being loud might work in one space, while staying connected behind the scenes might be what’s possible somewhere else.

Matt’s episode drops tomorrow wherever you listen to Q***ring Education. 🏳️‍🌈

***ringEducation ***r ***rEducators ***rStudies CUNY LGBTQI+ Council CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium

Four years ago, I was looking for a place to tell my story.I had spent nearly a year waiting and searching for a space w...
08/17/2026

Four years ago, I was looking for a place to tell my story.

I had spent nearly a year waiting and searching for a space where I could talk openly about what it meant to teach while q***r. Eventually, I realized I might have to create that space myself.

So I started the Teaching While Q***r podcast.

I could not have imagined where that decision would lead.

Four years later, Teaching While Q***r is a nonprofit. The podcast has grown and changed into Q***ring Education. I have had the opportunity to share the stories of q***r educators from around the world. And right now, I am in the middle of planning our second annual Q***ring Education Conference.

What started as a desire to share my story became a space for so many of us to share ours.

It has been an amazing ride, and none of it has happened alone.

To everyone who has helped this work grow, thank you. Whether you listened to an episode, shared a post, sent a supportive message, volunteered, partnered with us, presented, attended an event, or simply reminded me this work mattered, you have been part of this journey.

I am incredibly grateful for where we have been, proud of what we have built together, and excited about where we are going.

Four years down. So much more to come.

Here’s to continuing to build coalitions for a more inclusive future in education. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Thank you, thank you! - Bry Stanton

***r ***ringEducation ***rEducators

We have been looking forward to sharing this one.Dr. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam (she/her/siya) will join us as our Sunday...
08/14/2026

We have been looking forward to sharing this one.

Dr. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam (she/her/siya) will join us as our Sunday keynote speaker at the 2026 Q***ring Education Conference!

As educators, we know conversations about belonging rarely fit neatly into one category. Our students and colleagues bring race, culture, gender, sexuality, family histories, mental health, and lived experience into our learning spaces with them. Stacey’s work understands those intersections deeply.

She is an educator, counselor, clinical sexologist, racial equity strategist, author, and member of the Forbes Health Advisory Board. Much of her work asks us to think more carefully about intergenerational trauma, cultural identity, mental health, racial equity, and belonging.

She is also the author of Patterns That Remain: A Guide to Healing for Asian Children of Immigrants.

Stacey will join us virtually on Sunday, October 11 at 3:30 PM ET for a 30-minute keynote.

We are incredibly excited to learn from her and welcome her into the Q***ring Education community this October. 🌈

***ringEducation ***rEducation ***r

What are you waiting for? You’ve got until tomorrow end of day to submit your session proposal to present at the Q***rin...
08/14/2026

What are you waiting for? You’ve got until tomorrow end of day to submit your session proposal to present at the Q***ring Education Virtual Conference!

Join the conversation. Join the community! Link in bio.

***ringEducation ***rEducators ***r

Meet Alex Holdford, a special education teacher who has spent 15 years in education and is navigating what it means to b...
08/13/2026

Meet Alex Holdford, a special education teacher who has spent 15 years in education and is navigating what it means to be visibly nonbinary while teaching in Texas.

Alex shares a story that stopped us in our tracks: three teachers reported them for wearing a they/them T-shirt during an in-service day when no students were even on campus.

But this conversation is about more than a T-shirt. It’s about q***r visibility, finding safety in education, supporting students with dignity, building local LGBTQ+ community, and deciding how much of ourselves we’re willing to hide just to keep doing the work we love.

Alex also brings us inside their work in self-contained special education and reminds us that students know when they are safe, respected, and cared for.

Tomorrow’s conversation asks an important question: What does it mean to show up authentically when simply being visible can feel like breaking the rules?

Meet Alex tomorrow on Teaching While Q***r. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

***r ***rEducators

Kinda chic to start the school year q***r, affirming, and unapologetically ourselves. ✨ 🌈 ***r ***rEducators ***r...
08/12/2026

Kinda chic to start the school year q***r, affirming, and unapologetically ourselves. ✨ 🌈

***r ***rEducators ***ringEducation

08/12/2026

Tomorrow on Q***ring Education, we’re talking about what happens when simply being visible at work is treated like breaking the rules.

Meet Alex Holdford (they/them), a special education teacher with 15 years in education who is navigating what it means to teach while nonbinary in Texas.

During an in-service day, Alex wore a T-shirt with “they” on the top half and “them” on the bottom. There were no students on campus. Three teachers still reported them to administration.

That moment opens a much bigger conversation about q***r visibility in schools, restrictive policies, finding safety in special education, and the subtle ways q***r educators signal to students and colleagues that they aren’t alone.

Alex also shares why students know when they’re safe, how local q***r community has helped them find joy, and why educators need lives and identities that extend beyond the classroom.

🎙️ Alex joins us tomorrow on Q***ring Education: A Teaching While Q***r Podcast.

***r ***ringEducation ***rEducators
:::

There’s just 6 days remaining to submit your proposal for Teaching While Q***r’s Q***ring Education Conference. Come joi...
08/09/2026

There’s just 6 days remaining to submit your proposal for Teaching While Q***r’s Q***ring Education Conference.

Come join the conversation and get your session proposal in by August 15th.

https://lnkd.in/g2Z9Ve7G (link also in bio)
***ringEducation ***r

It’s wild that most LGBTQ+ students deal with hostile environments filled with anti-LGBTQ+ language and harassment every...
08/07/2026

It’s wild that most LGBTQ+ students deal with hostile environments filled with anti-LGBTQ+ language and harassment every single day, which completely wrecks their mental health and grades.

Schools seriously need a wake-up call and better rules to protect kids. 🛑

Read Glisten full advocacy brief (link in bio) and share this post with your local school board member to demand stronger accountability.



This post was developed by our NYC Youth & Comm. intern, Matthew!

Address

New York, NY

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Teaching While Queer posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Teaching While Queer:

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category