Queer and trans kids at a high school in Missouri will soon be able to come out in style after grant approval for a clothing project by its Gay-Straight Alliance club.
The Columbia school board approved $10,000 in funding from the It Gets Better Project as part of the organization’s “50 States. 50 Grants. 5,000 Voices.” initiative. The money will go to the “Coming Out of the Closet in Style Clothing Closet” project launched by the GSA at Columbia’s Rock Bridge High School, which will allow students to change into gender-affirming clothing in school to better express themselves.
According to It Gets Better Project’s executive director, Brian Wenke, the “50 States. 50 Grants. 5,000 Voices.” initiative is intended to support school-based projects impacting youth across the United States. The It Gets Better Project will reportedly implement a second round of grants for the 2022-2023 academic year.
“What’s special about this particular initiative is that all of the proposals that we received were initiated by LGBTQ2S+ students or their allies—in partnership with educators and school administrators,” Wenke told the NBC affiliate KOMU-TV. “And the whole goal of this effort is to put power back in the hands of LGBTQ2S+ youth who, on a daily basis, are having their confidence stripped away from them.”
“Having access to gender-affirming clothing, and just clothing in general, to express who they’re becoming is just incredibly vital.”
Local LGBTQ2S+ advocacy groups in Missouri seconded the impact of a resource like the gender-affirming closet in the lives of queer and trans students.
“High school-aged youth are just getting to the point in their life where they’re discovering themselves, and figuring out who they are as individuals,” Camaron Nielsen, a board director for The Center Project, another gender-affirming closet in Columbia, told KOMU-TV. “And so having access to gender-affirming clothing, and just clothing in general, to express who they’re becoming is just incredibly vital.”
The news comes at a time of record numbers of anti-LGBTQ2S+ legislation in the United States, with nearly 250 bills filed across the country this year according to NBC News. Many of these, like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, target queer and trans youth by censoring LGBTQ2S+ education in schools.
According to The Trevor Project, an American nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for queer and trans young people, LGBTQ2S+ youth “are at elevated risk for poor mental health and suicide compared with straight/cisgender peers.” However, affirming spaces can improve the mental health and self-esteem of queer and trans kids and drastically minimize harm.
Findings from the organization’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health show that having at least one supportive space reduced the odds of reporting a suicide attempt by 35 percent for queer youth and by 25 percent for trans youth in the past year. The study concluded that affirming school environments have “the strongest association with reduced odds of a past-year suicide attempt.”
“Given the changing structure of secondary school environments and college campuses across the U.S. in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to ensure that LGBTQ2s+ youth continue to have access to spaces that affirm their identities,” the group’s website reads.
Rock Bridge High School did not respond to requests for comment on its support for LGBTQ2S+ youth prior to publication time. But its queer and trans student body said positive developments like this one go a long way.
“I feel that everyone should feel accepted and welcome at this amazing school, and it’s a very amazing privilege that we get to even do this,” a student told KOMU-TV.
The It Gets Better Project will reportedly implement a second round of “50 States. 50 Grants. 5,000 voices.” grants for the 2022-2023 academic year.
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