About Youth: Resources with a significant focus on understanding LGBT youth.

A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth

Cody J. Sanders, 2017 (format: book)

This book challenges pastors and church leaders to reflect on the various trials that adolescence brings for LGBTQIA youth. Designed for congregations that currently have a theologically and biblically affirming stance toward the LGBTQIA community, A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth provides insight and practical advice for tough questions like:

  • How does an affirming stance toward LGBTQIA people affect the day-to-day experience of teenagers in a church setting?
  • In what ways can a churchs youth ministry have a positive impact on the lives of LGBTQIA youth who want to fully live out their Christian faith and their gender identity?
  • How can a pastor, youth minister, or youth ministry volunteer embrace, nurture, and provide skillful care for LGBTQIA youth in a congregation or community?

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All in God’s Family: Creating Allies for Our LGBT Families

(format: book)

A curriculum available for the Institute for Welcoming Resources which includes the All in God’s Family curriculum guide, the book Families Like Mine, the video In My Shoes: Stories of Youth with LGBT Parents, and the CD-ROM That’s So Gay: Portraits of Youth with LGBT Parents. This curriculum gives you opportunities to gather with other members of your congregation to pray, to learn, to share, and to work together to transform your lives, your congregation, and your world into a loving place in which God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender families can thrive.

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Faithfully Gay: A Documentary

Jordan Ray, Lena Blietz, and Shannon McLaughlin, 2015 (format: on-line-video)

A video produced by TCU students documenting the experience of LGBT students and faculty at the university. Provides insight into how our young people experience both anti-gay prejudice and affirming support.

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Gender Spectrum

(format: website)

Gender Spectrum’s mission is to create a gender-inclusive world for all children and youth. To accomplish this, we help families, organizations, and institutions increase understandings of gender and consider the implications that evolving views have for each of us.

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Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators & School Personnel

American Psychological Association (format: Free Download)

The information in this booklet has been developed by a coalition of education, health, mental health, and religious organizations that share a concern for the health and education of all students in schools, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. We know you also share this concern—that all students have an opportunity to learn and develop in a safe and supportive environment.

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Sólo los hechos sobre la orientación sexual y la juventud: Una guía para directores de escuelas, educadores y personal escolar

American Psychological Association (format: Free Download)

The Spanish version of Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation & Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators & School Personnel.

The information in this booklet has been developed by a coalition of education, health, mental health, and religious organizations that share a concern for the health and education of all students in schools, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual students. We know you also share this concern—that all students have an opportunity to learn and develop in a safe and supportive environment.

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The Journey Out: A Guide for and About Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teens

Rachel Pollack, 1995 (format: Book)

“You are not alone” is the intrinsic message of this frank, reassuring book aimed at teenagers who either are questioning their sexual orientations or have acknowledged that they are gay. The authors repeatedly emphasize the importance of self-acceptance as they offer advice on such topics as coming out to family and friends, coping with prejudice and rejection, reconciling one’s sexuality with the sometimes conflicting tenets of organized religion and combating myths and stereotypes. An explicit discussion of sexually transmitted diseases concludes with basic facts about AIDS and a characteristically sound admonition: “Become a responsible adult-not a statistic.”

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The New Gay Teenager

Ritch C Savin-Williams, 2006 (format: Book)

An introduction to confident, competent, upbeat teenagers with same-sex desires, who worry more about the chemistry test or their curfew than they do about their sexuality. What does “gay” mean to today’s teenager? Teenagers are not especially interested in neatly categorizing their sexual orientation. In fact, teenagers may think a lot about sex, but they don’t think that sexuality is the most important thing about them. And adults, he advises, shouldn’t think so either.

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The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals

Stephanie A. Brill, 2008 (format: Book)

Brill explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising their children in every city and state. Through extensive research and interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the authors cover gender variance from birth through college.

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Transitioning to Inclusion

Kelsey Pacha, 2014 (format: free-download)

Transitioning to Inclusion from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Pacific School of Religion is exactly what it’s subtitle names: A guide to welcoming trangender children and their families in your community of faith.

The four sections in this guide include suggestions for allowing a child room to explore coming out, developing community values that support inclusivity, practical logistical suggestions, and notes on how to be a resource and support so that children and families thrive.

Transitioning to Inclusion also includes a glossary of useful terms and a valuable resource list.

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Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers

Cris Beam, 2007 (format: Book)

Beam writes of her volunteer activities at Eagles, a small high school for gay and transgender teens in Los Angeles, by focusing on first one, then another, of the young people she encountered.

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Trevor Lifeguard Workshop

(format: on-line-video)

The Lifeguard Workshop video training and curriculum is based on Trevor’s in-person suicide prevention workshop.

The workshop is a learning tool designed for educators, school counselors, school nurses and youth group leaders and is free of charge to educators and youth service providers.

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Understanding Gay and Lesbian Youth: Lessons for Straight School Teachers, Counselors, and Administrators

David Campos, 2005 (format: Book)

Assists the classroom teacher, school counselor, and administrator in relating to gay and lesbian youth and creating accepting and supportive learning climates.

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