Anti-LGBTQ bills ‘compromising’ next generation, Trevor Project founder tells KC crowd
On Monday, the Grain Valley school board prohibited teachers from posting LGBTQ signs in classrooms. In Blue Valley, school board member Jim McMullen posted a series of tweets that have been called anti-LGBTQ and transphobic.
On Tuesday, the Kansas Senate voted to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto on a bill banning transgender students from girls sports as well as a bill ensuring parents can view and challenge classroom content, including teachings on sexuality and gender. Days earlier, the Missouri House also approved a “parents bill of rights,” one of the latest states to do so.
But on Wednesday morning, amid nationwide attacks on LGBTQ youth and rights, including Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, which limits LGBTQ discussion in schools, several hundred people gathered at UMKC’s Volker campus in support of LGBTQ students.
Among them was Peggy Rajski, one of the founders of the Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth across the country.
What’s happening in the world is distressing, said Rajski, who spoke at the UMKC Pride Breakfast as part of a fundraiser for students.
“That legislation is affecting the next generation of our country: the leaders, the creators, the people that work on every level of society,” she said. “We are now compromising the mental health and equilibrium of our next generation.”
And as a result, she said, people could die.
LGBTQ youth are over four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers, data shows.
“It’s hard to see something that’s so innate for you be politicized,” said UMKC student Amelia Hess, who is bisexual. “You can’t hide that part or erase that part of yourself.”
Hess, a graduate student in counseling with an emphasis in mental health, and president of UMKC’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance Council, said that just having or being a supportive presence makes all the difference.
She said while UMKC has given her a safe place to be herself, she recognizes that for many students, like those in Grain Valley, school is not a sanctuary where they can explore themselves.
“That’s kind of the gist of the school system, they’re supposed to be there for you during the day to protect you, keep you safe, educate you and make sure that you’re ready for the world, and if they’re the ones making you afraid of the world, that’s so counterproductive,” she said.
Rajski said statistically, simply recognizing people as they are makes all the difference in the world. When a person’s pronouns are acknowledged and used, their suicide risk is halved.
“These are difficult times, and it’s asking all of us to stand up and make sure our voices are heard,” Rajski said.
Rajski will also speak at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Abbott as part of SAVE, Inc.’s No Place Like Home event. SAVE Inc. is a local organization that provides permanent, transitional and emergency housing services to those with HIV/AIDS, substance abuse problems and mental health illness.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 1:25 PM.
