GENDER GUIDES
HI QUEER KIDS AND THE GROWN-UPS WHO LOVE THEM!
My name is Elise, I am a White trans nonbinary person and I use they/them pronouns! I am also a preschool teacher, curriculum writer, and I believe kids are powerful! I wrote these guides hoping that they will inspire truthful conversations, queer joy, and powerful action for justice.
These guides are meant for anywhere grown-ups and kids are doing radical learning together - at home, in classrooms, and in community. Grown-ups, you’re invited to enter this learning journey alongside the children in your lives. I hope there is something here for everybody; as an early childhood curriculum it nurtures play, curiosity, and creativity! Trust children with truth and complexity, and have FUN!
This curriculum is written in gratitude and deep respect for the educators, friends, and leaders who have built the movements for liberation that these guides explore. As we publish these first guides in the summer of 2021, 100s of anti-trans bills are being legislated across the United States. We are just beginning to recognize the thousands of lives stolen from indigenous children through settler-colonial “residential schools” on occupied Turtle Island. Black children continue to be targeted by police and state violence on a daily basis. Systems of oppression focus their power through the lenses of ageism and childism to restrict children’s humanity, especially children living multiply marginalized identities. White supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, capitalism, and all systems of oppression must be abolished to make way for a world where children (and all of us) can live our liberations.
Throughout history, children and young people have been at the forefront of social movements. Our biggest dream is to support children in knowing themselves, their communities, and radical visions of the world they want to live in. We dream that together in the Queer Kid Community we will build towards a world where all queer and trans people live safe, strong, and free. Kids have a powerful role in building that world! We hope these guides can provide some paths for young children and the grown-ups that love them to connect and organize.
With lots of queer joy,
ELISE (AND THE QUEER KID STUFF TEAM)
EDUCATION DIRECTOR
elise@queerkidstuff.com
EACH GUIDE INCLUDES
- A resource list linking you to books, music, podcasts, and videos that expand on the topics introduced by Queer Kid Stuff videos. We prioritize stories created by and about people who are queer and trans, children, disabled, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). When accessing books, we encourage you to try your local library, youtube read alouds, or purchase at our bookshop link.
- Discussion questions to deepen and direct conversations about new ideas. Discussion questions make connections with QKS videos and resources, encourage self-reflection, and challenge children to apply new knowledge to their real-world contexts.
- Activities to bring conversation into action through art, literacy, science, sensory experiences, music/movement, and games. All of our content is meant to be adapted - change or skip activities, move at the speed of your learning, and try something new (if something new really works we’d love to hear about it!)
- Spotlights connect children with queer and trans changemakers. Each guide includes a personal letter from the Spotlight to queer kids. Each Spotlight also shares an organization that furthers their work for justice; we encourage you to support their work by learning more, donating, and engaging with their actions!
We are currently building out our library of guides!
