According to the 2023 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, roughly 23 percent of the student body at the high school identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual, and roughly 13 percent of the student body does not describe their gender identity as cisgender. However, up until a few years ago, there weren’t any groups present at the high school or in the greater Brookline community that connected people—students, teachers, administrators and families alike—across the district who were working on LGTBQ+ issues. Here’s where the Brookline LGBTQ+ Task Force comes in.

The Brookline LGBTQ+ Task Force, now in its third year of operation, was created by physics teacher Julia Mangan and Kate Leslie, social studies teacher and teacher leader of the Queer Student Program. In creating this task force, they aimed to make Brookline a more inclusive and responsive community, while also advocating for legislative and administrative change. The task force consists of four main action groups: District-Wide Systems & Policies around Name Changes and Bathrooms, Social Networking for LGBTQ+ Students and Families, Updates to Health Curriculum and Anti-Bullying and LGBTQ+ Resources. From teachers to family members to students, the Task Force connects people across the district and pushes for meaningful change. This year, the Task Force is looking to incorporate new action plans into their agenda, while still building on their work from previous years.

Leah McGowan, a kindergarten and 1st grade paraprofessional and co-facilitator of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at the Lincoln School, joined the Task Force when it was initially founded and has worked primarily within the Social Networking for LGBTQ+ Students and Families action group. This year, McGowan took on a leadership position and now works beside Leslie and history teacher Stephen Eesley, the other current leaders of the task force.

“I had a leadership role in the Social Networking for Students and Families [group]; I’ve tried to ensure that we have GSAs in all of our schools. Now, we’re trying to get rainbow clubs in all of our schools, and I believe that there’s a lot of other work that needs to be done to support our LGBTQ+ students, staff and families,” McGowan said. “I really want to be helpful in whatever ways I can be to some of the action steps that the Task Force is moving forward on.”

Junior and GSA co-leader Alma Ferreira said they initially joined the Task Force to work on the action group dedicated to updating the middle school health curriculum. As one of the student leaders within the task force, Ferreira works with teachers to draft and edit plans for the health curriculum in order to meet the concerns of students in the district.

“I work with mainly just health teachers or students who also want their voices heard in the health curriculum,” Ferreira said. “We make feedback forms for 7th and 8th graders so we can see what they really want to change, and then we execute that.”

While the social networking action group, along with other action groups, was in effect last year, the anti-bullying action group is new and took shape directly in response to concerns from students and families.

“The anti-bullying and LGBTQ+ resources came about really because there was a student who said, ‘I don’t like the way this is being handled and I’ve been in a few anti-bullying situations where I haven’t felt supported,’” McGowan said. “And there were a bunch of parents in the room who said, ‘We’ve had so [many] similar situations and similar experiences.’ So they’re just in the very beginning stages of figuring out what currently exists.”

This year, in addition to the new initiatives surrounding anti-bullying, the task force has set another priority: continuing to build on policy regarding all-user bathrooms across the district. Building off the improvements led by students at the high school last year, Leslie said the Task Force hopes to incorporate this policy domain as a critical piece of its agenda for this year.

“We’ve pushed around policy, and especially around bathrooms in the past, but I think also part of what was interesting last year is that the biggest progress on bathrooms ended up happening actually by students, led by Echo Kaufman, and a bathroom committee from here,” Leslie said. “That’s why we’re really thinking now: district wide policy. For example, in future construction, can we make a commitment that there will be all-user bathrooms built in?”

While the task force is largely composed of adults, students such as Ferreira ensure that young voices are heard within the group. McGowan said the array of voices present in the task force enables the development and execution of effective action plans.

“It’s a brilliant mix of everybody. There are middle and high school students involved as well as parents and teachers and administrators, and family members who may not be directly connected to kids, but who feel like this work is important. There are a few people in the community who are also incredible change makers for LGBTQ+ students in general that may or may not still work in the town,” McGowan said. “So, this work really feels like it connects to some of the work that the town is working on at a global level, and then also some of these smaller family units that want to do a better job of supporting their own students.”

Last year, the Task Force created a space where the parents of queer students could meet and discuss their own experiences. To help out parents, the Task Force also formed a group for their children during these meetings and Ferreira said one of the goals of the task force for this year is to increase the number of those meetings.

“And turns out, those queer kids loved it, and those parents love having their time together. So, these two things that are going on [at] the same time were really well-received last year,” Ferreira said. “This year we’re focusing on getting at least three of those meetings happening.”

Amidst a tumultuous political period, McGowan said that this group has provided a sense of hope through its continual battle for change and a safe space for all community members.

“The political landscape is really different than it was even a few months ago. So, I think that the work that the Task Force is doing is keeping some of those changes in mind and trying to be really mindful of the way that we go about any of the things that we’re trying to accomplish,” McGowan said. “I’ve noticed a lot of families and teachers and students being hesitant and feeling more emotional about some of the things that are happening. So, some of the work that we’re doing is holding space for each other and making sure that we are safe and we are considerate of each other and of all of the people in our community.”

Leslie said one of the most powerful pieces of the Task Force is the network that has been built, consisting of people willing to fight for rights of LGBTQ+ people in this community. Although Leslie said there may be increasing opposition to LGBTQ+ rights on the horizon, this group will be there to fight back.

“I think that it is likely in the next couple years [that] some of the work we’ve been doing around LGBTQ+ issues at Brookline may come under fire because there’s an increasing pushback, especially on support for trans students,” Leslie said. “Part of what I’ve found so powerful about the Task Force is that we are building a group of people across the district who care about these issues and are connected, and so I think the other thing that gives me hope about weathering the next couple years is that if and when we face that pushback and that resistance, there is now a network of people that can respond.”