NESPA Winner: Localizing Contest, 2023
The Cypress, Brookline High School, Brookline, MA
Remember how health class in middle school felt? Awkward. Now imagine how it felt for middle schoolers who did not see themselves represented in the lesson. What do you do if you do not fit into the box of a boy or a girl? What if the relationships that you want to have are not with someone of the opposite sex?
The LGBTQ Task Force, a volunteer group, was founded in 2021 by physics teacher Julia Mangan and social studies teacher Kate Leslie to address concerns like these. It aims to connect students, teachers, administrators and family members across the town to solve problems facing the LGBTQ+ community.
According to Leslie, she and Mangan had been planning a way to advocate for unity between students and the Brookline LGBTQ+ community.
“One of the interesting things about LGBTQ+ issues in Brookline is that there’s not already a network built between [separate] GSA advisers as well as teachers who identify as LGBTQ+ [and] students who identify as LGBTQ+,” Leslie said. “There are pockets of support and activism around the district, but there hasn’t been any chance to get to know each other, let alone work on issues together.”
