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AFT Resolution

Supporting the LGBTQIA+ Community

WHEREAS, President Trump issued an executive order1 on Jan. 20, 2025, refuting the existence of trans and nonbinary people; and

WHEREAS, 90 percent of LGBTQIA+ young people said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics (Trevor Project, 2025); and

WHEREAS, six states have instituted policies of forced outing of LGBTQIA+ students to their families, against the best practices of the American Association of Pediatrics2; and

WHEREAS, a 2019 research study by the Trevor Project3 found that “LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40 percent less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year” and that adults at school often fill the role of supportive adult when students lack support in other areas of their lives; and

WHEREAS, school is a safe space, and creating policies that force educators to out their students creates a potentially dangerous and discriminatory situation4:

RESOLVED, that the AFT will unequivocally respect the identity and dignity of all LGBTQIA+ and particularly trans and nonbinary people; and 

RESOLVED, that the AFT will reject recent efforts in some states to institute forced outing and the forced use of a student’s deadname and assigned pronouns of trans and nonbinary students in our schools; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will use its resources to defend members as they seek to provide a safe and affirming space for LGBTQIA+ and particularly trans and nonbinary students and protect them from forced outing; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT unequivocally will condemn the passage of H.R. 2616, rejects any legislative attempt to defund public schools over inclusive practices, and pledges to use our full national political infrastructure to hold accountable any elected official—regardless of party affiliation—who votes to strip civil rights from LGBTQIA+ students and workers.

Adopted July 18, 2026

1 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government/

2 https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-the-dangers-of-forced-outing-school-policies/

3 https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Trevor-Project-Accepting-Adult-Research-Brief_June-2019.pdf

4 https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-the-dangers-of-forced-outing-school-policies/

(2026)

Please note that a newer resolution, or portion of a resolution, may have superseded an earlier resolution on the same subject. As a result, with the exception of resolutions adopted at our most recent AFT convention, resolutions do not necessarily reflect current AFT policies.