Housed in the CU-Boulder School of Education and led by Bethy Leonardi, PhD, and Sara Staley, PhD, A Queer Endeavor is a nationally recognized center for gender and sexual diversity in education. Our work supports teachers and school communities to organize safer, more humanizing learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth, families, and staff.. Meet Us here.

The work of A Queer Endeavor is made possible through a partnership between the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder and the generous support of the Twisted Foundation.

Aiming toward creating schools that are safer and more affirming of LGBTQ+ and gender-expansive youth, A Queer Endeavor seeks partnerships with educators and school communities to make “unworkable” the silence that historically has surrounded topics of gender and sexual diversity in education.

A Queer Endeavor seeks to grow the knowledge base on gender and sexual diversity-affirming policies and practices in education, inform research and praxis, and engage in broad-based coalition building with a variety of community-based stakeholders.

Our work with educators and school communities focuses on three key areas: 1) knowledge, 2) critical self-reflection and dialogue, and 3) action. Our goal is to support educators, school and district leaders, and parents and families learn about gender and sexual diversity and LGBTQ+-inclusive practices and locate entry points for taking action in their own unique contexts.

To create school cultures that are “safe” (as in, not dangerous) and affirming of gender and sexual diversity, we believe in going beyond anti-bullying measures. We bring attention to school policy, climate, curriculum, and social and cultural norms and practices. While our focus is on gender and sexual diversity, our commitments extend to issues of equity more broadly. Working toward liberation requires always looking through an intersectional lens and questioning how our practices reinforce harmful norms along lines of race, class, language, and other identifiers and their intersections. We are committed to doing that work.