LGBTQ+ HRE Materials

The Human Rights Education Series is published by the Human Rights Resource Center at the University of Minnesota. Edited by Nancy Flowers, the series provides resources for the ever-growing body of educators and activists working to build a culture of human rights in the United States and throughout the world. Topic Book 3, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights:A Human Rights Perspective is jointly published by Amnesty International USA, The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and the Human Rights Resource Center.

The University of Minnesota Human Rights Resource Center has developed a series of materials for use in the classroom that are designed to teach students about the importance of LGBTQ+ rights.

This is a tool kit designed to help protect LGBT+ individuals through the creation of safe spaces.

How does one respond to being called disparaging names because of one’s sexual orientation? This guide provides suggestions.

The Anti-Defamation League has created a curriculum designed to help middle and high school students to better understand homophobia and heterosexism. It seeks to reduce stigma. It provides suggestions on how students can become kinder and allies to those who are LGBTQ+.

Here is a teacher’s guide to addressing Mad Men, America by the Numbers, and LatinX advertisements, found here and in the Video lesson.

Here are materials to help students appreciate the importance of all families.

Students will learn about the origin of the term Two-Spirit and incorporate Native American/ First Nations/Indigenous gender terminology into their understandings of gender and gender identity.

The UN has posted a variety of films to sensitize others about the human rights issues that LRTQ+ people face. They are listed here.

Here is a handout with links to different advertisements that promote discussion about their portrayal of LatinX

“The New Mad Men” explores how changing demographics in the United States have changed the face of advertising. In particular, the focus is on the purchasing power of the 54 million Latinx people currently living in the United States. The episode visits the headquarters of LatinWorks, an advertising agency in Austin, Texas, with a specialty in multicultural advertising. This is a NPR film.

This visual helps show how the demographics of the US is changing, and how our attitudes must change accordingly.

The Human Rights Campaign focuses on issues of gender and sexual orientation equality. It has a series of advocacy materials and campaigns.

Rights Abuses Around the World – In this activity, students read an Urgent Action information sheet from Amnesty International and a petition about human rights abuses against sexual minorities outside the USA. This activity helps students understand how to write on behalf of prisoners of conscience or against human rights abuses. The activity concludes with students writing a letter on a currently active Amnesty International case.

A handout on the background information on Kelli Petterson’s fights for LGBT rights and alliance in high schools

This activity explores symbols as a type of art and will focus explicitly on the way symbols have been used to advance LGBT visibility and awareness of fights for LGBT rights.