Meet One of Our Newest Chapters: GLSEN Springfield (MO)

“Tis’ a Privilege to Live in the Ozarks” is a tagline that was included in the banner of Springfield’s local newspaper for many years. The paper continues to regularly feature an editorial piece, “Tis’ a Privilege,” because “good news is not hard to find in the Ozarks.” Recently, Springfield has experienced victories for its LGBTQ+ citizens: in early October of this year, a Missouri judge ruled that the State must recognize same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions, and then 10 days later Springfield became the 15th municipality in Missouri to provide legal protections for LGBT individuals in housing, employment and public accommodations.  Unfortunately, for the LGBT community in Springfield and the surrounding area, good news is not always easy to find—in particular for LGBT youth.

Just last year in the Springfield area, a southwest Missouri State Representative tweeted a picture of a young student volunteering at an elementary school book fair wearing a GSA shirt and captioned the photo “… [School] failure. HS students working book fair in gay t-shirts;” a teacher’s reading list was censored for a second time to exclude any material that casts LGBT individuals in a positive light; a transgender student was forced by his school principal to use the girls' bathroom as well as use his birth name instead of the name that he preferred. Two of the five public high schools in Springfield, Missouri’s third largest city, do not have GSAs. What's more, Missouri Statute continues to prohibit schools from enumerating anti-bullying policies, so populations who are disproportionately targeted for bullying and harassment are inadequately protected.

GLSEN Springfield eagerly anticipates working to address these inequalities for students in the region, and to create safe spaces in schools for ALL youth. We will educate and advocate in the hallways of our government buildings to bring about laws and policies that support LGBT youth; we will promote inclusive curricula in our schools that support the development of positive sense of self; we will support the creation and development of school GSAs to provide community and cohesion to LGBT youth and their allies; and we will forge and strengthen relationships to our community partners and allies who are committed to addressing the need for safe and inclusive schools…because until every child is able to attend a school that respects, supports, educates and protects them, the “privilege to live in the Ozarks” is not a promise extended to all. If you are interested in getting involved with GLSEN Springfield and creating safer spaces for youth from the Ozarks please email Springfield@chapters.glsen.org. 

*This blog was written by Amanda Derham, Chair of GLSEN Springfield