The New York Department of Education has announced the hiring of its first LGBT community liaison to help "implement a balanced literacy program that includes gay authors as well as providing an LGBT curriculum for teachers.”

Called a “ground-breaking position” by the Times Legder, Jared Fox will help the Department of Education connect with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, teachers and staff that comprise the largest public school system in the country.

"Over the past few weeks, Fox has met with principals, teachers and students to learn about their hopes and challenges in making schools a more welcoming place for LGBT people,” said the Times Ledger.

"Fox will expand the curriculum by bringing LGBT authors into schools in an association with the Lambda Literary Foundation, an organization that believes literature is fundamental to the preservation of the LGBT culture.”

City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) told the Times Ledger that he looks forward to "working with Jared and the DOE to strengthen local support networks in order to build up educational environments that allow all students to be proud of who they truly are.”

The idea of a community liaison to support the LGBT community schools is a novel idea, but one that many public school systems would likely benefit from.

In South Carolina currently, legislation is in the process of being passed that would ban transgendered students from using the restrooms of the gender they identify with.

Not long ago, the U.S. Department of Education investigated a case of a school in Illinois that prevented a transgendered student- Student A- from using the girls bathroom though she had been living as a girl for years. It determined at the end of the investigation that the school’s practices embarrassed and inconvenienced the student, forcing the school district to change.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

2/18/2016