While June, a month of pride and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community, is over, advocates at UT’s Gender and Sexuality Center said there are ways people can continue to show their support and allyship for the LGBTQ+ community year-round. 

The GSC provides opportunities for the UT community to explore, organize and promote learning around issues of gender and sexuality, including allyship training, Director Liz Elsen said. 

“(Allyship) is a series of choices of ‘what can I do to best support LGBTQIA+ students?’ and it’s something that needs to be practiced regularly,” Elsen said. “Interrupting harm is the number one thing when students experience any sort of bias incident. If there are folks who are watching and not seeing or doing anything, they can feel very alone. When other people follow their lead about how they would want someone to intervene, (it) can be validating for the students.” 

Youth in the sexual minority, meaning they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or non-heterosexual, experience stress associated with disclosing their sexual identity, according to recent research. Discrimination, stigma and prejudice against minority sexual and gender identities are real and impact mental health and physiological well-being, said Stephen Russell, professor and principal investigator of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Health and Rights Lab. 

Russell said when educators have professional training on intervening in victimization and harassment, as well as creating positive safe spaces for sexual and gender diverse students, this contributes to the well-being, safety and ability to learn for these students. 

“Stigma for the sexual and gender minority has an effect through policy and through media and through our family and our schools and in our work and professional success,” Russell said. “When talking about stigma, we need to understand that stigma is intersectional. If you see homophobia, keep looking, because there could also be racism or sexism.”

In the fall, UT will open a new gender-inclusive housing option, arising after a survey conducted in this year’s State of LGBTQIA+ Affairs report. The report gave an overview of how students felt about the inclusivity of campus policy and culture and offered recommendations on how to improve inclusivity, co-author and student government president Leland Murphy said. 

“Something that would build more inclusive campus culture is to try and get more student organizations to de-gender,” government senior Murphy said. “Basically just eliminate any policies or procedures which tend to either only accept or predominantly accept members of a specific (or traditional) gender …  In light of the recent attacks from our Texas State Legislature on trans and queer individuals … (SG is) creating inclusivity within our own spaces.” 

In February, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive demanding doctors, nurses, teachers and anyone who comes in contact with a child receiving gender-affirming care to report parents for child abuse or face criminal penalties. Following a lawsuit filed against Abbott for the directive in June, a Texas district court temporarily blocked Texas’ Department of Family and Protective Services from investigating two families if they sought out gender-affirming care for their transgender children on July 8. 

“We’re talking about (prohibiting) medical, mental health, physical health, medical best practice,” Russell said. “It’s being undermined by these kinds of policy interventions. Even … people who don’t understand or are concerned about or have strong personal opinions about gender diversity can understand that it’s troubling for there to be political intervention.”

For more educational and LGBTQ+ resources: 

Gender Inclusive Restrooms on Campus

Hogg Foundation for Mental Health’s statement on Pride Month 

Gender & Sexuality Center’s community and university resources

Pride and Equity Faculty Staff Association’s community and university resources and services

The Black Queer Studies Collection

U.S. Latinx LGBTQ Studies Collection in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Library

UT Libraries LGBTQA+ Resources