(politics, advocacy, quaker notes)
There's a federal rule in support of LGBT, women, and pregnant and parenting persons' access to federally funded education resources ("Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance." ) in its comment period right now. The comment period ends 09/12/2022, in 47 days. Anyone and all can comment, and i've been alerted (I think i read it in three different journals last night?) there's been mobilization by the same forces behind the horrific state laws to comment against.
I was in the past a member of a Quaker committee that, between business meetings, participated in providing comment on Amicus Curiae briefs around marriage for all and trans rights. The point of the briefs was to assert that religious freedom includes freedom for the religious communities that affirm LGBTQ concerns, that Friends have affirmed this community, the history of our and other communities' support for the issue. I think the last one was about trans youth in school? In Virginia?
In a few weeks - after the 12th - i hope to dig out that brief to find effective words used then and comment myself. I've reached out to my niece, who is president of her school's gay straight alliance this year, and the Friends group FLGBTQC for collaborators. (I'm hoping FLGBTQC might make an organizational statement, but we are reorganizing and i'm not sure if that process has progressed to a point of being able to make such a decision.)
I'd be interested in collaborating with others here, in the comments on this post at first, and then maybe zoom? Perhaps a close read of the rule to make concrete comments? I do not know what makes effective rule comments, but thought maybe there's some guidance to be found.
I'm not going to be in the position to coordinate anything for a bit, but i thought i'd put this out there.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/12/2022-13734/nondiscrimination-on-the-basis-of-sex-in-education-programs-or-activities-receiving-federal
A draft response from one org is at https://nwlc.org/resource/draft-public-sign-on-comment-responding-to-president-bidens-proposed-title-ix-rule/ , there's also some text at https://www.ncwge.org/activities.html February 12, 2021