Starting Where Our Ancestors Ended: Meet STAR Freedom School

May 28

Published November 2, 2024

In this third issue of STARDIAL, as we transition from TQ2S+ History Month to a month of Trans & Two-Spirit Remembrance and Resilience, we are sharing exciting news about STAR Freedom School, upcoming programs, and our newest curriculum!

With days before the U.S. presidential election, we know that we will continue to hear harmful transphobic rhetoric and queer issues will be used as a wedge to separate our communities, instead of empowering our community towards respect, connection, and safety. We encourage you to ground yourself in the strength of community, which can be a steady respite in moments of uncertainty. Regardless of the results, our vision for a liberated society and our expectations of elected officials persist. We are dedicated to demanding better for TQ2S+ youth!

To Illuminate / We Teach Each Other / Generation After Generation

Our time in schools, especially in our adolescence, should be fertile ground for growing and tending to students as community members, who will help sustain our peoples’ connections and enable the bigger “us” to regenerate societal structures that truly serve the people. At its core, education must be liberating for students, not used as a weapon of control. The radical potential for sites of learning in the United States is often thwarted by the defunding of our communities’ public schools, exploited as sites of hyper-policing and used as recruitment yards for corporations and military; compounded by the consistent erasure and banning of diverse histories, capital violence through student debt, the status quo of capitalism and criminalization is maintained— but not without the peoples’ appropriate and creative resistance, thankfully.

Now is the time for trans, queer, and two-spirit people across generations to reach forward another 50 years together—and do our part in building and sustaining a queer learning safety net(work).

Remember S.T.A.R.?

When street kids in New York gathered under the umbrella S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries), they were doing what they knew must be done to keep alive their queer kinship network. Youth organizers (aka House Mothers) Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson intended to do more than care for their children (peers). “Doing more” for young TQ2S+ people included dreams of community learning. While their projects were unsustained with lack of wider community support, their leadership and legacy live on through our memory and study.

What they knew remains true today for TQ2S+ learners: to be our most present as students, we must feel welcomed, safe, and supported. Networked youth, like GSAs, are a bridge to the past AND toward this future for campuses; STAR Freedom School will be our training grounds.

Meet STAR Freedom School.

STAR Freedom School is an expansion of GSA Network’s programming under our organizational strategy Devising Freedom, designed to support, educate, and empower trans, queer, and two-spirit youth. Built upon more than 25 years of youth organizing, STAR Freedom School provides a multidimensional learning space where TQ2S+ community share essential knowledge for resilience and power building.

With its three core tracks, STAR Freedom School invites you to find your role in building this collaborative journey of learning and liberation.

Three Tracks of STAR Freedom School

Curriculum Development & Training-of-Trainers
Our growing library of toolkits, videos, trainings, mental health resources, and artistic materials tailored for TQ2S+ youth and their allies. Curated by our Curriculum Advisory Committee and created with young people supporting local grassroots organizing through our STAR Fellowship these resources are crafted to build youth power.
STAR Youth Organizing Fellowship
A leadership development initiative supports grassroots organizations in our National Association by providing stipends and training access for TQ2S+ youth fellows they identify. These fellows engage in local advocacy, develop educational content for the STAR Curriculum that aligns with grassroots priorities, and lead narrative-shifting campaigns. Through training and storytelling, fellows challenge stereotypes, counter harmful narratives, and create pathways toward liberation, strengthening both local and national movements for education justice and policy reform.
Stargayzing
The fourth pillar of our Devising Freedom strategy is where we actively practice the future we envision. This initiative empowers us to reimagine and build alternatives to today’s learning environments through intergenerational experimentation, culture work, and artistic design. It serves as a creative space for interdisciplinary artists and thinkers to craft transformative educational models that are anti-capitalist, community-centered, and radically inclusive.

STAR Freedom School, an extension and reframing of GSA Network’s core programming, is an evolving program that equips TQ2S+ youth with the resources, leadership development, and alternatives to build a future grounded in collective liberation and empowerment. Follow along as we grow the school!

All of the gratitude and awe to Chi Nwosu for bringing our visions to visual life as STAR School’s illustrator.

On November 14, the Gender Justice Leadership Programs (GJLP) will be hosting their annual “GSA Day for Gender Justice,” a national day of action for GSA clubs, TQ2S+ youth, and allies to center trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people and mobilize for their liberation. Each #GSADay4GJ focuses on a point from the National Trans Youth Council’s 9-Point Platform. This year, GJLP is mobilizing around the 6th point of the platform which states, “We Call for Comprehensive Education that Reflects our Histories and Needs.”

One of our calls to action is to sign up for GJLP’s annual art mailing to receive this year’s GSADay4GJ art piece along with copies of our Black Trans Joy and No Pride Without Trans Youth zines by visiting ourtranstruth.org/gsaday4gj-2024/ while supplies last! The deadline to sign up for the art mailing is November 15, 2024.

Stay tuned for resources that uplift this information and learn how to get involved in GSA Day for Gender Justice by following @ourtranstruth and @gsanetwork on Instagram. Together, we can fight back against unjust censorship and ensure that the LGBTQ+ community receives the education they deserve.

California Membership Meetings

Calling California youth ages 13-18 who are looking to build meaningful connections with fellow Trans, Queer, and Two-Spirit (TQ2S+) youth (as well as GSA student leaders)! This is a unique opportunity to join a supportive community, share experiences, and grow together as we work toward creating more inclusive and affirming spaces in schools across the state. Whether you're new to organizing or already leading a GSA, this space is for you!

STAR Curriculum Drop!

Protest & Community Safety Toolkit

Protest is a vital part of organizing and movement, especially for Trans, Queer, and Two-Spirit youth and communities. This toolkit contains a train-the-trainer curriculum that you can use to lead workshops on why we protest, how to stay safe, and how to make your mark.

Check it out here.

Youth Freedom Fund GSA Minigrants

The Youth Freedom Fund applications are open to provide $500 mini grants to GSA clubs all over the country! Past awards have gone to support trans and queer students to go on field trips, visit LGBTQ community centers, and host their monthly meetings. Applications close on Wednesday, 11/6.

To qualify, ensure your club is registered with us this year and has the backing of an adult advisor or school administrator. The application should be completed by your club’s President, Vice President, or Adult Advisor.

Apply to the Youth Freedom Fund. Let’s devise freedom together.

Questions? Email us at development@gsanetwork.org.

Thank you for reading the third installment of Stardial. In new tradition, we want to leave you with this question to discuss in your meeting spaces, over a meal, or in your heart.

What do you think 3035 feels like for our descendants? Do you see any portals to that future world today?

Feel free to respond to this newsletter with your learnings, as well as any questions and ideas you’d like to suggest for future Stardials.

We begin where our ancestors end, in arms with fierce community and our eyes on racial and gender liberation.

we love you.

Maya LaFlamme & J. Gia Loving

GSA Network Co-Executive Directors