Researcher, Educator, and Speaker on Gender and Sexual Diversity

LEE AIRTON, PH.D.

Now available wherever book are sold. Fully revised and updated for current conversations.

Gender diversity is an ongoing conversation and much has changed since GYG first came out in 2018. Get some help with conversations you're already having on hot topics like transgender people in sport and gender-affirming health care for children and youth. Learn to make a power move with effective strategies for gender-friendly change in spaces where you spend time.

"This guide is unlike anything else available today, and an obvious and necessary item for collections of all kinds."

Library Journal Starred Review

"I feel like Airton is both my smartest and best friend on this subject matter."

Steven Petrow, The Washington Post

"I wish I had a copy of this book to give to every teacher, principal, counsellor, parent, partner, boss and co-worker of a trans, gender variant or non-binary person in the world."

Ivan Coyote, Author of Tomboy Survival Guide

Click on the cover for purchasing, reviews and free starting place discussion guides.

Dr. Lee Airton is an Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. As a researcher, educator, and speaker, Dr. Airton focuses on enabling individuals and institutions to welcome gender and sexual diversity in everyday life. In 2012, they founded They Is My Pronoun, a Q+A-based blog about gender-neutral pronoun usage and user support with over 30,000 unique visitors in 2017 alone. Dr. Airton is also the founder of the No Big Deal Campaign, a national social media initiative that helps people show support for transgender peoples' right to have their pronouns used. In 2021, Dr. Airton and their research team launched Gegi, the first bilingual self-advocacy resource for K-12 students who are experiencing gender expression and gender identity discrimination at school. Dr. Airton's book Gender – Your Guide: The Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say and What to Do in Today's Gender Culture, now in its second edition, offers practical steps for welcoming gender diversity in all areas of everyday life. With Dr. Susan Woolley, they are the editor of Teaching About Gender Diversity: Teacher-Tested Lesson Plans for K-12 Classrooms.

As a university-based teacher educator for fifteen years, Dr. Airton has worked with hundreds of new teachers to widen the circle of belonging and participation for people of all genders and sexualities in schools. Dr. Airton's research program on gender diversity, human rights, policy, law, teaching, and learning is funded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. Their research explores how the Ontario K-12 education system is responding to the inclusion of gender identity and gender expression protections in human rights legislation, and how to make the collection of gender-based data in large studies more reflective of how gender is read and negotiated. Dr. Airton also leads an action research project in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, collaborating with staff to remove barriers for transgender and/or gender non-conforming teacher candidates.

Externally to Queen's, Dr. Airton supports school boards, independent schools, private sector and public sector organizations across Canada and internationally in building the capacity to offer a climate free from gender identity and gender expression discrimination of all kinds. Dr. Airton is a frequent speaker and media commentator, and has been interviewed over 90 times in nationally and internationally on topics related to their areas of expertise. Their scholarly publications have appeared in Gender and Education, Sex Education, Curriculum Inquiry, Teachers College Record, the Canadian Journal of Education, and the Journal of Education Policy, and their editorials have been published in The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. (Photo: Bernard Clark)

Learn to self-advocate at school with Gegi.

Follow Darcy the Dragon Tamer and Safia the Swimmer in their self-advocacy journey after they experience what might just be gender expression or gender identity discrimination at school.

Tools for welcoming gender diversity in teacher education.

Despite gender identity and gender expression human rights protections in every Canadian province and territory, Canadian teacher education is full of barriers to transgender and/or gender non-conforming (TGNC) people.

Often, these barriers are 'business as usual' processes and structures that people who work in teacher education seldom even think twice about, but that TGNC teacher candidates surface just by being there.

This resource was created from the findings of an action research project in the Queen's Faculty of Education, and guides teacher education programs in creating a 'Frequently Asked Questions' document for TGNC teacher candidates. Creating an FAQ document together gets staff and faculty into the game of identifying barriers to these still under-represented candidates, and reveals work yet to be done in a particular program.

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Ready for classroom use.

This collection of classroom-ready lesson plans provides teachers with tools to fully integrate (not just add-and-stir) gender diversity into their curriculum, talk with students about gender diversities of all kinds, and foster classroom communities that are more welcoming of the many ways in which gender is lived, including but not limited to people who are under the transgender umbrella.

Sections target Elementary (K-5), Middle Years (6-9), and Secondary (10-12) classrooms with subject-specific lesson plans in mathematics, English language arts, social studies, drama, health and physical education, and science. From read-alouds with early literacy picture books to creating multi-modal gender fanzines, and from statistically modeling the rise of gender-neutral pronoun usage to analyzing gender characterization in dramatic monologues, Teaching about Gender Diversity will help you walk this road with over thirty educators who enfold our changing world of gender into their teaching.