Half of schools in the US encourage use of gender-neutral pronouns for inclusivity

Lauren DeCicca // Getty Images “There’s always the fear of unacceptance and confusion, but your pronouns are a right that can never be taken away,” agender student Cruz told GLSEN, an education organization that supports safe and LGBTQ+ inclusive schools. “It is very anxiety-inducing to say, ‘Actually, my pronouns are … and it is appreciated that you use them.'” Schools can be inclusive of transgender and nonbinary students and support them in initiating that conversation with peers and teachers, however, not all schools do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2022 school profile data. The data released in March 2024 shows that the state a child lives in can impact whether or not they feel welcome at school–a dynamic with potentially deadly consequences for LGBTQ+ youth. Counseling Schools analyzed CDC data on public school inclusion strategies to illustrate the prevalence of support for acknowledging the students’ pronouns during sexual health instruction in the United States. The agency’s survey data shows that half of U.S. public schools are actively encouraging teachers and staff to implement inclusive practices in sexual health education, such as the use of gender-neutral pronouns, where appropriate, to recognize and accommodate for gender diversity in the student population. LGBTQ+ youth are increasingly diverse and include members of the nonbinary and trans community who sometimes use they/them pronouns, a combination of gendered and gender-neutral pronouns, or the pronoun that better reflects their true gender. Research has shown that correctly using a person’s pronouns has a critical impact on the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. Pronouns are a public health issue, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health, so much so that gender identity should be seen as a social determinant of mental health in a person’s life. LGBTQ+ youth are already at elevated risk of suicide compared to their straight and cisgender peers, but even more for those whose gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth or does not fit neatly into one of two male/female binary genders. Nearly half of all transgender and nonbinary youth have seriously considered attempting suicide, according to the Trevor Project 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, which also indicated that 1 in 2 students found their school to be gender-affirming and thus reported lower rates of attempting suicide. How schools approach the mental well-being of nonbinary and transgender students can have a significant impact on their educational futures as well as their physical safety. In Katy, Texas, for example, policies that require staff to notify parents when students use a different pronoun or identify as a different gender have pushed many to drop out of school. “When someone’s telling you every day that you aren’t who you say you are, you start to question yourself. You start to believe the things that they tell you, that you’re inherently a bad person because you were born a certain way,” 17-year-old Kadence Carter, who left Mayde Creek High, told Houston Landing. In Oklahoma, where students have been banned from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student, died the day after they were bullied and beaten in the bathroom by peers at school. His death was ruled a suicide after a medical examiner’s report revealed a “combined toxicity” of an antihistamine and a drug often used to treat depression. Benedict used both they/them and he/him pronouns, according to interviews by NPR staff. The data from the CDC’s 2022 Lead Health Education Teacher Surveys reveals a large gap in how schools in different states have taken a role in encouraging gender inclusivity. It comes after the COVID-19 pandemic left transgender and nonbinary students isolated and without access to resources like mental health counseling and gender-affirming care, which contributed to worsening mental health conditions. A handful of states educate broadly on pronouns in requisite sexual education courses