Report: LGBTQ Community Vastly Underrepresented on School Boards

A recent report from the LGBTQ Victory Institute, a national organization focused on electing leaders within the LGBTQ community, has revealed that queer people are vastly underrepresented on American school boards, and that those who have been elected face discrimination. The report, titled “Few & Under Fire: LGBTQ School Board Members in the U.S.,” includes the results of the first nationwide survey to assess the number of LGBTQ school board members in the country.

This survey comes as school boards across the country have faced threats amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of LGBTQ school board members reported having faced anti-LGBTQ attacks as school board members, and 17% of those surveyed reported having received verbal anti-LGBTQ attacks from fellow board members. A third of respondents stated that individuals running for their school board are championing an anti-LGBTQ agenda.

In a press release, LGBTQ Victory Institute President Annise Parker states that schools “have been ground zero for anti-LGBTQ vitriol this year. In many cases, school boards have the power to determine the rights LGBTQ kids do—and don’t—have.”

By the LGBTQ Victory Institutes estimation, there are 90,000 school board members in the United States, and only 90 are openly LGBTQ. Currently, 7.1% of Americans identify as LGBTQ, which means 6,300 queer school board members would have to be elected for queer people to be equitably represented.

Only 28 states in the country have a school board member who is a member of the LGBTQ community, with the majority of those states only having a single queer member. California has the highest number of LGBTQ school board members at 22, with Michigan following with nine. The South is the region with the least known LGBTQ board members, making up just 13% of the total, despite the South accounting for 38% of the country’s population.

This report is troubling, especially observing the continuing legislative attacks across the country, specifically targeted at LGBTQ youth and education. This should be a reminder to pay attention to your local elections as those positions can be equally as impactful to your community as federal ones.