Monterey County Rainbow Connections Gender Diversity Provider Training

Understanding the SAFETY Act: Protecting LGBTQ Student Privacy

April 30, 2025

CE’s Available
The Gender Health Training Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Gender Health Training Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

AB1955, or the Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act), was passed in July 2024 in response to several California school districts who passed policies that forced educators to out LGBTQ students who had expressed a different identity at school than at home. The SAFETY Act clarifies and strengthens existing privacy laws that protect all students in California schools who wish, for example, to be called by a different name & gender pronoun than they are outside of schools. However, many who work in the education system have not received proper training or support to understand how to navigate the complex dynamics that can arrive from interfacing with parents, guardians, colleagues, and students when they are keeping aspects of student identity private.

In this training session, participants will identify three essential impacts of the SAFETY Act, define “forced outing” and identify three impacts of forced outing on LGBTQ youth, & roleplay setting boundaries around students’ privacy to colleagues and caregivers of students. Participants will leave with clarity about their responsibilities in relation to student privacy as well as two tools to organize identity-based student information.

What We Will Cover

  • Identify three essential impacts of AB1955, the SAFETY (Support Academic Futures & Educators for Today’s Youth) Act.
  • Define “forced outing” and identify three impacts of forced outing on LGBTQ youth.
  • Roleplay setting boundaries around students’ privacy to colleagues and caregivers of students.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Use a Gender Support Plan to protect student privacy.
  • Use a conversation structure to set boundaries with caregivers.

Presenters

Luke Pacha, MA, M.Div.

Luke Pacha is the owner of Infinite Diversity LLC. He holds a Master of Religion and Psychology, Master of Divinity, and Certificate of Sexuality and Religion from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychological Services from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Luke straddles the worlds of academia/theory and practice, serving as the Board President of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, a national non-profit organization that publishes a 705-page resource guide of the same name, by and for the trans, gender expansive, and nonbinary communities. Through this work, he connects with leading transgender and gender expansive scholars in medicine, law, mental health, social sciences, politics, and culture to collaborate on editions of Trans Bodies. He recently authored the Religion and Spirituality chapter of the second edition of the book, released April 15, 2022, and served as Survey Editor, managing a nationwide qualitative survey of over 2,000 respondents quoted in the book, and editing several chapters. Luke co-authored an academic review of methodologies used to survey transgender & nonbinary people based on the Trans Bodies Second Edition Survey, “Surveying trans and nonbinary communities: Research methodologies, accountability, and ethics with the Trans Bodies, Trans Selves Survey (2nd edition),” published in Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in 2022.

Luke also co-authored the Religion and Spirituality chapter in the surgical textbook Gender Confirmation Surgery: Principles and Techniques for an Emerging Fieldedited by Loren Schecter, released 2020. He has been featured as a subject matter expert on gender pronouns in Rolling Stone, Grammarly’s Guide to Personal Pronouns,  and NPR Cap Radio about best pronoun practices in the workplace. He has also been interviewed on NPR’s The Takeaway and been published in LGBTQ Nation. More information can be found about Luke at infinitediversityllc.com.

Session is 180 min including time for Q&A.

3 CE Credits Available

The Gender Health Training Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Gender Health Training Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Understanding the SAFETY Act: Protecting LGBTQ Student Privacy

April 30, 2025
1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

In this training session, participants will identify three essential impacts of the SAFETY Act, define “forced outing” and identify three impacts of forced outing on LGBTQ youth, & roleplay setting boundaries around students’ privacy to colleagues and caregivers of students.

Upcoming Events

MARCH

What’s Your Pronoun?

March 5, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Using Non-Violent Communication to Support Family Acceptance of LGBTQ+ Youth

March 12, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Supporting Families through the Gender Journey

March 19, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

APRIL

Religious & Spiritual LGBTQ+ Affirming Resources

April 2, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Gender Affirming Surgeries

April 17, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Understanding the SAFETY Act: Protecting LGBTQ+ Student Privacy

April 30, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

MAY

WPATH Standards of Care: Part 1

May 1, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Supporting Neurodivergent LGBTQ+ Youth

May 7, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Beyond He and She

May 20, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

WPATH Standards of Care: Part 2

May 28, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

JUNE

Coming out

June 4, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

Supporting Gender Euphoria

June 12, 2025 / 1:30 – 4:30 pm PT

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