This group is for binary transgender, nonbinary transgender, gender-expansive, nonbinary, agender, queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, or any other youths who fall under the LGBTQ spectrum to socialize and share experiences. 

Youths will interact via live video chat. Discussion will be facilitated and will allow space for social discussion and opportunities to connect with similarly situated peers and seek support around particular difficulties faced by the youths. The group may also include directed teaching of skills that youths can use to self-advocate, as requested by the youths or when a need is noted by facilitator. Group flow will largely follow the lead of the youths rather than any structured curriculum. Group sessions often revolve around students volunteering to share accomplishments, photos, videos, favorite music, and the like. Some groups may include playing social games on the Zoom platform or using external websites. These will always be family-friendly and will never involve gaming with students outside of the Outschool class. Groups may at times focus heavily on LGBTQ-specific topics or may focus more on other topics of interest, all dependent on the preferences of the youths. Some students choose to participate more passively, and this is always fine. 

Please be aware that we have a number of youths who primarily communicate using the Zoom text chat feature, whether this is for privacy reasons while attending group in shared living spaces, accommodation for disabilities, or discomfort with speaking voice related to gender identity. Youths who need accommodations to follow along with chat or assistance with reading can request this in the notes section, and I am happy to balance reading a majority of chat comments aloud while keeping more sensitive comments private or summarizing these. I am not able to accommodate requests that we interact primarily through voice, as this is not inclusive of all of our students. I do make a point of directing students to check the chat if I notice they appear to be missing the portions of conversations occurring in chat. 

As Outschool is an educational platform, these are primarily social groups, and not a therapeutic/medical service. Facilitator and peers may provide advice of a general nature regarding situations discussed in class, but the group is not a therapeutic process group and is not a substitute for individual professional services.

PLEASE NOTE: I run both teen and tween groups, and I ask that youths registering for the teen group are comfortable using Zoom and the internet independently. While content is kept age-appropriate based on the World Health Organization standards for youth ages 12-15, the general tone of this class is teens who are permitted fairly independent internet and media use, tend to be familiar with teen/young-adult oriented TV/film/social media (I ask students to keep content roughly PG-13), and youths in this group pretty much exclusively attend group alone in a non-public location. Younger teens who are not yet at this stage may be more comfortable in the tween group (I am flexible about ages as long as this is done thoughtfully).