TOOLKIT: Tips and Tricks for GSA Advisors & Sponsors

Whether your official title is Advisor, Sponsor, Faculty Facilitator, or Head Unicorn in Charge, your role as the adult staff person guiding your school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance Club is incredibly important! Your commitment and support help set the stage for the success of your GSA, and can literally be lifesaving. 

Being a strong GSA advisor isn’t easy though, so here are some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years to help you and your students succeed:

  • Know your district policies– whatever the rules are for existing non-curricular clubs, those are the rules the GSA should be held to as well

  • Get training for yourself and for your students– y’all aren’t alone in this and Texas GSA Network is here to help! 

  • Co-sponsors or staff advisors are recommended so you can support each other both with your administration and with students

  • If you get pushback from your administration, any coworkers, or parents or guardians, lean into the research– GSA clubs are proven to not only increase students’ feelings of safety and belonging, they correlate to better retention rates, higher graduation rates, lower rates of suicide among all students, and even higher SAT scores! 

  • We know not everyone always has the same lunch period, but if at all possible, hold your club meetings during lunch– that way students don’t have to explain why they want to stay after school or need to arrange alternate transportation

  • Create a healthy culture by setting strong boundaries and enforcing community agreements around confidentiality and creating brave, safe spaces at every meeting

  • Be flexible with what the students you’re supporting in a given term need– GSAs broadly can be defined as social, peer support, or activist clubs, but are often a mix of all three

  • Bring allies into the club– so it’s safe for students who are still closeted to join– by strongly encouraging the cisgender and heterosexual siblings of out and proud students to join and be sure to seek out cis/het students with queer parents, too

  • If your district doesn’t have comprehensive, enumerated anti-bullying policies form a coalition with other staff throughout the district to push for them

  • Advocate for the inclusion of LGBTQ-related resources and curricula in your school and district, whether you’re helping plan Pride Week festivities, honoring Holocaust Remembrance Day, or advocating for inclusive sex ed 

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