WE ARE A MOVEMENT OF TQ2S+ YOUTH AND ALLIES DEVISING FREEDOM

GSAs are here

to stay

The GSA movement is part of a lineage of student-rooted social movements in the United States. GSA Network is a next-generation racial and gender justice organization that trains Trans, Queer, and Two Spirit youth leaders to advocate, organize, and mobilize an intersectional movement for safer schools and healthier communities.

OUR APPROACH

The way we name things shapes the world we're building.

Language matters. And so does how we organize, how we show up, and who leads.

Our practice is rooted in decolonization. Our language will evolve. Our strategies will adapt. What stays constant is our commitment to centering those who have been pushed to the margins. Every GSA is a seed of the future we're growing.

We say [TQ2S] instead of [LGBTQ] because centering our movement matters.

TQ2S (Trans, Queer, Two-Spirit) holds all of us, across and beyond all genders and sexualities. Trans and queer are reclaimed human superpowers. Two Spirit honors Indigenous ways of knowing that predate colonization and challenges the Western frameworks that have dominated queer liberation movements.

We say [Genders and Sexualities Alliances] instead of [Gay-Straight Alliance] because young people asked us to.

GSA Network is youth-rooted and follows the lead of our membership base. GSAs are spaces to explore identity, build solidarity, and practice the world we're creating together. As we free ourselves from limited ways of thinking, our language naturally evolves.

We believe GSAs are [political vehicles].

More than safe spaces. GSAs are where young people build power, shift culture, and organize communities for justice. GSAs are laboratories for liberation. Any gathering of TQ2S+ youth fighting for change is a GSA. Whether in schools, libraries, parks, online, or anywhere else, GSAs are political homes for the next-generation of world leaders.

Our Values

  • Our network is a commitment to each other, rooted in shared struggle and rigorous solidarity. Through re-claiming suppressed knowledge and collective power, we transform ourselves and our communities.

  • Youth-rooted, we carry on the project of freedom by harvesting wisdom of the past to seed the future with clarity.

  • We build power through fortifying TQ2S+ youth groups as they disrupt oppressive systems through gathering, supporting each other and taking action

  • We cultivate resilience through liberatory logistics that ensure our people and movements endure with dignity.

  • We are uniquely positioned to practice creativity and study through exploration, experimentation, and beauty-making.

Our Strategy: Devising Freedom

  • Homecoming

    Homecoming is about building community, developing leaders, and creating spaces where TQ2S youth can be fully themselves and find chosen family.

  • Truthtelling

    Truthtelling is about TQ2S youth reclaiming their own stories, building public understanding, and creating the cultural conditions for lasting change.

  • Spiritsustaining

    Spiritsustaining is about tending to the whole lives of TQ2S youth and families — building systems of care that heal harm and strengthen identity.

  • Stargayzing

    Stargayzing is about imagining and building the world we want — fueling the political will to move beyond every system of oppression.

Our WOrk

 Fortifying 1000+ GSA clubs

Building Power with GSA clubs

We support GSA clubs directly through funding (Youth Freedom Fund), field organizing development (STAR Fellows Program), and building a connected national base of TQ2S+ youth (National Registry).

Strengthening movement

We coordinate strategy and learning across regions, expand state-level capacity (National Association of GSAs), and build coalitions with national and regional partners.

youth-rooted popular education

Resources + infrastructure

Back-to-school packets, advisor handbooks, mailed toolkits, curricula, educator trainings, and evaluation systems to support GSAs nationwide.

Youth Learning + Leadership

National and regional convenings, cohort-based training in narrative change and media production (National Youth Collectives), and political education focused on advocacy and liberation (STAR Freedom School).

Collective Action for Justice

Policy + advocacy

Coordinated efforts to block harmful laws like Texas SB12, advance youth-centered policy, and organize state-specific campaigns (Lavender Futures) against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Mobilization + Narrative power

Digital action infrastructure (GSAs Unite), mass mobilization events (Days of Action), and youth-led media campaigns that shift public understanding of gender, safety, and belonging.

Our Journey