Growing a Gender-Inclusive Biology Curriculum

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Originally published in TEACH Magazine, 50th Anniversary of the Decriminalization of Homosexuality in Canada Special Issue, 2019

By Sam Long

As a transgender man, one of the greatest joys of being a high school teacher has been watching my queer and trans students come out and embrace their identities. A growing number of students are now finding the courage to speak openly about gender identity in their school communities.

Often, the response is positive. However, there are also those who deny or disparage trans identities by saying, “You don’t understand basic biology,” or “You’re going against nature.” As a biology teacher, I take great issue with these comments. Biology is the study of a diverse range of living things, and biology affirms all genders.

I am lucky to have the opportunity to teach gender-diversity as it applies to genetics, evolution, anatomy, and physiology. To me, this is not just an opportunity, but an obligation that has made my lesson planning both more difficult and more important. I could easily just copy the old lessons from the previous teacher, but old lessons foster old misunderstandings. Here are my reflections on how to teach biology topics in a gender-inclusive way. 

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Sam Long (he/him) teaches biology at an urban high school in Denver, CO. You can learn more about Sam’s work at sam-long.weebly.com.

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Sam Long
Sam Long
Sam Long (he/him) teaches biology at an urban high school in Denver, CO. You can learn more about Sam’s work at sam-long.weebly.com.

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