Dear GLSEN Friends,

This morning I am headed to the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention with a remarkable GLSEN delegation and alongside allies and friends from around the country.

Last night our delegation had dinner with Joel Burns, City Councilman from Fort Worth, Texas, whose story, shared at a City Council meeting and in an It Gets Better video, has now reached three million people worldwide. Today we will see representatives of all of our most important organizational allies at the White House – the unions, the professional associations, organizations advocating for all of the communities so deeply affected by bullying.

We have all been summoned to discuss how best to respond to the public health crisis of bullying. GLSEN’s job, and that of our allies and friends, is to ensure that the coordinated response that emerges truly helps all those who suffer because of anti-LGBT bias and behavior in our schools. We want to be sure that the anti-bullying “moment” of the past nine months results in action that benefits all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity or gender expression.

I hope to be able to send updates out at some points during the day from my Twitter account and GLSEN’s, and will report back to you all afterwards. For the moment, thank you for all of the hard work and critical support that brought GLSEN to the gates of the White House this morning.

Warmest regards,

Eliza Byard,
GLSEN Executive Director
@EByard