Collage image with a piece of paper with school supplies visible in bright but muted neon colors. There is a backpack cutout and a student facing away with their hand up sitting at a desk with a progress pride flag on their vest. Back to School Know Your

Know Your Rights Before Going Back to School

Neydin Milián

Communications Strategist

she/her/hers

August 23, 2023

LGBTQ+ students should be protected, and their rights respected.


Collage image with a piece of paper with school supplies visible in bright neon colors. There is a backpack cutout and a student facing away with their hand up sitting at a desk with a progress pride flag on their vest. Back to School Know Your Rights.

It’s time to go back to school, and we’ve prepared special content just for you. Across the nation, LGBTQ+ children and their rights are being attacked. That’s why LGBTQ+ students in Maryland need to know what your rights are within school walls.

At the beginning of Pride Month this June, the Human Rights Campaign declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people. This is the first time they’ve had to do this in the organization’s 40-year history. Because of these disgusting attacks to civil rights, the ACLU of Maryland is here to make clear your rights, so you are better informed. Let’s join the community in protecting LGBTQ+ rights and advancing them, too.

  1. Our Know Your Rights homepage has links to many sources of KYR information – a quick info flyer, podcast, and blog that you can learn from and share with your friends. Your rights are featured on this homepage in a menu format, with sections that you can take a deeper dive in. Visit our Know Your Rights resource page for LGBTQ+ students.
  2. Would you like to hear an engaging discussion about LGBTQ+ rights between podcast host and producer of Thinking Freely, Communications Strategist Nehemiah Bester, and our Regional Community Organizer Carlos Childs? The conversation moves from books that shouldn’t be banned and the rights students have – like what they can wear – and how to protect students from retaliation for speaking out against abuse and civil rights violations. Listen to the Thinking Freely podcast episode, “LGBTQ+ Students have the Right to be Themselves in Maryland Public Schools.”
  3. Does it help you to see your rights mapped out on an image? Take a look at our share graphic below, designed by our Senior Communications Strategist, Nicole McCann. Zoom in on the categories that you need more clarification on. See our LGBTQ+ students resource, “You Have the Right to be Yourself.”
  4. Do you need our help? Were your rights violated? You can connect with us through phone, mail, or online. Learn more on our webpage, “Ask for Legal Help.”

No matter who you are or where you are, you deserve to be yourself. The world deserves more people showing up as their most authentic self. No law or person or organization can ever strike down our humanity. LGBTQ+ students in Maryland have rights. And with the ACLU’s help, you can exercise and defend them!

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Amy Cruice

Amy Cruice

Legal Program Manager
she/her/hers
Amy Cruice is the legal program manager for the ACLU of Maryland. She oversees case investigation, provides litigation support to attorneys, assists with oversight of volunteers and law clerks, and places cases with pro bono law firms. In addition, she organizes the ACLU’s Election Protection campaign for every statewide and national election. She is also the ACLU representative on the Baltimore Civilian Review Board, where she has supported efforts by Board members to create a more impactful organization that is transparent to the Baltimore community. Amy began her career with the ACLU as a case investigator/community organizer on the Eastern Shore, focusing on race and poverty issues. She has a Bachelors of Arts in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University. In 2018, she received the “Fannie Lou Hamer Award” from the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Anne Arundel County.