Creating and Implementing a Gender Support Plan

Rainbow Connections MasterClass Series

December 10, 2025

Gender Support Plans (GSPs), originally developed by Gender Spectrum, are structured frameworks that delineate a person’s correct name, gender identity, and gender pronoun, and provide information about in what contexts a person would like to be out with these parts of their identities. GSPs were originally meant to be used in youth-led meetings in educational contexts to aid school-based therapists, counselors, teachers, and other staff in navigating supporting a gender diverse young person’s identity in different contexts.

Research shows that consistent use of correct name & gender pronouns by important adults positively impacts the overall health of gender diverse youth (Olson et. al., 2016.) GSPs keep track of a student’s legal name & gender and correct name & gender across various school-based records, from student databases, lunch cards, and athletics, to documentation for domestic or international school trips.

This training not only introduces the GSP framework to providers, but also provides opportunities to practice filling in a Gender Support Plan, to modifying a GSP for their individual context, and to navigate potentially difficult conversations with youth, their caregivers, and/or their teachers or other school staff. When youth have the power to articulate needs around their identities & feel supported by important adults in a school-based or other provider context, they are more likely to consistently attend class, perform better in school, & to have increased positive mental health outcomes (Martino et. al., 2022; Kosciw et. al., 2020.) Learners will leave with increased familiarity with GSPs as it relates to their professional role, as well as tools to respect student privacy as defined by California state law (AB1955: The SAFETY Act, AB1266: School Success & Opportunities Act) & CDE policy guidelines.

Participants will:

Explain all parts of the Gender Support Plan template.
Identify three scenarios where a GSP may be used.
Describe two ways GSPs help meet legal obligations associated with AB1266, the School Success & Opportunity Act, AB1955, the SAFETY Act, SB 731, Respecting Gender in Foster Care Placements, and AB2119, Gender Health in Foster Care.

Learning Actions:

Participants will use their greater understanding of Gender Support Plans to implement them in practice with youth of all ages.
Participants will be better equipped to respectfully navigate a young person’s wishes in different contexts (i.e. at school, in extracurricular activities, and in their homes.).

Presenters

Luke Pacha, MA, M.Div.

Luke Pacha is the owner of Infinite Diversity LLC. He holds a Master of Religion and Psychology, Master of Divinity, and Certificate of Sexuality and Religion from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychological Services from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Luke straddles the worlds of academia/theory and practice, serving as the Board President of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, a national non-profit organization that publishes a 705-page resource guide of the same name, by and for the trans, gender expansive, and nonbinary communities. Through this work, he connects with leading transgender and gender expansive scholars in medicine, law, mental health, social sciences, politics, and culture to collaborate on editions of Trans Bodies. He recently authored the Religion and Spirituality chapter of the second edition of the book, released April 15, 2022, and served as Survey Editor, managing a nationwide qualitative survey of over 2,000 respondents quoted in the book, and editing several chapters. Luke co-authored an academic review of methodologies used to survey transgender & nonbinary people based on the Trans Bodies Second Edition Survey, “Surveying trans and nonbinary communities: Research methodologies, accountability, and ethics with the Trans Bodies, Trans Selves Survey (2nd edition),” published in Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity in 2022.

Luke also co-authored the Religion and Spirituality chapter in the surgical textbook Gender Confirmation Surgery: Principles and Techniques for an Emerging Field, edited by Loren Schecter, released 2020. He has been featured as a subject matter expert on gender pronouns in Rolling Stone, Grammarly’s Guide to Personal Pronouns, and NPR Cap Radio about best pronoun practices in the workplace. He has also been interviewed on NPR’s The Takeaway and been published in LGBTQ Nation. More information can be found about Luke at infinitediversityllc.com.