ABSTRACT
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth and their advocates have long struggled for recognition and basic safety within US schools and gifted programs. At the elementary level, students may identify as GLBTQ or, more often, may be thinking about the ways in which they may be "different" in sexual orientation and/or gender identity. K-12 administrators and teachers should understand, from the start of their professional learning, the range of gifted GLBTQ students' unique strengths in intelligence, achievement, creativity, arts, and leadership. Secondary educators need to understand the increasing importance, to older gifted GLBTQ students, that schools address not just their strengths, but also several other aspects. Safety-minded, solution-oriented administrators and teachers need to understand that gifted youth can benefit, from a young age, from the GLBTQ-related social-emotional support of others, including peers, educators, and parents.
