A Lifeline for LGBTQ+ Students in Michigan Schools Is Running Out of Money
Federal cuts and a hostile political climate threaten a program educators have relied on for a quarter century
For 25 years, the Michigan LGBTQ+ Students Project has worked to make schools safer for the state's LGBTQ+ youth, at a moment when many of those students still describe their schools as anything but welcoming. Now the program itself is at risk. It could disappear in early 2027 unless it raises about $250,000 to replace funding lost to federal cuts and a political climate that's made school districts wary of anything tied to LGBTQ+ students.
Run through the nonprofit MOASH (the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health) in partnership with Roots of Change, a consulting group focused on building healthy communities through education and training, the project trains superintendents, teachers, school bus drivers, mental health providers and just about everyone else who works in a school building on how to keep LGBTQ+ students safe. According to project lead Kim Phillips-Knope, it's the only effort of its kind operating statewide and exists because LGBTQ+ students so often can't advocate for themselves.
"There are more than 109,000 LGBTQ+ students in Michigan schools and they don't have a voice," Phillips-Knope told Pride Source. "This project is their voice. These students and their families are often unable to advocate for themselves, and it's not their job to educate their schools. That's what we do."
The Trevor Project found 37% of LGBTQ+ young people in Michigan do not consider their schools LGBTQ-affirming, and the same percentage seriously considered suicide in the past year, a figure that climbed to 42% among transgender and nonbinary respondents. The organization's research consistently ties lower suicide risk to LGBTQ+ youth having access to affirming spaces and adults who understand and advocate for them.
School climate research backs that up. In GLSEN's 2021 National School Climate Survey, nearly 2 in 3 LGBTQ+ students in Michigan, 64%, reported experiencing at least one form of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination at school, and more than 1 in 4 said they'd been disciplined for public displays of affection that didn't draw the same response for their non-LGBTQ+ peers.
The Michigan Department of Education's 2016 State Board of Education guidance on LGBTQ+ students, still in effect, adds to that picture. According to the 2015 Michigan Youth Risk Behavior Survey, students who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual, 8.4% of Michigan high schoolers at the time, were 2.3 times more likely to be threatened or injured with a weapon on school property than their non-LGB peers and 2.3 times more likely to skip school out of fear for their safety. Forty-one percent reported being bullied on school property.
Since 2020, the project has run 153 in-person and virtual workshops for 8,751 people, drawing participants from nearly 600 traditional public school districts, public school academies and intermediate school districts. Those districts collectively serve more than 1.2 million young people, or roughly 90% of Michigan's students. The project has also fielded almost 400 individualized requests for technical assistance from schools in 42 Michigan counties, and nearly all participant evaluations, 99%, rated the trainings good or excellent.
Phillips-Knope pointed to work helping districts craft policy language around transgender and nonbinary students as one concrete example of that impact, alongside professional development for school boards, principals, teachers, healthcare providers and paraprofessionals.
"The biggest impact, we know, is in the daily lived experiences of the students themselves who, as a result of our work and collaboration with schools, can show up authentically and fully participate both socially and academically in school, just like every kid should be able to do," she said.
What's driving the shortfall
The project itself has never been funded through Michigan's state budget, so it wasn't directly touched by a provision tucked into this year's education budget, signed into law as Public Act 21 of 2026, that bars the state from sending public school funding to MOASH. But that provision, combined with steep federal funding cuts under the Trump administration, has made the broader funding picture harder for the organization, and school districts and other partners have grown increasingly hesitant to financially back LGBTQ-focused programming, Phillips-Knope said.
Without replacement funding, MOASH expects to suspend the coordinated staffing, training and technical assistance that lets the project operate statewide, Phillips-Knope said.
The $250,000 goal would sustain the project for two more years, covering staff and facilitators, statewide travel, program evaluation, resource development and ongoing technical assistance to districts. MOASH is seeking support from individual donors, foundations, businesses and community organizations, with contributions made directly to MOASH, which handles fiscal oversight for the project.
Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, has partnered with Phillips-Knope on MOASH trainings for the past decade. He called the potential loss of the program a significant setback for LGBTQ+ students statewide, noting it would come after a "tremendous service" to Michigan schools spanning 25 years, and said the ACLU is hopeful fundraising can close the gap and keep the project alive.
"A pause would be especially painful because the need has not disappeared," Phillips-Knope said. "If anything, the need has increased. Students, educators and families continue to seek practical support for creating schools where LGBTQ+ young people are safe, supported and able to learn."
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