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Vanessa Renauld 
PED 3102 
January 24 2020 
Teaching Toolbox 

Breaking Through Gender 


Stereotypes: R
​ esources for an 
Inclusive Classroom. 
INTRODUCTION 
Gender stereotypes have permeated and burdened society for decades. Only recently, have we become aware 
and started to question their relevance and malignant impact that they have on us - especially in our 
formative years. Below is an annotated list of resources for teachers, students, and parents that can help 
open up the conversation about gender stereotypes and begin to challenge them both in the classroom and 
in everyday life. 

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 

Jacob’s New Dress By Sarah and Ian Hoffman 

Jacob’s New Dress by Sara and Ian Hoffman explores who can and cannot 
wear a dress. The answer is anyone can wear a dress. Jacob explores his 
imagination during dress up time at school and another boy, Christopher, 
gives Jacob some trouble, complaining that the princess dress that Jacob 
had decided to wear was only for girls. Jacob enjoys dresses and even his 
parents tell him it’s okay - but not at school. Jacob wears a handmade dress 
to school and experiences bullying from the boys at school. The book 
shows the parents struggling with helping Jacob to express himself, but in 
the end his mom and dad both encourage him to be himself. The book also 
shows his friend Emily being more interested in playing on the monkey 
bars than playing dress up. The teacher explains to the children that Jacob is wearing what he is 
comfortable in. When children still give him a hard time, Jacob decides for himself that the dress he 
made himself is like a soft shield of armour. This book would be a great resource for teachers to bring 
into any primary classroom to talk about how clothing can be worn by both boys and girls. Children at a 
young age have already begun to associate clothing with gender so it would be a great story to ask 
students what they think and get them thinking in more open minded ways.  

Hoffman, Sarah. (2014). ​Jacob’s New Dress​. Illinois, United States: Albert Whiteman & Company. 

 
 

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Ara the Star Engineer by Komal Singh 

Ara takes us through a science and engineering journey with her 


robot friend Deedee. Gender stereotypes that permeate throughout 
society have girls believe that boys are good in science and math and 
girls thrive in language and the arts. This book bends and breaks the 
stereotype by first having Ara as the star of the cover. Girls will see 
themselves represented in the sciences and begin to think outside of 
the gender stereotypes box. The book takes us through some 
important engineering concepts such as courage, creativity, coding, 
collaboration. And on Ara’s first attempt she fails, but instead of giving up she tries again. This book 
encourages young girls to try and try again. By making this book available in the classroom, teachers 
can widen the representation of girls in the subjects that gender stereotypes do not group them in.  

Singh, Komal. (2018). ​Ara the Star Engineer​. Vancouver, Canada: Page Two Books. 

I’m a Girl by Yasmeen Ismail 

Girls have always been taught the words they are associated with - nice, 
sweet, tidy, etc. but this book challenges these notions and shows girls that 
they can be so much more than that. Our little friend shows us that people 
often associate her actions with boys, but she always notifies them that she 
is a girl! Her actions tend to “defy” what a girl is supposed to do. She is 
shown eating messily, riding a bike as fast as she can, reading lots of books, 
playing loud music, playing with different toys, and racing others. 
Unfortunately, boys are often depicted as the ones who are allowed to do these things. This book can 
encourage both boys and girls to do what they feel is right for them, instead of listening to outside 
chatter. Our friend meets a boy at the end who also defies the gender stereotypes and they become 
good friends. Having this story as a read aloud in the primary classroom would be a great way to have a 
discussion about gender stereotypes with the students.  

Ismail, Yasmeen. (2016). ​I’m A Girl​. New York, United States: Bloomsbury Publishing. 

Ballerino Nate by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 

Nate becomes interested in going to a school ballet despite his older brother Ben’s notions that 
coincide with gender stereotypes. Nate loved the ballet - the costumes, the dances, the music. He came 
 

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home wanting to learn how to dance. His little brother is the recurring voice of “you cannot” 
throughout the story, but his mom is supportive. Nate practiced dancing 
all summer with hopes of going to ballet class after summer. Ben 
constantly tells his brother that boys cannot be ballerinas and Nate 
begins to believe him. Nate’s dad comforts him after he hears that all 
ballerinas must wear pink. This is just not true. They talk about how 
girls can play baseball so that means boys can be ballerinas. Nate is the 
only boy in the class and gets discouraged, so his mom brings him to a 
real ballet and he sees that both boys and girls are in the ballet and he 
learns that boys in fact cannot be ballerinas, but ballerinos. Nate’s 
journey is one that many children will experience in their lifetime so 
this becomes an important read aloud that can be used in the primary 
classroom.   

Bradley, Kimberley Brubaker. (2016). ​Ballerino.​ United States: Dial Books Young Readers. 

Shaking Things Up by Susan Hood 

These fourteen young women who changed the world makeup this 
beautifully illustrated children’s book. ​Shaking Things Up by Susan Hood 
is a great resource for teachers to use in their classroom to inspire 
children - especially young girls. The book features a timeline of women 
who made huge waves in history and goes through fourteen different 
poems and facts about these women. Some notable women featured in 
this book include Frida Kahlo a famous artist, Mae Jemison the first 
African American female astronaut, and Malala Yousafzai, the youngest 
winner of the nobel peace prize. These stories of women across cultures 
and countries are so important for both boys and girls to know. The book can be used for a read aloud 
in primary and as a project inspiration for junior students. Junior students can get into groups and 
create poster profile projects about the different women. It is so important to have their stories present 
in the classroom. We tend to focus on the success of men, but women need to be represented too. 
Students need to be exposed to all success stories so that they do not grow up believing in the rigid 
gender stereotypes that society sets out for them.  

Hood, Susan. (2018). ​Shaking Things Up.​ Toronto, Canada: Harper Collins. 
 

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DIGITAL MEDIA 

How Parents Influence Kids’ Gender Roles By 


Whit Honea 

This is a short and informative resource that would be helpful in 


reminding parents what their role is in establishing gender 
stereotypes for their children. Whit Honea the co-founder of 
Dads4Change​ takes ​Parents and Gender​ to showcase the kinds of 
ways that parents may influence their children unknowingly and 
how they can combat this. Although some households may be 
exemplary examples of not conforming to gender stereotypes, some are not. Outside factors beyond 
the household institution may also play a huge factor in a child's life. The example in the video was 
about buying a fast food meal and being asked what gender the children were, so as to give them the 
correctly gendered toy. It is important to use these situations as opportunities to have a conversation 
with your child about gendered stereotypes. Parents should not dictate gender roles to their children. 
Instead have the necessary conversations when stereotypes undoubtedly arrive, and allow children to 
explore the world without a pair of gendered glasses - this will limit their opportunities.   

Honea, Whit. (2018). ​How Parents Influence Kids’ Gender Roles​. Retrieved From: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swSy6pdAS-0&feature=emb_title 

Watching Gender: How Stereotypes in 


Movies and on TV Impact Kids’ 
Development 

This short but important video about the rigid gender 


stereotypes still being seen in the media today would serve 
as a great resource for teachers and students in the 
classroom. ​Common Sense Media​ brings to light the fact 
that the gender stereotypes that children are still exposed 
to can affect their sense of self, relationships with others, and their career choices. This video could easily 
be integrated into the media literacy curriculum and look at how students can properly digest what they 
see in the media without falling victim to the gender stereotypes. Teachers could use this video to begin a 
group project in junior or senior classrooms which have students brainstorm the kinds of stereotypes they 
see in everyday movies, television, commercials, music videos, etc. Students could then present to the 
 

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class ways in which we can stand up to these stereotypes or ways in which they do not match up with 
reality. Another activity could be an open discussion about initial thoughts upon watching this video. 
Teachers could also use the sentiments that arises in the video such as “Girls are only interested in 
fashion” and “Boys are always strong” and use them for argumentative essay topics or discussion set-ups.   

Common Sense Media. (2017). ​Watching Gender​. Retrieved From: 


https://www.commonsensemedia.org/video/modal/5707491

The Odd Squad  

This exciting and odd television series centers around young 


children - the Odd Squad - both girls and boys who are part 
of an agency that investigates strange occurrences. Gender 
stereotypes do not appear in this show as both girls and 
boys take part in various jobs as spies and doctors. The show 
was designed to help children build their math, 
problem-solving and collaboration skills. Each episode has a 
math concept embedded in it and encourages both girls and boys to be problem solvers and take initiative 
in everyday life. ​The Odd Squad​ was created by Tim McKeon and Adam Peltzman and premiered on PBS 
KIDS in November 2014. This show does not know gender stereotypes and so it would be a great resource 
for parents to show their children. The show is fun and educational enough to even be shown in 
classrooms as part of the media literacy curriculum. Discussions about math can be derived from each 
episode. This kind of series is so important for both boys and girls to see as they are both represented as 
strong capable problem solvers. 

​Mckeon, Tim. (2014). ​The Odd Squad.​ PBS Kids. Retrieved From: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAY2heI5sfI 

A Class That Turned Around Kids’ 


Assumptions of Gender Roles  

This short public service announcement by 


MullenLowe London​ and ​Upworthy​ breaks the 
students’ ideas of gender norms and helps them 
realise that jobs are genderless. During a career day in 
an English Elementary school students are asked to 
draw what they think certain careers look like. They 
are asked to draw a firefighter, surgeon, and a fighter pilot. The students are shown to gravitate towards 
 

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drawing men - even the girls in the class. They are surprised to meet real life people in these occupations 
who all also happen to be female. The video looks to open up a conversation about how gender stereotypes 
are defined for children between the ages of five and seven. It is up to educators and parents to help break 
through these stereotypes before they become set in stone. This video is a great resource for both parents 
and teachers. The activity displayed in the video can easily be adapted to any grade classroom or even at 
home. It would also be interesting to have children also draw jobs that are gendered to be predominantly 
female.  

MullenLowe London. (2016). ​A Class That Turned Around Kids’ Assumptions of Gender Roles.​ Retrieved 
From: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Aweo-74kY 

JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

Gender Stereotypes and Education By European Institute for Gender Equality 

This article is a good resource for teachers looking to widen their professional reading on the topic of 
gender stereotypes. The European Institute for Gender Equality looks at how education is key for breaking 
gender stereotypes, so this article is mostly directed towards educators. Historically we know that what 
children are encouraged to focus on in school will have a huge impact on what career paths both boys and 
girls will follow throughout their lifetime. These traditional ideas are streamlining children into their 
respective “gender stereotype”. As students get older these stereotypes that began at a young age start to 
feel natural. The article looks at how breaking these stereotypes and having girls and boys go into careers 
at a more equal rate would benefit the economy. EIGE’s goal is to find out why so few men are working in 
healthcare and education and why so few women are working in science, technology, engineering and 
mathematics. Being armed with this kind of information is important for educators at all grade levels. It is 
up to us to encourage students at all stages in their life to pursue what they love, not what they are told 
they should love based on their gender.  

Salanauskaite, Lina. (2017). ​Education is Key for Breaking Gender Stereotypes​. European Institute for Gender 
Equality. Retrieved From: ​https://eige.europa.eu/news/education-key-breaking-gender-stereotypes  

Breaking Gender Stereotypes Early by Tania King 

It is known that breaking gender stereotypes can be tackled in preschool by promoting children to learn all 
skills equally and find out possibilities for themselves. Children are detectives, so if we let them explore 
freely they can grow to understand gender as more flexible and not so rigid. The study done showed us that 
 

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gender stereotypes can start quite young and things like watching television had a huge impact. It was 
found that boys who watch tv often grasp a bigger sense that “boys are better” whereas girls who watched 
tv found their self-esteem getting lower. The representation of boys and girls in most television shows 
perpetuate and reinforce gender stereotypes for these children. Another study showed that girls were 
perceived as more caring and helpful than boys, but boys who exhibited the same behaviour were 
considered to be strange. The article notes that removing terms like “boys” and “girls” is not the solution, 
but instead focusing on each individuals' skills and attributes should be set as a priority. This will promote 
the reduction of stereotyping and bias and build more inclusive behaviours in children. This resource 
would make great reading material for both educators working in the primary level and parents who have 
young children. Parents may perhaps begin to question what they allow their children to watch, play with, 
and do in order to break the stereotypes of boys and girls.  

King, Tania. (2018). ​Breaking Gender Stereotypes Early​. Child In The City. Retrieved From: 
https://www.childinthecity.org/2018/05/29/breaking-gender-stereotypes-early/?gdpr=accept 

Fawcett Research Shows Exposure to Gender Stereotypes as a Child Causes Harm 


Later in Life by The Fawcett Society 

This article serves as yet another great resource for both educators and parents. It can serve as a 
professional development reading or just an interesting informative reading. The Fawcett Society 
discusses the research they have done on the effects of gender stereotypes on children. Research shows 
that 45% of people said they experienced gender stereotyping and were expected to behave in accordance 
with their gender. Being confined to gender stereotypes has been proven to impact children in only 
negative ways. Career paths are constrained for both boys and girls and stereotyping has shown to harm 
personal relationships as well. Both boys and girls experience a fair share of gender stereotyping that 
impacts them negatively. Gender stereotyping has become the root of many problems in our youth such as 
low self esteem about body image in girls and not being able to show emotion in boys. By inadvertently 
reinforcing gender through a “gendered world” parents are not doing justice for their children. Educators 
and Parents can use the ideas in the article and implement them with their students and children.  

Richardson, Abby. (2019). ​Fawcett Research Shows Exposure To Gender Stereotypes as a Child Causes Harm in 
Later Life.​ The Fawcett Society: 
https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/fawcett-research-exposure-gender-stereotypes-child-causes-har
m-later-life 
 

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Breaking Gender Barriers Through Literaturein the Elementary and Preschool 


Classroom by Bonnie Frieden 

This article assesses how reading and talking about stories that do not follow the typical gender 
stereotypes can help increase cooperation and decrease conflict in young students of different genders. It 
will also help young learners expand their conceptions of themselves and others beyond stereotypes. It 
was found that a lot of conflict among young children were rooted in their already growing gender 
stereotypes. The study aimed to explore storytelling as a means to diffuse this kind of conflict and break 
the stereotypes. The study works with elementary school students for a number of weeks and helps them 
to build on possibilities of gender. The primary students seemed more than willing to adapt to ideas they 
have about gender in order to be more inclusive. This “gender stereotype intervention” proved successful 
as more cooperation was noticed between students and what it means to be a “boy” and “girl” became 
more flexible among the students. Educators would benefit from reading such a paper because it was a 
successful study in intervening the rigid gender stereotypes in the primary years. Teachers can bring more 
literature into the classroom and hold similar discussions to what they had in the study in order to 
promote gender inclusion in their own classroom settings.  

Frieden, Bonnie J. (2019). ​Jacob’s New Dress​. Minnesota, United States: Saint Catherine University. 
Retrieved From: ​https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1322&context=maed 

Gender Specific Toys: Do You Stereotype Children? By BBC News 

This small experiment goes to show how ingrained gender stereotypes are in our minds - even when we see 
ourselves as open minded people. Several different volunteers - male and female - are asked to play with a 
female and male baby. There are a variety of “boy” and “girl” toys available to play with. The only trick is 
that the boy and the girl baby have swapped clothes. The volunteers are shown offering the puppets and 
doll toys to the perceived baby girl and robots and puzzles to the perceived baby boy. Even when we do not 
recognize it in ourselves, we are gendering children's toys. Traditionally considered boy toys promote 
spatial awareness and reasoning, but so often girls are not considered to be candidates for playing with 
such toys. This means that even at such a young age, the toys that children play with impact which skills 
they will learn and how their brains will develop. This article and video is all about trying to overcome our 
own prejudices on gender and break the stereotypes. This article would be a good resource for new 
parents. It gives them the information they need to raise their child so that they can learn skills based on 
what they are interested in playing with, not what they are socially seen as supposed to be playing with.  

BBC News. (2017). ​Gender Specific Toys: Do You Stereotype Children?​ Retrieved From: 
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40936719/gender-specific-toys-do-you-stereotype-children 
 

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WEBSITES 

European Institute for Gender Equality 

This website is full of wonderful ideas for educators on gender equality. The institute’s goal is to fight 
against gender discrimination and raise the EU citizens’ awareness of gender equality. The website is full 
of articles relating to gender issues across Europe. It also views gender issues through a variety of different 
lenses such as culture, digital agenda, economics, education, employment, health, justice, migration, 
poverty, regional policy, research, youth, and violence to name a few. These articles - depending on the 
grade level of the students - could be used as case studies in social studies classes or for group discussions 
about gender equality. The website also has a huge glossary of terms related to gender and gender equality. 
This would be a wonderful resource for educators, parents, and students to use to familiarize themselves 
with the correct terms.  

European Institute for Gender Equality. (2020). Retrieved From: ​https://eige.europa.eu/ 

Canadian Women’s Foundation 

The Canadian Women’s Foundation was founded in 1991 between two friends who wanted to take down 
gender inequality in Canada. The foundation seeks to empower women and is one of the largest women’s 
foundations in the world. The key principles are to transform lives, improve services, and change systems. 
They offer programs and resources to the women of Canada and seek change through movements and 
events. The website notes the barriers that girls face as well. They hope to empower girls with confidence, 
a sense of connection, and critical thinking skills. Although the gender issue goes both ways this website is 
dedicated to helping women and girls. The website gives tips and facts about helping girls through 
adolescence and the pathway through gendered stereotypes. The foundation also runs the “Empowering 
Girls” program which allows young women to explore things they are normally taught not to pursue such 
as sciences, technology, and sports. With this kind of knowledge both parents and educators can use this 
website to help the girls in their lives as well as keep updated with the types of programs available to them.  

Canadian Women’s Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved From: ​https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/ 

Gender Creative Kids 

Gender Creative Kids is an organization and website that is community run and non-profit. They provide 
countless resources for supporting and affirming gender creative kids within their families, schools, and 
communities. Gender creative kids not only steers away from typical gender stereotypes, but they also 
 

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focus their attention and care to that of transgender children. This website hosts a resource library that is 
geared towards parents, service providers, and educators. Notably the curriculum and policy documents 
would be useful professional reading for educators who may have transgender children in their class or 
their school. The “Guide For Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools” that is provided as a 
resource offers educators facts and information, guidelines for working with children, specific issues they 
may face as transgender youth, best practices for working with unsupportive parents of transgender 
children, and gender support plans templates that teachers can implement in their classroom. Parents can 
also find lots of books about transgender children that they can read for themselves or share with their 
children as a way of opening up a conversation about gender.  

Gender Creative Kids Canada. (2013). Retrieved From: ​https://gendercreativekids.ca/about/ 

The Representation Project 

This organization’s main goal is to inspire individuals and communities through media to free the world of 
gender stereotypes and social injustices. So far, they have made waves and in 2011 opened up a 
conversation about the ways in which gender stereotypes impact girls and women with their “Miss 
Representation” film and again in 2015 about the harmful effects of traditional masculinity for boys and 
men with “The Mask You Live In” documentary. The representation does screenings in community centers 
and school communities upon request in order to spread the movement. The website offers a host of 
resources for educators, parents, students, and communities. For educators even a media literacy and 
social emotional learning curricula is available for purchase. For senior and intermediate learners I think 
these documentaries have the potential to open up important classroom conversations, group projects, 
and case studies on gender and gender stereotypes.  

The Representation Project. (2020). Retrieved From: ​http://therepresentationproject.org/ 

Teaching Tolerance 

The Teaching Tolerance mission is to help teachers and schools educate their students to be active 
participants in a diverse democracy. It provides free resources to educators from primary to highschool 
that encourage tolerance, inclusive, and respected communities. Educators could easily use these 
resources in their classroom to teach various tolerance topics. Topics included are race and ethnicity, 
religion, ability, class, immigration, gender and sexual identity, bullying and bias, and rights and activism. 
Not only does the website provide resources for teaching about breaking gender stereotypes but for 
everything that requires respect and tolerance. The website allows you to search for a topic and grade level 
in order to find an appropriate lesson for your students. Not only are there in class resources, but also 
webinars and articles for educators’ professional development. One example of a lesson that could be used 
 

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for grades k-2 is a “free to be you” lesson where children will participate in a read aloud of “Supermom 
Saves The Day” by Joi Miner and participate in a think pair share. The lesson plan offers teaching 
strategies as well for creating questions to engage students with the text. This resource is truly incredible 
to be bookmarked for all educators.  

Teaching Tolerance. (1991-2020). ​Retrieved From:  


https://www.tolerance.org/topics/gender-sexual-identity 

FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER 


 
BBC News. (2017). ​Gender Specific Toys: Do You Stereotype Children?​ Retrieved From: 
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-40936719/gender-specific-toys-do-you-stereotype-children 

Bradley, Kimberley Brubaker. (2016). ​Ballerino.​ United States: Dial Books Young Readers. 

Canadian Women’s Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved From: ​https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/ 

Common Sense Media. (2017). ​Watching Gender​. Retrieved From: 


https://www.commonsensemedia.org/video/modal/5707491 

European Institute for Gender Equality. (2020). Retrieved From: ​https://eige.europa.eu/ 

Frieden, Bonnie J. (2019). ​Jacob’s New Dress​. Minnesota, United States: Saint Catherine University. 
Retrieved From: ​https://sophia.stkate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1322&context=maed 

Gender Creative Kids Canada. (2013). Retrieved From: ​https://gendercreativekids.ca/about/ 

Hoffman, Sarah. (2014). ​Jacob’s New Dress.​ Illinois, United States: Albert Whiteman & Company. 

Honea, Whit. (2018). ​How Parents Influence Kids’ Gender Roles​. Retrieved From: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swSy6pdAS-0&feature=emb_title 

Hood, Susan. (2018). ​Shaking Things Up.​ Toronto, Canada: Harper Collins. 

Ismail, Yasmeen. (2016). ​I’m A Girl.​ New York, United States: Bloomsbury Publishing. 

King, Tania. (2018). ​Breaking Gender Stereotypes Early​. Child In The City. Retrieved From: 
https://www.childinthecity.org/2018/05/29/breaking-gender-stereotypes-early/?gdpr=accept 

Mckeon, Tim. (2014). ​The Odd Squad​. PBS Kids. Retrieved From: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAY2heI5sfI 
 

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MullenLowe London. (2016). ​A Class That Turned Around Kids’ Assumptions of Gender Roles.​ Retrieved 
From: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Aweo-74kY 

Richardson, Abby. (2019). ​Fawcett Research Shows Exposure To Gender Stereotypes as a Child Causes Harm in 
Later Life.​ The Fawcett Society: 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++​https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/fawcett-research-exposure-gende
r-stereotypes-child-causes-harm-later-life 

Salanauskaite, Lina. (2017). ​Education is Key for Breaking Gender Stereotypes​. European Institute for Gender 
Equality. Retrieved From: ​https://eige.europa.eu/news/education-key-breaking-gender-stereotypes  

Singh, Komal. (2018). ​Ara the Star Engineer.​ Vancouver, Canada: Page Two Books. 

Teaching Tolerance. (1991-2020). ​Retrieved From:  


https://www.tolerance.org/topics/gender-sexual-identity 

The Representation Project. (2020). Retrieved From: ​http://therepresentationproject.org/ 

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