We believe every student, staff, and faculty member deserves a safe, supportive, and affirming school environment that fully embraces them for who they are and helps them achieve their full potential. We believe hope outshines fear, and Honor-Truth-Duty means standing up to speak out against hate and intolerance. We believe McCallie can be an LGBTQ-affirming school and safe place for all students and faculty regardless of color, religion, culture, ability, gender expression, or sexual orientation.

We, the undersigned friends of McCallie, call on the school with deep and abiding love to commit to full and unequivocal support, acceptance, and inclusion of ALL students and faculty, including its LGBTQ+ community. We ask the school to move with unambiguous urgency to ensure every McCallie student and faculty member knows they are loved and welcomed in the school’s community regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. We seek broad, structural changes to the culture of the school to address the health and well-being of all McCallie students, particularly the LBGTQ+ students, whose lives have been made unnecessarily difficult. We call on the school to take immediate, concrete action including:

1. Allowing students to establish a GSA (Gender and Sexuality Alliance or Gay-Straight Alliance) to promote the safety, affirmation, and inclusion of all students;
2. Conducting appropriate professional development for faculty and staff centered around diversity and sexual orientation, plus LGBTQ+ cultural and implicit bias training for students, faculty, and staff;
3. And allowing LGBTQ+ students to participate fully in all the traditions of the school, including honest chapel talks and attendance at dances with the date of their choice.

In short, we want McCallie to recognize the many ways that its LGBTQ+ students are excluded, isolated, and at times shamed during their daily experiences on the ridge. We want all students and faculty to know they are not alone - they are loved, supported, embraced, and respected.

With love and hope for a more inclusive McCallie for all, 

[We welcome you to share your affiliation with McCallie when you sign: parent, student, alumnus, etc.]