Union members statewide, through a NYSUT Representative Assembly resolution, asked for the creation of the task force to examine the workplace atmosphere toward LGBTQ educators. It's a working environment that has often included bullying, exclusion or derision, creating anxiety and secrecy. Members of the task force — teachers, professors, retirees, school librarians and school psychologists — revealed at their first meeting this fall how their personal situations are often hidden and sometimes ridiculed.