2024 April 29 Diversity Must Be Celebrated

Last night my wife and I were sitting on the porch steps drinking tea made from the backyard herbs in matching rainbow mugs. It was a sweet warm evening after a really crappy day. 

Our house is situated with a street that comes straight in front. It’s a Feng Shui nightmare of energy that we try to offset with good plants and wind chimes.

A car pulled up to the stop sign and lingered, illuminating us sitting together on the porch and the pride flag on the other corner. As the car turned, he rolled down the window and yelled,  “FUCK YOU!”

It was startling. It’s not common for us, but this sort of thing has happened a few times. We went inside and Carli pulled the shades, turned off the lights and locked the deadbolts. She said we should take our flag down.

……….

Last week, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at my school decided to do a little pride event the coming Friday during our half-day. We asked around and it sounded like nothing else was planned. I sent a proposal to the middle school principal. He said he didn’t think anything was planned. He decided to check with the building principal. Meanwhile the GSA held a couple of extra meetings to plan. I bought a few prizes from Amazon for a raffle. 

I hadn’t heard anything yet today, so I texted the principal. Here’s the response:

I take offense to this. These children are a big part of the “diverse population”. These children are not going to “cause controversy” by sharing their identities, their culture, our history and experiences with their classmates. If we planned another cultural history event, would we need parent approval? 

When I asked “What controversy?” he said parents need the option to decide…for religious reasons.

I’m done with people who think we need to cater to small mindedness. What’s the point of going to an international school if you don’t see the benefit of human diversity? 

Tomorrow, after finishing state testing, I have to find a way to tell the kids lightly that our event won’t be happening. It’s HARD to hold back what I really want to say.

What do I say? 

The team decided it was better to do nothing Friday than to celebrate pride.

The team decided our history is too controversial to share.

The team decided they needed to get parent approval to share our culture.

The team decided that since some parents don’t like us, we don’t get to celebrate.

I don’t know.

…….

I was never taught that LGBTQ+ people did great things throughout history.

I was never taught that our culture exists and thrives despite oppression.

I was never taught ANYTHING about my own identity or any of the other queer identities. 

As a teacher I fought hard to not make that the same reality for my students. I am out and proud. I teach inclusive language, I call out misinformation. And I celebrate who these kids are, even if nobody at home would.