The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution encouraging all district schools to incorporate lessons on the LGBTQ+ community into their curriculum. Days after a Pride Month assembly in a North Hollywood elementary school sparked protests from dozens of parents, the resolution introduced by board President Jackie Goldberg and member Nick Melvoin recognized June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month and October as LGBTQ+ History Month. It also honored Oct. 11 as National Coming Out Day, Nov. 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance, March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility, and April 12 as a Day of Silence honoring the “contribution of the LGBTQ+ community”.
The resolution notes that research suggests 25% of high school students in the country identify as LGBTQ+, and “tragically, youth identifying as LGBTQ+ are at a higher risk for experiencing homelessness, being victims of bullying, and attempting or dying by suicide, and national research indicates that mental health struggles and rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQ+ youth in recent years.” By passing the resolution, the board calls for the district to “renew our commitment that all LGBTQ+ students and staff feel safe, heard and respected, and that staff are aware of all available resources for LGBTQ+ students who are experiencing mental health issues.”
Most notably, the resolution “encourages all schools to incorporate lessons on the LGBTQ+ community in instruction”. The board members believe that schools should educate students about the world they live in, and prepare them for the realities of life, “It’s a world that includes different types of families and people, and that’s what makes it so wonderful and beautiful. And that’s what we’ll teach and celebrate not just in June but all year”.
On Friday, dozens of parents protested against a Pride Month assembly at Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood. The protesting parents were met at the school by LGBTQ+ advocates and other supporters, creating a tense standoff resulting in at least one scuffle between the opposing groups, prompting police intervention.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho denied that the book read during the assembly contained any sexual material, countering accusations by some critics who accused the school of providing sexualized instruction to children. During Tuesday’s meeting, Goldberg read “The Great Big Book of Families,” noting that it included “one sentence in it that said, yeah, guess what, families can include two moms or two dads.” Goldberg, who is openly lesbian, got emotional referencing the Saticoy protests, saying “I am very tired of having young people and adults in the LGBTQ community hear three days of yelling and screaming about this. What do you think that did to them? … What do you think that did to them? It made them afraid! It made them afraid. … How dare you make them afraid because you are.”
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