Celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month at SFUSD

 

This month, the San Francisco Unified School District is proud to honor the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirit, intersex, queer, and questioning members of our community in celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month. For over 30 years, SFUSD’s LGBTQ Student Services has been pioneering ways to make our classrooms, school yards, sports facilities, and bathrooms welcoming and affirming for LGBTQ students and families.

Before Stonewall there were the Compton’s Cafeteria riots here in San Francisco. Those activists were calling for a stop to descrimination against queer, transgender, and intersex people in 1966. The almost daily news of yet another attempt to undermine the rights of queer, transgender, and intersex youth can be disheartening. However, our district’s commitment to support the LGBTQ+ community remains constant. We most fervently encourage districts across the country to commit themselves to the same.

The 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) shows that, nationwide, 32% of U.S. high school lesbian gay and bixexual students report having been bullied on school property compared to 27% in SFUSD. We like to think of San Francisco as a queertopia, however, the data and our students and families tell us we still have work to do.

Pride is being celebrated in our schools by student groups – like our Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) and QGroups – in our hallways with bulletin boards and door decorations; and in classrooms with read alouds of books from the many queer, transgender, and intersex affirming titles on our library shelves; and by a district wide poster contest! Virtually via LGBTQ+ 101 parent workshops and a high school LGBTQ+ student conference. At 555 Franklin we are hosting the Trans Justice Art exhibit by Forward Together on the first floor.

We continue our efforts to create affirming learning environments where each and every student is supported in learning to the best of their abilities. The voices of our students lead the way as a reminder to us that while the pandemic has been challenging and we return to in person we can, and are, continuing to celebrate the Pride of our LGBTQ students and community members.

For more information about SFUSD Pride and LGBTQ Student Services, visit https://www.sfusd.edu/LGBTQ/

Who We Are

LGBTQ Student Services aims to provide school sites the resources and district support to meet the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth and families.