Student voices matter — especially when it comes to creating curriculum and services that support LGBTQ pupils.
That’s according to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten, who visited Long Beach’s Renaissance High School for the Arts on Friday, June 3, to discuss the needs of LGBTQ students and what the Department of Education can do to better support them.
Her visit came early in Pride Month, celebrated annually in June.
“We’re celebrating Pride Month here at Long Beach Unified School District,” Marten said, noting her “impactful conversation with some very wise students.”
The inaugural Pride Month was held in 1970 to mark the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York City. That seminal event in the fight for LGBTQ equality, which began at the Stonewall Inn, was led by drag queens, transgender and gender nonconforming folks — and was a response to over-policing of queer spaces.
It sparked a city and national gay rights movement — and fundamentally “change(d) the nature of LGBTQ+ activism,” in America, according to the Library of Congress. Every year since, June has marked the celebration of LGBTQ pride.
The history of Pride Month, and the LGBTQ+ community in general, Marten said, is something that students at Renaissance High would like to see incorporated into required curriculum.
“When we asked them what else can we do, what do you need,” Marten said, “they said, listen to us — and teach us about this history. Help us learn.”
But LGBTQ students, like any others, need more than academic support.
A 2019 survey, conducted by nonprofit research firm WestEd, found that California LGBTQ-identifying students are at higher risk for bullying, chronic sadness and thoughts of suicide.
They’re also more likely to have worse educational outcomes than their straight, gender-conforming peers, the study found, likely because they receive significantly less social and developmental support from teachers.
California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who also visited Renaissance High, referenced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recently enacted “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bars educational instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms through the third-grade.
“If you think about what’s happening in the nation, you see an attack on LGBTQ students,” Thurmond said, “and you see a spike in depression amongst those students.”
Thurmond, though, said he is grateful to Marten and the Department of Education for providing California with resources to support LGBTQ students.
And, he said, he’s most grateful to the RHS students who shared their stories and “who are going to help shape the curriculum and future training we offer educators in our state to support LGBTQ+ students.”
LBBTQ student voices — and concerns — are the center of LBUSD’s efforts to provide equitable education to all its students, said Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Jill Baker. Their input is used when making academic or support service changes that will impact that student population, Baker said.
“What a proud day to be at Renaissance High School,” she added, “and to learn from those students.”
