A furious debate over how gender identity should be taught to children and protected in schools unfolded on Tuesday, June 6 at the night meeting of the Glendale Unified School District School Board.
Attendance at the meeting was capped at 75 public speakers who, over the course of several hours, shared their views on the district’s LGBTQ inclusive curriculum, on allowing students to select their own pronouns, and on transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker rooms. A woman gestures after speaker for LGBTQ rights speaks about how gender and sexuality identity should be taught to children, and protected in schools prior to a school board building at the Glendale Unified School District offices in Glendale on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.
Families listen to speakers at the district offices as they talk about how gender and sexuality identity should be taught to children, and protected in schools prior to a school board building at the Glendale Unified School District offices in Glendale on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. “My experience as a young LGBTQ+ student was made difficult because I did not see any representations of what it meant to be gay,” said Erik Adamian, a former GUSD student and board president of the GALAS LGBTQ+ Armenian Society. “We are in full support of our public schools’ acknowledgement that diverse families and LGBTQ-plus identities exist, and we ask our community members and allies to push for safe and welcoming schools for all students.
The heated meeting comes on the heels of a June 2 protest at Saticoy Elementary School, where parents objected to a book reading that explained same sex parents. LGBTQ advocates organized a counter-protest. Days before the reading, a transgender teacher’s Pride flag was burned at Saticoy Elementary. The flag burning incident is under LAPD investigation.