Last week one of our Year 6 pupils gave a brilliant assembly for Year 5/6 about ‘Pride’ month and has promised to do another one soon. This piece of writing by her covers some of the same ground she covered in the assembly.
Pride
Pride means to be proud of who you are. It represents hope and equality everywhere. Pride in the LGBTQ+ community is a big festival that happens all over the world to celebrate differences. LGBTQ+ stands for: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/ questioning. There is also pansexual, nonbinary, asexual, intersex and more.
People from the LGBTQ+ have been discriminated against since the beginning of time. It’s only in the last century that people have started to accept gay and trans people- but it is still far from perfect. In 70 countries it is still illegal to be homosexual. In this country as well being transgender was only taken off the list of ‘disorders’ in 2019. Awful things still happen to people who are just trying to be themselves.
Things are getting better though. In 1999 Bill Clinton was the first President of the United States to declare June as Pride Month. In many countries now being gay is accepted.
But have you ever heard someone ‘come out’ as straight? Or get bullied for being heterosexual? Why are children raised as one gender when they might feel like another? Why are they taught that their body is the same as their gender? Why are same-gender parents referred to as ‘gay parents’ but straight couples are just parents? – so I decided to do an assembly and a history lesson for equality everywhere and starting at Minch School.