Friends Seminary Marches in Pride: the Struggle for Equality Continues!

New York City is home to one of the largest LGBT Pride marches in the world! On Sunday, June 25, 2017, 45,000 marchers representing roughly 500 organizations descended on Manhattan. Friends Seminary was counted among the 500––this year marking Friends’ third consecutive year marching for LGBT equality! Friends co-sponsored a float with Bank Street, St. Luke’s, and the School at Columbia. (To see photos, click here.)

In preparation for the march, students in the Upper School’s GSA set out to capture what Pride means to members of the Friends community—students, parents, and faculty/staff alike. Nearly 60 interviews later, the GSA produced a moving tribute both to Pride and to our commitment as a school to helping bring about a world that ought to be.

“Collaborating with the Upper School GSA on this video project reminded me of the power of the individual voice,” says Jason Craige Harris, Director of Diversity and Inclusion. “So many community members answered the call to share why Pride is important to them. And when students from the GSA shared their vision for the video with the PA Diversity and Inclusion Committee, they found immediate support from parents for whom Pride has deeply personal resonances.”

While the video is joyous and celebratory, a few interviews take the viewer to a deeper and more emotional place. If you are a parent/guardian of a Lower School student, consider previewing the video before showing it to them. Doing so can help you anticipate and prepare to address their questions. If you are a parent/guardian of a Middle or Upper School student, consider watching the video with them and discussing their responses to it. Allowing your child to lead the conversation relieves you of pressure to direct it. The conversation will become more organic, and more relevant to your child.

And, when you don’t have a ready answer to a question your child poses, turn to wonder, as Parker Palmer advises…and a little bit of research. Please click here for a resource that could help you answer questions that your child may have about LGBT experiences. Please click here for a resource that provides kid-friendly definitions of key terms regarding gender and sexuality diversity.

Please click here to watch the video produced by the GSA!