Red, blue, yellow, green, and purple flooded the courtyard of my high school on a cold winter morning. For our first-ever Pride Week, students were asked to wear bright colors to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.
In the sea of colorful outfits was one student wearing a black shirt that read “Say No to Gay.” While I had always considered my school to be progressive despite its Episcopal affiliation, this was the first time I encountered such blatant homophobia.
Upon seeing my classmate’s outfit, I realized what it truly means to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, and more broadly, be an advocate for all people. It also demonstrated to me how America’s education system is ignoring one of the most valuable opportunities for education, and that is the student’s ability to learn from each other’s diversity and support environments that are inclusive. Since that does not happen naturally, it is necessary that diversity training be ingrained into the public school curriculum as a mandatory requirement for graduation.
Research has shown that diversity and inclusivity training can have a positive impact on both student outcomes and teacher preparedness. By creating a more welcoming and inclusive learning environment, and by better preparing teachers to work with diverse student populations, we can help to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed. A study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that teachers who underwent diversity training reported feeling more prepared to work with students from diverse backgrounds.
Diversity training doesn’t have to be outright about sexuality either. States, including California, Nevada, and Illinois, have already adopted legislation that mandates an inclusive curriculum that details the contributions of LGBTQ+ individuals throughout history. By educating young students about trailblazers like Alan Turing, who laid the foundation for artificial intelligence, they can grow up with an understanding that sexuality and gender expression do not hinder one’s ability to contribute to society meaningfully.
While teaching students about mathematics, English, and history should remain a point of focus for educators, it has never been more important to shift the culture of our classrooms. Between 2021 and 2022, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights received a record number of complaints, which LGBTQ rights advocates believe is a result of the growing backlash brought on by conservatives towards the transgender community.
As written in a New York Times article, “conservatives have zeroed in on transgender rights as a culture war issue.”
With so many inalienable rights at risk in the United States, we must ensure that our schools are giving future generations the necessary toolkit to combat indifference in classrooms, boardrooms, and every sector of the workforce.
