Aragon began its annual Pride Week on Oct. 11, during which students partook in daily activities in Center Court to unify the school and celebrate its LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s a great opportunity for us as an entire school and [as a part of] San Mateo to focus on the backbone of our pride, which is allyship,” said Gay-Straight Alliance Club advisor Vince Bravo. “[We should] recognize that this is a week not just about the LGBTQ+ students, staff and community members, but also about being a support for that community.”
On National Coming Out Day, the GSA Club and Leadership classes offered “I am …” prompt stickers, on which Aragon community members could write how they identified, how they felt or what their personal traits were. Pride Week was also celebrated with outdoor tie-dye stations, a pride spirit day and a Pride Rally. At the Rally, students competed in various games including relay races and Red Light, Green Light. The Polynesian Club performed a dance as well.
The same night as the rally, Aragon’s football team (5-3 overall) played in a pride game against Menlo (4-1 overall) and lost 48-7.
Following this, the contemporary AIDS Quilt panels were exhibited during the week of Oct. 18.
“The celebration of Pride Week … is really a privilege of 2021”
“We had a lot of people join the events,” said senior class Vice President ZongYun Deng*. “It creates a spotlight and makes people who are in this community feel seen and heard.”
The San Mateo Union High School District flew a rainbow Pride Flag in June for Pride Month and a Progress Pride Flag in October for LGBTQ+ History Month. The Progress Pride Flag includes a white, blue, pink, brown and black arrow, representing the Transgender Pride Flag, marginalized queer Black and brown pride movement leaders and those affected by AIDS.
“[Raising the Progress Pride Flag] brings a positive impact,” said freshman Samirah Field. “It helps [the LGBTQ+ community] feel acknowledged and represented.”
Deng* references how queer community members may not be equitably considered in everyday interactions. At Aragon, there have been instances where the people of the LGBTQ+ community were not appropriately respected or recognized.
“As a non-binary person, I get misgendered a lot, so people use the wrong pronouns,” Deng* said. “Now, we are starting to recognize how important pronouns are. They’re honestly life-saving, especially for a lot of trans members in our community, because who wants to be misidentified?”
Teachers are adding more LGBTQ+ representative content to their lessons with the intent to validate, accept and embrace the community.
“I work with colleagues who are constantly rethinking their curriculum and discussing with me ways in which they can incorporate LGBTQ+ history into their curriculum,” Bravo said. “I’ve worked closely with the [SMUHSD] staff to make sure that we have policies for students who are transitioning. We make sure that students have the opportunity to authentically identify here on campus by gender, as well as by name, for field trips and bathroom access. Many of those things were adopted here in our district prior to it being a California state law.”
Though Aragon and the SMUHSD are striving to further support for the queer community, California as a whole has also been making progress toward LGBTQ+ visibility.
“I think that the celebration of Pride Week and LGBTQ+ History Month is really a privilege of 2021,” Bravo said. “We forget sometimes, because it feels so natural to talk about the LGBTQ+ community. It wasn’t so long ago that these conversations would be met with a lot of resistance, but we live in a time in the Bay Area where people value the thoughts, ideas and experiences of others and not just [those] of themselves.”
Aragon plans to continue honoring LGBTQ+ History Month in order to promote acceptance and recognition for the LGBTQ+ community.
*This article was corrected for an incorrect title and quote misattribution on 11/09/21.
