On Oct. 6, Aragon’s Gender and Sexuality Awareness club worked with Leadership to organize its annual pride rally in Center Court during lunch in honor of LGBTQ+ History Month.
Many believe that it is important for the school and district to recognize and celebrate queer pride to help raise awareness of the community.
“Oftentimes, the LGBTQ+ community gets trampled [on] by various authority figures,” said senior and GSA club president Amit Shilon. “It can be really disheartening as an LGBTQ+ student to be on campus, feel very unrepresented, [and] struggle with finding the right place to belong.”
“[The rally] helps bring awareness to this campus’s diverse community”
The pride rally also highlights the diversity of Aragon.
“[The rally] specifically helps to raise awareness because a lot of people in this school who are cisgender and heterosexual might not pay attention to the diversity of this school,” said sophomore and GSA treasurer Brody Friedeberg. “It definitely helps bring awareness to this campus’ diverse community and stamp out homophobia.”
This year, the rally included activities such as a relay race. There was also an activity on Oct. 2 and Oct. 4 where students could tie-dye shirts to wear to the pride football game and rally. In place of the usual dance performance, GSA held a tricycle race on the bridge connecting the north and south wing, with rainbow designs drawn in chalk.
The pride rally is unique because it includes activities that specifically celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
“What’s special about this rally is the rainbow road and the games that we have included [which] really emphasize and celebrate our pride community,” said senior and Rally Commission co-head Cody Chen.,
“My favorite part [of the rally] was [seeing] people being able to express themselves”
GSA and Rally Commission worked together to plan the activities.
“We met up with leadership and discussed a couple of new events,” said junior and GSA Vice President Samirah Field. “We kind of just bounced ideas back and forth. We did end up settling on some of their ideas and ours.”
There have also been some changes made to the playlist played at the rally, with the GSA officers adding some fresh songs.
“[In the] past couple years, it’s just been the same couple of songs over and over,” Field said. “We’re trying to expand the playlists to incorporate different songs.”
Overall, students at the rally enjoyed the event.
“It’s really nice that people from the LGBTQ+ community are gaining more representation,” said sophomore Maria Medina Dussan. “My favorite part [of the rally] was [seeing] people being able to express themselves.”
Although Aragon holds some events and raises the pride flag every October to acknowledge LGBTQ+ History Month, there is still room for improvement regarding promoting inclusivity and recognition of LGBTQ+ people.
“What’s even more important is for our community to continually engage in discussions about LGBTQ+ people’s contributions”
“What’s even more important is for our community to continually engage in discussions about LGBTQ+ people’s contributions to history, mathematics, science, our district [and] our state,” said GSA adviser Vince Bravo. “Exposure to LGBTQ+ history is one of the surest ways to fight homophobia.”
Another concern is that insensitive language continues to be used at school.
“There’s a lot of hateful language used on campus that I’ve noticed,” Field said. “The GSA members [have] discussed what we could do, but it feels like nothing is really ever done about it. It’s just a slap on the wrist.”
In addition to the pride rally, Aragon hosted the pride football game on Oct. 5. Throughout the rest of the year, the Rally Commission is hoping to hold two indoor rallies and more lunchtime rallies.
