I am a private music teacher and for pride month I decorated my board to have pride on it, and I made notes of my students’ specific reactions to it to prove that it is 1. Not confusing and 2. Natural to love and taught to hate.
Student 1, 9 y/o: “what does pride month mean?” I say it’s to celecbrate the lgbtq community. “Oh! I like that!” 9/10 she is an ally
Student 2, 7 y/o “why does it say love in a rainbow? It’s not even February!” “Why did you draw so much cake?” (She saw the pride flag and thought it was a drawing of a rainbow cake.) “I’m gonna draw a rainbow of hearts” 8/10 hilarious and wholesome response, didnt understand the concept but definitely understood the assignment!
Student 3, 9 y/o: “what does pride mean” celebrating the lgbtq community I say, “what does that mean?” Uuuh gay people? “oh, ok.” 6/10 uninterested indifference, I’ll take it.
Student 4, 14 y/o: “I’m gay and trans but don’t tell my mom because she’s very homophobic.” 10/10 this is exactly why I do it, I’m so happy to give a safe space to a queer student, I’m so glad he told me his real name and that I get to pick songs for him to sing that are gender affirming.
Student 5, 8y/o: “ew.” she erased my pride flag while I was out of the room grabbing a lyric sheet for her, I had to redraw it. And every time she had a lesson from then on, I made sure to keep the pride board hidden, and she would peek her head around the corner to try and see it, saying “do you still have all that weird gay stuff on your board?” “That’s innapropriate and wrong! Well, not wrong but weird.” 1/10, she only gets a point for correcting herself saying it isnt wrong, but really sad that someone can be taught hate this young.
Anyway here is the pride board:
The only things that I made were the big pride flag in the corner, the bi flag (my flag). The words “Happy Pride Month” and the pride texas. Everything else was added by students 🥹❤️ please excuse me using light green in place of yellow I didn’t have access to yellow
