by OFC Education Director Tarah Fleming
Our Family Coalition’s 5th Annual LGBTQ Inclusive Preschool & Kindergarten Fair was an incredible success!
Over 35 schools set up display tables at San Francisco Day School to show off their teachers and curriculum that foster respectful learning environments for all families. Over 90 caregivers strolled through with toddlers and infant carriers to have introductory conversations with school leaders. Families learned about the different community partners that worked together with Our Family Coalition to host this important and informative evening. The San Francisco Library displayed books featuring all kinds of families, and Community Well served fresh scones and berries while informing caregivers about the free classes they host for parents. San Francisco Unified and Parents for Public Schools took the mic and talked about the school enrollment process and People of Color in Independent Schools shared about their upcoming workshops.
As we enter into an era more aware and inclusive of LGBTQ families in schools, it is important to remember that it is also a time where the opposition is feeling emboldened to try and limit visibility, access and even rights. For this reason OFC is fully committed to creating spaces like the LGBTQ Inclusive Preschool & Kindergarten Fair, which also compliments the work of the FAIR Education Act, signed into law in 2011 and designed to ensure LGBTQ People are fairly represented in California public school curriculum and text books.
As we continue to engage families, teachers, community partners and school leaders in the work of creating equitable and just schools for all, we are reminded of the values many of us learned in kindergarten; love yourself and love others. This is much easier to do when your family is not only reflected back to you in all your school books, but loved and respected by the entire school community.
Check out the schools that participated here.
