Ever since it was founded in 2016, Taft High School’s very own Pride Alliance has been a welcoming group of people pushing towards equality and fair representation of those a part of, or associated with, the LGBTQ community. Hosting several events throughout the year, the club is always seeking out new members in hopes of spreading awareness of its existence and main message for the school.
Meeting every Thursday in Room 101, the President and Vice President begin the club by introducing themselves and other members by preferred names, and by grade. The members then spend the rest of the meeting socializing and becoming acquainted with one another. And when they’re not doing that, they’re thinking of ways to help promote the club throughout Taft and ways to help make the school more LGBTQ friendly.
There are currently 78 clubs at Taft, each with their own unique purpose and meaning. When asked, club sponsor and Taft English teacher Gina O’Neill said, “The purpose is to provide a safe space for LGBTQ students. The message is that everyone belongs, should be accepted, and there are people who understand what you’re going through.” In recent years, it’s becoming more and more apparent that not only is this taking place at Taft, but also throughout the state of Illinois.
A 2019 article by The Chicago Tribune, written by Hanna Leone, is about how J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois Governor, signed The Inclusive Curriculum Law, a law that states, “By the time students finish eighth grade, public schools must teach them about contributions to state and U.S. history made by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
The “Inclusive Curriculum Law” has been in play for about five years. Because of this, some people may feel more comfortable with who they are at school. Especially with the support in the classrooms with teachers who take pride in caring for their students no matter who or what they are or want to be.
And the same goes for Taft. The President of Pride Alliance, Lacie Masella, said, “I’ve seen other people who asked to try out a preferred name or and going by new pronouns, or just giving that space to talk about issues that affect queer youth.” Since the start of the new year, the people at Pride Alliance are hoping to make a statement in the Taft community.
In a similar way as the articles did, the Pride Alliance club hopes to promote and bring awareness to the LGBTQ community. When asked in what ways this could be, Vice President Oriel Pham said, “Definitely one special thing that we did last year was the pride festival in the lunchroom.”
Ultimately, more attention needs to be brought to Pride Alliance and what they are trying to do to benefit the school. Hopefully this happens within the new year. And if anything should be remembered, it’s that equality is a universal and much needed concept in modern day society.
As Franklin Thomas said, “One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.”
