Pride in primary school

[Askingforafriend24]

Help me get my head around this. Primary school is making a huge deal about pride, and running a themed summer fair to celebrate. The whole school - kids and parents - are expected to get involved. Including an educational seminar for the parents that we are expected to attend!

I’ve been told point blank I am a dinosaur for questioning why there is such an emphasis on celebrating LGBTQ+ communities to a bunch of kids who probably don’t think about any of this stuff yet. There is already a carefully planned curriculum around all of this from the LA so I am confused as to why the school feels the need to go even further, particularly holding a massive event outside of school hours! I feel I have other things I would rather do with my Saturday morning, and I feel attending Pride events should be a choice for families to make for themselves.

One parent is no longer speaking to me because she was so horrified I even questioned the event - so hoping someone could come along with some advice.

Don’t get me started on sports day, when the kids all compete against each other (up until year 5) - which means the boys win pretty much everything and the girls come away empty handed. Again apparently I am ridiculous for daring to point out how unfair it is. Really fed up with it.

The month straight after pride, Judy, is Disability month. But do we have a 'Disability week' in schools? Talking about how classmates have ASD, some have ADHD, and children in wheelchairs, and it's important not to bully? NO! Do corporations and businesses decorate their shopfronts for Disability Month? NO! Because there is still a stigma and taboo about talking about disabilities, and it's not something pretty to celebrate nor does it give these businesses cheap brownie points.

It's disgusting how little attention people with disabilities get.

Corporations and schools don't give a flying fuck about Pride (or disabilities) in reality. It's all just being seen to be virtuous, to get more business through the door. The double standards are really disgusting.

^ this

My parents had a friend, their grandchild came home from school thinking he was gay because he didn't like girls and spent every play time with boys..

The monopoly that gender (and race) has on diversity is inherently ‘un-diverse’. The fayre and extra training sessions sounds ridiculously ott and I would imagine the money is coming out of pta/school funds? In an era where so many send kids are being failed, this school is likely no exception, I would question the integrity of such a decision. Why the heck do primary school kids need this literally forced upon them? It’s also likely despite the tiny percentage, T will dominate the stage. I know of several primary school kids who are coming out as at trans and non binary and then becoming outraged when they are misgendered in public - seriously, what are we setting our kids up for, when this part of who we are is literally everywhere? It’s laughable when schools are now starting to teach resilience - the two actively compete against each other. I am of the LGB community, yet I have never had the urge to bang on my drum about it, it’s such a small part of who I am.

Do they use the terms 'cervix havers', 'pregnant people', 'people with cervical cancer' or 'menstruators'? Excuse me for being very dubious about how women, womens rights and womens issues are referred to in this day and age. Especially when it's by a school that grooms innocent vulnerable young children with (LGB)TQPA+++ cult ideology.

July, not "Judy". Don't know where that came from.

I don’t have an issue with LGB awareness in schools- I’d like to see more gay couples in kids books and tv shows (like Mr Crab and Nigel in Hey Duggee or the (I believe) lesbian couple in Balamory (sure, they might just be co workers, but they’re not))
Trans is far harder as there really isn’t a definition that everyone agrees on. Like others I dislike the “born in the wrong body” concept as it veers too close to everyone having a soul, which I cannot accept and don’t want to be a “fact”. Once it was ok to simply say some people were unhappy with the sex/gender they were and wanted to be the opposite. Which is a sympathetic take, not lacking in compassion- but there’s plenty of people in the trans community would have an issue with it.
i don’t think kids- even little kids should not be aware of trans people, I just don’t know how you find a definition that makes sense when there’s so many different interpretations even within its own community.

My school does black History Month and most of our inclusion/diversity initiatives focus on ethnicity/culture because we are a very racially mixed school- we have families from all over the world so it makes sense to give the kids an opportunity to bring something of their own culture to school to educate.

But I would DEARLY love more celebration/awareness of SEN and other disabilities as the number of children in school with disabilities is rising and many many families have people with disabilities so it feels like this is something that needs more representation, they exist and they shouldn’t be ignored.

Last week was Learning Disabilities Week, I hope at least some schools looked at it.

What a ridiculous comment! What hetro materials are appropriate for a 5 year? Hetro norms are forced down all children’s throats from birth. I guarantee you and you significant other aren’t talking about putting a penis in a vagina to your 5 year old so why would you think that they would be talking about LGBTQ+ sex to 5 year olds? I think teaching children to support everyone equally with no judgment is a great thing whether that be sexuality, race, disability or anything that is not the typical “white privilege norms”. I think if you have an issue with your children learning about the world and acceptance it says a great deal about you as a person and sadly your parenting style. Let’s just hope your kids live up to your expectations but sadly I feel they won’t.

There’s something strange going on…

This is yet another old thread that’s resurfaced.

🤔

Female friends still holds hands & similar here.

It should be noted that the countries that are more relaxed about female and esp male friends being physically affectionate are often v homophobic (Middle Eastern countries, Russia, in some ways Italy). Probs bc they don't want men to stop being affectionate bc oc fear of being thought gay, so gay is made taboo and therefore it makes it look unlikely that 2 affectionate male friends are gay.

So this shouldn't be idealised. It's good these cultures value platonic affection but the overall mentality isn't good