At Simmons House we understand that our gender identity and sexuality are protected characteristics - that means it is illegal to discriminate against people for these reasons. Furthermore, we think everyone should feel safe, happy and PROUD of their identity.
In class we learnt about the different pride flags, found out about LGBT icons from different professions, and identified our own LGBT heroes. We chose Laverne Cox - Emmy Award winning actress and activist, Sammy Lee - singer, actors and brothers Cris and Scott Evans, Demi Lovato - singer who champions body positivity and non-binary rights, Jonathan Van Ness & Bobby Berk from Queer Eye, and Andre Locke. All these people inspire us and bring us joy!
This year we enjoyed a visit from three special guests from Diversity Role Models. Our visitors shared their personal stories and experiences. Sadly, each of them had suffered from discrimination and lack of understanding and empathy in the past, but all of them reported that they have been able to embrace their own identities and they feel good about themselves now. The visit was interactive and enjoyable with all students participating by asking and answering questions. We were quite expert at identifying who different flags represented - our visitors were impressed.
Later in the week we used our cooking session to celebrate pride with some rainbow food and decorations.