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Please Share: LGBTQ+ Art Removed from Local Classroom

We want you to take a good look at the image above– the artwork of a child. Is there anything threatening about it? The answer is no. Do you see any hate speech? Surely not. It is beautiful, a reminder to each of us in this time of great divide that there is hope, that love abounds, that acceptance is paramount– and all from the eyes of a child: “Gay is okay.”

It’s been brought to our attention that one local school’s administration at Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary did not find the art to be “okay”. A local teacher has had the art hanging in her classroom since October, as part of several different student art pieces. According to the teacher, one parent eventually complained to the principal.

The principal reportedly asked the teacher to move the art to a less offensive place– she stood in solidarity with the student and did not remove the piece. We have been told she was then summoned to the principal and vice principal’s office, where the display of the rainbow and verbiage were reportedly likened to “displaying a n**i symbol” by the school’s vice principal.

Our schools should be a safe place for all children to thrive. What message has now been sent to our students and their teachers about how safe their school is for LGBTQ+ children? Athens Pride and Athens Q***r Collective remain committed to fighting back against all forms of oppression here at home. We talk often about how inclusive Athens is- we must make sure that inclusiveness is found in the aisles of our businesses and the classrooms in our schools.

The truth is, our children are watching and they are listening. See the comments on this post for some statistics regarding LGBTQ+ youth from The Trevor Project or visit https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2021/

In addition to standing with the students, parents, and faculty, Athens Pride and Athens Q***r Collective remains committed to uplifting our youth and providing spaces for them to be exactly who they are. In partnership, Athens Pride and Athens Q***r Collective will continue to expand our LGBTQ+ Youth Group, that meets monthly. Stay tuned for updates and announcements regarding our next meeting location. We will also begin engaging with our local education communities to identify how we can better support their efforts to provide true safe spaces. Please consider a donation on this post– all money raised will be used to specifically invest in our 2022 youth outreach initiatives.

This community, Athens Pride, and Athens Q***r Collective stands with you and will continue to advocate for you. We call upon the Athens-Clarke County School Board to open a full inquiry into the events that happened.

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We are finally officially changing our name! If anyone has experience with changing the name of a nonprofit and would like to volunteer to help us get this right please message us! In the meantime, we're rocking and rolling and letting you know who we really are: WE ROCK ATHENS! Our Facebook name change is under review and we're working on changing it everywhere we can, while we look into all the ~official~and~legal~ changes that need to be made. Our mission has included girls, trans youth, and gender expansive youth for quite a while, we are reflecting this in our name change. Thanks for your support!