Today marks the first anniversary of the murder of openly gay teen Larry King (who identified as Letitia King in the weeks before the murder).
I feel like a broken record, once again trotting out my list of safe schools resources, plus a few additional ones from GLSEN and PFLAG, as well as an update from HRC on their Welcoming Schools Project.
As Ellen Kahn, director of the HRC Foundation Family Project, says, however: “As educational systems adopt programs like Welcoming Schools, it will impact a generation of kids who’ll know it’s okay that a 10-year-old boy wants to wear pink, or a classmate has two dads, or a kid is in foster care.”
Safe schools programs are vital. In addition, we must encourage the use of LGBT-inclusive books and media in classrooms, even outside of formal programs, and we must encourage libraries to carry them. That is why resources like the American Library Association’s Rainbow List of LGBT-inclusive children’s and young adult literature are so important.
My heart goes out to King’s family and friends. While we can never replace your loss, we can work to create a world where such tragedies never happen again.
Thank you, Dana, for remembering this child this day, and for reprinting your resource. Go ahead: be a broken record. When we eventually don’t need to hear it, you can pick the needle up. One day.
Now I’m off to a forum on LGBT Families in the Schools sponsored by our local LGBT Family org. Last year it was picket by a small but vocal anti-gay group who hurled verbal epithets at we families entering, in earshot of our kids.
I can’t wait for the day when we don’t need to hear that broken record. Meanwhile I wish us all the energy to keep up the fight ’til then.