With speakers from the high school community, lessons about the history of LGBTQIA+ rights and a pride festival, the Day of Dialogue was both a learning opportunity about the struggle for equal rights of LGBTQIA+ people and a celebration of being who you are. The day took place on Wednesday, April 2 and consisted of two “Telling Our Stories” assemblies in the Robert/Dubbs Auditorium and two lessons in classrooms.
Eight members of the senior class and four staff members read speeches live about their experiences of being LGBTQIA+ at the high school during the “Telling Our Stories” portions. The two classroom lessons were called “The Struggle for LGBTQIA+ Rights in History” and “The Rise in Anti-Trans Legislation.” To end the day, there was a pride festival in the 22 Tappan cafeteria where students sang karaoke, made bracelets, ate snacks and played games.
The Cypress was asked to not quote or take photos of any of the speakers to protect their identities.
According to Kate Leslie, one of the advisers of the Queer Student Program (QSP), the Day of Dialogue was created after the “Day of Silence”—an event that occurs all over the country, where students and teachers are silent to acknowledge how it is difficult for queer people to be their full selves at school.
“[People brought] the Day of Dialogue to BHS because the thought was that, ‘No, here in Brookline, we can talk about it. We can have a dialogue on LGBTQIA+ issues. So we need to have a dialogue.’ And so for years, there was both the Day of Silence and the Day of Dialogue,” Leslie said.
Leslie was one of the main orchestrators of the day, and she said that while it is challenging to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, people can “overcome those difficulties.”
“I think that the biggest goal [for the Day of Dialogue] every year is for people to simply be able to hear the voices and the stories of the queer community and understand the joy that comes with being LGBTQ,” Leslie said. “I think that sometimes the narrative in the media is that being queer is something that only comes with pain and struggle.”
Leslie was one of the teachers who worked on planning the classroom lessons, and she said there has been a rise in anti-transgender legislation over the past decade. The lesson contained an interactive map that allowed students to learn more about the different types of bills that impact transgender students, such as anti-bullying laws and bans on participation in certain sports.
Members of the middle school GSAs were also invited to come to the high school for the day. Stephen Eesley, social studies teacher and planner for the Day of Dialogue, worked with the middle schoolers on the day and set up some of their activities.
“The goal of bringing in the middle schools is just for the middle schoolers to get to know each other and have fun,” Eesley said.
Julia Mangan, physics teacher and QSP adviser, said paired with the joy of the day, there were also conversations about the impact of language at the high school and beyond.
“We’re hearing a lot more homophobic language around BHS [in] the last three or four years than we have before that,” Mangan said. “I’m hopeful that the school engages in a conversation about why that might be and what we want to do about it.”
Eesley said the ultimate goal of the day was empathy, and to give people some perspective as to what it would be like to walk in someone else’s shoes.
“I hope it empowered the LGBTQ students. I hope that they felt good, loved and welcomed by the community,” Eesley said. “And I hope that for students who may not identify as LGBTQ, they still felt like a loved and welcomed part of the community.”
