In honour of Pride Month in June, York Region District School Board has raised a rainbow flag outside its headquarters in Aurora. This year, the Progress flag was raised in an effort to be more inclusive.
As part of the flag-raising ceremony today, June 1, students from the GSA (Gender-Sexuality alliance) at Cornell Village Public School in Markham spoke about the history of the Pride flag.
Isaiah, Megan and Rori spoke about how, in the 1970s, Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in the United States approached Gilbert Baker wanting a symbol of hope for the LGBTQ+ community. They created the first Pride flag made of bright, vibrant fabric.
The students spoke about how the flag has come to be used around the world and how the design has evolved to be more inclusive. In 2018, Daniel Quasar designed a version known as the Progress Pride flag that added a five-stripe chevron to recognize people of colour and the trans community.
Then in 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK revamped the flag to include the intersex symbol. This new Progress Pride flag will fly at YRDSB head office and schools across the region.
Teacher Natalie Zuchlinski was a member of the group that advocated for the Progress flag. The special education teacher and GSA advisor at Wellington Public School in Aurora is also part of the employee resource group that advocates for students in the board.
“When I first joined the elementary GSA network… we had a handful of GSAs in elementary schools. Five years ago, we had 18. As of this time, we have at least 80 elementary GSAs running,” she said.
She added 95 per cent of schools in YRDSB flew a Pride flag last year, and this year she is confident they will reach 100 per cent.
While she said she is proud of the progress, she said there is a lot more work to do.
"Unfortunately, there still are significant challenges faced in our schools by our students and by our staff. This year we’ve seen higher rates of homophobia and transphobia than any other year alone, so there is still so much work to be done and it’s incredibly important work," Zuchlinski said.
She then spoke about legislation introduced in Florida, dubbed the Don't Say Gay bill that will limit or prohibit discussions in the classroom about sexual orientation or gender identity.
With emotion in her voice, Zuchlinski said, “I’m so proud to stand here today to say that in York Region District School Board, we do say gay. We do say trans. We talk about identity, community, inclusion and love in all classrooms."
Jacob Gal from York Pride was also on hand for the flag raising.
"Pride is all about human connection. It's about understanding that we are different but these differences are what can bring us closer together,” he said. “Every time you see a flag raised this means that someone is talking, someone is trying to create dialogue, and that’s why we raise the flag."
York Pride's annual festival will be returning to Newmarket on June 18. Gal said next year they will have more events throughout the year and more youth programming.
