QE’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Ambassadors visited all 18 forms in Years 7–9 to lead activities and discussions during Pride Month.
They timed their visits to coincide with School Diversity Week, which QE was celebrating in partnership with LGBT+ young people’s charity, Just Like Us.
The activities, overseen by Lead Enrichment Tutor Kanak Shah and EDI Vice-Captains Andreas Angelopoulos and Uday Dash (pictured, top), included discussion of topics such as British LGBT+ South Asian Heritage Culture; Coming Out and Allyship; Intersectionality; and Sexual Orientation + Identity.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Pride is a valuable opportunity for pupils to develop their understanding of their place in the world today, and I commend our EDI ambassadors for all the hard work they put into making these celebrations a success.
“Our mission is to produce young men who are ‘confident, able and responsible’. Pride helps us advance that mission, ensuring that, as our School Plan puts it, responsible Elizabethans will ‘listen carefully to other people’s perspectives and…treat others as they would like to be treated, and thus…play their part in fostering a happy, inclusive community’.”
This year’s Pride activities at the School began in the penultimate week of June with the distribution of a PowerPoint presentation featuring suggested activities for all form tutors. The presentation included a 2023 Starbucks India ad featuring a transgender model. Boys watched this and then discussed a number of follow-up questions. Another video came from Stonewall, the UK LGBT lobbying group.
Also in the presentation a written explanation of the terms represented by the initials LGBTQIA+, while the same slide showed the flags associated with the movement, including, for example, flags for ‘Agender’, ‘Asexual’ and ‘Genderqueer’, as well as the Pride flag itself.
And there was a look at ‘LGBTQ+ role models in the public eye’, such as non-binary stylist, comedian and HIV+ activist Jonathan Van Ness (pictured).
After a rainbow ribbon-making session, the ribbons were put on sale to raise money towards inviting a Just Like Us speaker into QE next year.
The presentation also featured Akshay Shah’s winning entry in a Pride-themed computer desktop design competition. Akshay, whose colourful design is pictured, said: “Each strand represents a different gender/sexuality. They are made up of organic swirly shapes, which represents the flexible nature of Pride.” Akshay, of Year 9, depicted not only the colours of the Pride flag but also, on the white strands, “lesser-known genders/sexualities” including gynesexual, homoromantic, demiromantic, genderflux and skoliosexual.
In School Diversity Week, EDI ambassadors from Years 9, 10 & 12 led the discussions with QE’s first three year groups. Pupils were able to submit anonymous written questions in advance, with form tutors on hand to help select the most relevant and to help the ambassadors, if necessary. These sessions aimed to build understanding and to promote discussion.