Dressed in rainbow colors and handing out candy to paradegoers, CEA members turned out June 6 for the state’s largest Pride parade with a simple message: LGBTQ students and staff belong in Connecticut schools.
More than 30 CEA members, staff, family, and friends marched through downtown Middletown with CEA Pride at the annual PrideFest parade, marking CEA’s third appearance at the event.
“All students are welcome in our classrooms,” CEA Secretary Gail Jorden, a Bloomfield educator, shouted to thousands of spectators lining Main Street.
“Happy Pride!” other educators exclaimed.
In the current political atmosphere, supporting LGBTQ rights in the classroom is more challenging in some parts of Connecticut than others, Jorden acknowledged, adding that participation in PrideFest is one way of showing students and staff that CEA cares about those who may be struggling.
“We have their backs,” she said, noting that CEA represents tens of thousands of teachers serving hundreds of thousands of students. “It’s super important for us as a labor organization to be cognizant of the variety of people within our state and to send the message, ‘We represent you. We’re proud of you.’”
Messages of hope
This year, CEA Pride came up with a literal way to send messages of support. During the parade, marchers carried an old lavender-colored rotary telephone retrofitted to allow people along the route to pick up the receiver and leave a recorded message of hope for a struggling LGBTQ student.
It was the brainchild of Chris Teifke, CEA’s training and organizational development specialist who founded CEA Pride three years ago. The messages of encouragement will be archived on the union’s website and available to anyone at any time.
Teifke, who grew up as a “farm kid” on an apple orchard, knows firsthand how it can feel “incredibly alone” being a gay kid. He would have welcomed such supportive messages.
“Especially when you grow up in a small town, sometimes it can feel like you’re the only gay person in the world,” he said. “It feels incredibly lonely, right? And just even knowing that there are other people out there and you’re not the only one makes all the difference in the world.”
CREC President Lisa Cordova, a Glastonbury teacher, carried the phone and solicited messages from festivalgoers. Some people, she said, told the kids they were loved. Others predicted the students will someday reflect on these difficult times as a necessary path in life. Many simply encouraged LGBTQ youth to love themselves.
“It’s really been inspirational, because everybody here has been in a struggle,” she said.
The role of teachers
Clinton educator and Middletown resident Emily Kelsey usually attends Middletown’s Pride festivities, and this year, she decided to join her fellow union members for the first time. She said she wanted to send a message to kids in the crowd that teachers are there for them.
“I feel like in every school, there’s someone who could be there for them,” she said. “I want CEA Pride to be well represented so that students can see that there are lots of us there for them.”
As a middle school teacher, Kelsey said she often works with students who are beginning to come out as gay or transgender. She advised fellow teachers to respect a student’s choice of name and pronouns and not make them feel different. Making that student feel accepted can have not only social and emotional benefits but academic advantages as well.
“When kids feel accepted, they definitely do much better,” she said. “They’re not as withdrawn. They’re more engaged, because they feel a part of the community.”
As an LGBTQ educator, Branford eighth-grade teacher Jeffrey Rizzo always tries to look out for LGBTQ students and make them feel supported, comfortable, and safe in his classroom. Noting that LGBTQ students have a higher suicide rate than their peers, he said there’s more concern about their mental health and well-being given the current political climate. He added that CEA is working to let them know there are teachers and staff who love and support them.
“Being an educator who is out means my students know who I am. They know I’m married and have a husband,” he said. His students often ask what he’s doing over the weekends, and Rizzo tells them, “just to make it part of everyday life” and to let them know there are people like them who are part of the school community.
“And that’s really what teachers try to do,” he said. “We try to create a welcoming environment that invites all of our students to feel comfortable with who they are.”
A larger mission
In addition to participating in Middletown PrideFest, CEA Pride takes part in events in Hartford and New Haven and hosts several social gatherings of its own, including a drag brunch and an LGBTQ support brunch for teachers and staff. The group also offers a summer retreat, webinars, and workshops designed to help educators become better allies for LGBTQ students and colleagues.
Teifke said he’s been fielding more questions recently from teachers, students, and parents about LGBTQ support and training opportunities.
“They’re worried that even in a progressive state like Connecticut, we might go backwards. We’ve always said as long as we’re around, we’ll combat that,” he said, pointing to the Messages of Hope telephone initiative. “We’re not just about survival; we’re about strength and hope.”
More from CEA Pride
Next up for CEA Pride is an in-depth review with CEA legal experts of this year’s Supreme Court decisions pertaining to LGBTQ rights and what they mean for you and your classroom. Join us Friday, July 17, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at CEA headquarters in Hartford. Find out more.
