LAUSD board doubles down on support of LBGTQ+ families

Los Angeles school board President Jackie Goldberg read from an oversize children’s book titled “The Great Big Book of Families” and turned a public meeting into story time, her own not-so-subtle statement to critics of LGBTQ+ education, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“In real life, families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,” she read, as the text by British author Mary Hoffman explained. Some children live with “mummy and daddy,” or just their mummy or daddy. Then, Goldberg read:  “Some children have two mommies or two daddies,” the Times reported.

The board then unanimously approved a resolution listing all the ways the nation’s second-largest school district intends to raise awareness about the LGBTQ+ community. The resolution also encourages “all schools” to incorporate lessons on the LGBTQ+ community and make use of the “Queer All Year” calendar, and hold “commemorative activities” at various points throughout the school year.

Goldberg’s reading of the resolution came after more than 100 demonstrators marched outside Saticoy Elementary in Sun Valley in protest of a gay pride assembly. Some shouted slurs at counter-protesters, and fights broke out before police quickly intervened.

School boards routinely pass feel-good resolutions, but board member Nick Melvoin said the 2023 resolution was more urgent given the protest at Saticoy.

“This resolution has seemed a bit perfunctory over the years,” he said. “We’d bring it and we’d celebrate, but we thought that it was less needed here in Los Angeles.”