Rainbow Clubs for LGBTQ+ students are sparking controversy in Los Angeles public elementary schools. One such club was recently opened at Wonderland Avenue Elementary School.
The Rainbow Club is an online and in-school LGBTQ+ club for elementary school students run by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Human Relations, Diversity, and Equity (HRDE).
The club is open to ‘Transitional Kindergarten (TK) through fifth grade,’ according to LAUSD, meaning students as young as four years old can join the club.
LAUSD first promoted Rainbow Club on social media in April 2021, and the program has been running for four years to date.
LAUSD’s 20-page ‘Rainbow Club Activity Guide’ describes that Rainbow Clubs are “inclusive spaces for elementary school students to explore LGBTQ+ related topics, where students can build confidence, self-awareness, and community.
It states that “any student can request a Rainbow Club” and that “if school staff recognize students who would be interested in such a space, we recommend that they offer a club.” It also notes that “parent notification is not required for any student club participation.”
Recently, Wonderland Elementary School, a magnet school for the gifted, opened a Rainbow Club. A Korean-American parent whose son is a fifth-grader at the school said, “At a meeting with the principal and parents last week, many parents were told that the club will be held once a month for grades 3-5 from now on.”
“According to the school, the child will be listed in the school’s bio under the gender identity chosen within the club and will be able to use school facilities, including restrooms, according to that identity. This will only confuse children’s gender identity at a young age when they might be curious about anything. We plan to make a formal complaint to the school.”
In a phone call with the Korea Daily, one official of the school said, “The parents of one of the LGBTQ+ students in the school requested the district to open the club, so we have no choice but to comply,” adding that “not only parents but also teachers are worried about giving immature children an incorrect gender identity.”
The Rainbow Club activity guide includes education and awareness activities about different gender identities. It provides a space where students can explore different gender identities by watching and discussing LGBTQ+ related books and movies, as well as drawing ‘identity maps’.
Questions specifically for students were found to engage other students, such as “If you could bring anyone to Rainbow Club next week, who would it be?”
The guidelines also emphasize the need to support other LGBTQ+ people, explaining that “it might feel hard to imagine how you can be an activist when you’re young person, but there are tons of opportunities, big and small,” and that “a ‘bystander’ is someone who sees something bad happening but doesn’t know what to do to stop it, while an ‘upstander’ makes a choice to try and stand up against what is happening it, even if they’re nervous.”
Meanwhile, LAUSD announced that it will host an online information session for educators about rainbow clubs on March 20. “Join us for a collaborative meeting about clubs for LGBTQ+ elementary school students and their friends and loved ones,” LAUSD wrote in an announcement.
BY SUAH JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.suah@koreadaily.com]
