Why We Need Lgbtq Education By Canvas Poem by Poet Anonymous

There are a lot of mirrors in my school
I don't remember seeing myself
Not in textbooks or in chalkboards
Or the tips of teachers tongues

I wasn't talked about here
An unspoken character in a room of protagonists
I wondered why no one could tell us how to
find ourselves or accept the truth in others

A decade passes though and I get to speak out about it
A canvas facilitator, a living looking-glass and
When I visit schools I see younger ‘me's
Growing beings who look at me with wide eyes and burning questions

Working with canvas means the landscape is ours to paint
In the color of compassion
In the shade of change

You know a gay twelve-year-old once told me that harming herself was
the only way
And a trans fourteen-year-old once told me that
their only wish in the world was just to
be called "they"
We didn't have rainbow flags in our hallways but we knew what
fear felt like
We knew what we wanted to learn when there was no one there to
teach it

Well now we're here
Let's use art to spark curiosity, tell stories that build empathy, learn pronouns for
all genders
I want to teach you how to turn "that's so gay" into a compliment
Use markers to draw blueprints for gender-neutral bathrooms
Tell boys that pink is not a bad color
Teach girls how to lift up each other

We paint our message on every locker in every single color
This is about you, your children, your grandchildren, your grandchildren's friends
We all just want to feel like it is okay to exist
When they see me in their classroom all queer all grown
Our reflections aren't so different
But this time they are visible
This time they are beautiful

They say
I want a better earth
To be accepted and respected
This knowledge is power
It lets us recognize our true selves
I am transgender
And because of this workshop I know that
There are students like me out there