HSTA marches with pride in the 2022 Honolulu Pride Parade

100+ teachers, students march to support the LGBTQ+ community with HSTA

Posted: October 19, 2022

More than 100 public and charter school teachers and students marched with the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association in support of the LGBTQ+ community in Saturday’s 2022 Honolulu Pride Parade.

The parade returned this year after a three-year hiatus during the pandemic with more than 150 units that made their way from Magic Island at Ala Moana Beach park through Waikiki, ending at Kapiolani Park.

Francine Beppu, chair of the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation’s board of directors, said as many as 5,000 participants and up to 10,000 attendees were at the Honolulu Pride events Saturday.

The HSTA’s Human and Civil Rights Committee (HCR), made up of teacher volunteers, organized a group of Hawaiʻi teachers and student groups to march in the parade. Around 50 teachers, several of whom flew in from the neighbor islands, and around 100 students joined HSTA to march in the parade.

HCR State Chair Jodi Kunimitsu, a Maui High math teacher, said participating in Pride events helps show students that they genuinely support a safe learning environment for them.

“When you participate in Honolulu Pride, or any community Pride event, you put yourself out there in the public eye, and by doing so, you make it clear that you are truly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and especially our LGBTQ+ students,” Kunimitsu said.

“It was really awesome to have members who are not on our committee, but advisors of student clubs be a part of the planning process. The turnout for our groups was amazing this year!” she added.

In total, the Campbell-Kapolei Complex, with the support of EWAlution 96706, a non-profit whose goal is to create positive community-level changes that will reduce and prevent youth substance abuse in Ewa Beach, brought 70 students to march in the Pride parade. Students from James Campbell High School, ʻIlima Intermediate, Ewa Makai Middle, and Dreamhouse Ewa Beach also marched along with the HSTA contingent.

EWAlution 96706 provided buses for the teachers and students to attend, as well as the trolley used during the parade. The non-profit also provided parade swag, breakfast, lunch, banners, decorations, and more.

Sarah “Mili” Milianta-Laffin, ʻIlima Intermediate teacher and advisor for the school’s Gender Sexuality Alliance Club called the Rainbow Royales, helped organize her students’ attendance and participation in the parade.

“It was beautiful watching Pride through the eyes of my students,” she said. “They were in their element and bonding. It was everything I wanted for our students when we set off on this journey years ago,” referring to the work to support the LGBTQ+ community she’s been involved with since 2017.

“At the end of the march where the crowds were thicker, to hear the parade watchers yell, ‘Thank you teachers’ felt really good. It definitely filled my teacher cup to get that public recognition that our work as educators matters. I also heard someone say, ‘I wish my teachers were like you.’ Representation and visibility matters,” Milianta-Laffin added.

Kelekolio Roberts, a teacher at Nanakuli High, organized an additional group of about 30 students from Nanakuli Intermediate and High to join HSTA at the parade.

“I absolutely loved the energy and enthusiasm from our students,” she said. “Seeing the community come together in celebration was also a very healing experience.

It’s important to be good leaders, and showing students your political involvement is a great way to motivate them to be politically active in their communities as well,” she added.

During the parade, teachers and students alike chanted, waved, and spread positive energy to parade spectators.

Kunimitsu, the HCR chair, said, “I loved that when people saw our unit, they were cheering for us. It was really clear that people appreciated that teachers were in the parade showing their support for the LGBTQ+ community. When you feel that energy, you just know that you’re doing the right thing for our students.”

Continuing support for the LGBTQ+ community

Our LGBTQ+ participation and support go beyond a single parade or event. The HSTA Human and Civil Rights Committee offers the following resources that you can refer to at any time:

The National Education Association Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer+ Caucus works to provide educators, education support professionals, and students, with safe schools free of anti-LGBTQ+ bias and intolerance, and to provide sound education programs for all students. If you’re a teacher that felt inspired at Pride, or would like to get more involved in supporting the LGBTQ+ community, you can join the NEA’s LGBTQ+ Caucus.