Beneficial increases in inclusivity towards LGBTQ+ community at Costa

By Isabelle Chiu

Executive Sports Editor

Mira Costa has become more and more inclusive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community over the past several years with the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms and single-color graduation gowns. While some teachers already seem to make efforts toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity, Costa can become a more accepting campus if all teachers and students begin to understand LGBTQ+ history and the importance of being inclusive of all genders.

Currently there are two sets of gender-neutral bathrooms available to students, two in the History building and one in the administration office. This complies with California Bill AB-1732, all single stall restrooms in locations that serve the public must be gender-neutral. Last school year, senior and Gender-Sexuality Alliance Vice President Camille Randolph and senior and GSA President Hunter Cross largely spearheaded the implementation of gender-neutral bathrooms. Costa plans to convert the boys’ and girls’ restrooms in the cafeteria into gender-neutral bathrooms by making them single-stalled next school year, Vice Principal Stephanie Hall said. This is a positive step to provide transgender and non-binary students  more accessible bathrooms, as the cafeteria is in a centralized location on campus.

On Feb. 26, Mira Costa led a staff-development meeting, known as the “Trans 101 Training,” organized by Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter focused on educating staff of LGBTQ+ issues. During the program, Luna, a representative of the Los Angeles Transgender Economic Empowerment Project, explained the meanings and significance behind each identity within the LGBTQ+ acronym, with a focus on transgender people and the “Do’s and Do Nots” of talking to or about LGBTQ+ people. Hofreiter said that the presentation was helpful because many Costa staff members were presented with the information for the first time.

Luna emphasized inclusivity and normalizing gender neutral pronouns and led the staff in a discussion of how to give students the opportunity to say a name or pronoun by which they preferred to be called. Some teachers, including choir teacher Michael Hayden, already do this. Educating the staff on pronouns is one will prevent students from feeling pressured to confine to a gender.

The next step Costa should take is to educate students, not just teachers, on the issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ community, as students across campus have many different levels of understanding, Randolph said. The GSA may pass out informational pamphlets in June this year during Pride month. The GSA hopes to plan multiple activities that promote inclusivity towards the LGBTQ+ community at Costa,  Randolph said. These activities will help Costa students become more aware of the multitide of genders on campus.

Additionally, guidance counselor Jennifer Wildenberg believes that an informational session or assembly for students similar to the staff-development meeting with the LA LGBTQ+ center representative would be beneficial to the students’ understanding. Luna would also be able to hold a panel discussion for students, which could be a voluntary session occurring during office hours, Hofreiter said. Students could gain become more aware of the variety of sexual orientations on campus and in the outside world that they may not be exposed to.

The GSA at South High School in Torrance has put on informational sessions educating students on LGBTQ+ issues in the past. A panel discussion similar to these sessions would be a wise option to educate students as it would allow students who want to learn more about the LBGTQ+ community to do so, while others could opt out of the session.

Like Hayden, who has been making efforts to promote inclusivity by changing the names of the choirs so they are not separated by gender, identity or orientation, other staff members, such as Science teacher James Locke, have also made changes in their classrooms. If the school continues to hold educational staff meetings on the LGBTQ+ community issues, more teachers will become more knowledgeable and understanding like Hayden and Locke.