GSA, GEG, HEC collaborate to plan International Day of the Girl, Coming Out Day celebration
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Sophia Caplan ’22 kicks her leg in the air in front of the pride flag in the courtyard. This is the first year Archer has celebrated National Coming Out Day in addition to International Day of the Girl.
Archer girls celebrate International Day of the Girl annually, but each year the celebration looks a bit different than the last. This year, leaders of the Girls Empowering Girls Club, Honor Education Council and Gender Sexuality Alliance decided to celebrate the 29th annual National Coming Out Day in addition to International Day of the Girl.
Both holidays fell on Wednesday, Oct. 11. Since there was no school that day due to the PSAT, the on-campus celebration took place two days later on Friday, Oct. 13 during lunch.
Rainbow flags, stickers and hearts decorated the courtyard. Girls sang and danced to songs like “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, participated in a pin making activity, wrote answers in response to questions on posters and painted a Wonder Woman mural made by Rose Shulman-Litwin ’18. There was also a fundraiser bake sale to benefit the LA LGBT Center’s Audre Lorde Lesbian Health Program.
Isabel Kuh ’19, an executive board member of the Girls Empowering Girls club, helped plan the celebration. She thought it was important to also celebrate National Coming Out Day to provide a broader platform and more inclusive environment for students who might not identify as female.
“Being a girl is a large part of Archer, but not everyone necessarily identifies with that,” Kuh said.
Kuh also stressed that many Archer students fall broadly along the spectrum regarding gender and sexuality.
“There’s a large amount of students at Archer who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, so it’s incredibly important to make them feel heard and their identities supported. In GSA, we talk a lot about what it means to be queer at Archer,” Kuh wrote in an email interview.
Kuh believes that Archer should integrate conversations from diversity and identity clubs on campus into the curriculum.
“The various diversity/identity-based clubs at Archer have really great conversations about different identities…but I think we should definitely extend some of those same conversations into actual classes and the curriculum itself,” Kuh wrote.
Click the photo gallery to see highlights from the celebration.
Rose Shulman-Litwin ’18 poses like Wonder Woman in front of the mural she made for the celebration. Isabel Kuh ’19 asked Shulman-Litwin to create the mural as a way to connect the two celebrations.
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Dana Duwaji ’18 paints on the Wonder Woman mural. The mural was made by artist Rose Shulman-Litwin
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Willa Frierson ’20 writes a response on a poster asking “What are you celebrating today?” Some answers include equality for everyone, happiness, girls and love.
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Honor Council Member Stella Smyth ’19 gives a pastry to students during the fundraiser bake sale. The processes will be donated to the LA LGBT Center’s Audre Lorde Lesbian Health Program.
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
Sisters Omari ’18 and Naiobi Benjamin ’22 make pins. Students can pick up their finished buttons on a table near the Rose Room in the courtyard at lunch on Monday, Oct. 16.
Photo credit: Cat Oriel
A group of juniors pose in front of the pride flag in the courtyard. Several of the girls, including Isabel Kuh, bottom left, helped organize the celebration.
Photo credit: Ella Brown
Cat Oriel joined the Oracle staff as a contributing writer in 2015, was promoted to Voices Editor in 2017 and is now the News and Features Editor. She...
