OUSD Celebrates Pride: Honoring Oakland’s LGBTQIA+ Legacy

June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate LGBTQ people and honor the courage, joy, and activism that have shaped Oakland’s history and continue to strengthen our schools and community today.

According to the District’s 2024-25 California Healthy Kids Survey, 10.8% of middle school respondents and 11.5% of high school respondents identified as lesbian or gay, bisexual, asexual, pansexual, or another sexual identity. Every student deserves to see themselves reflected, respected, and supported throughout their education, and to have spaces where they can be themselves, connect with others, and build community.

Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City, which helped launch the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Those protests grew from decades of prejudice, violence, and the queer community’s refusal to be silenced. Oakland’s role in LGBTQ history reaches back well before Stonewall.

In East Oakland, Rev. Walter Hawkins established the Love Center Church in 1973, creating a faith community that welcomed Black LGBTQ members at a time when many institutions would not. Its Ark of Love ministry became an early source of care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area.

That legacy of community-building continues today. The Oakland LGBTQ Community Center, founded in 2017, has become a vital resource for LGBTQ people of all ages in Alameda County. It is one of the few all-inclusive LGBTQ centers in the nation, founded and led by African Americans, and the first of its kind in California. The Town Youth Club at the Center offers programming and support services to Oakland’s youth, ages 13-17. They provide support groups, host social events and offer physical and mental health services.

Rev. Walter Hawkins. Photo from Oakland Public Library

In 2023, Oakland also established the Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District in the Grand Lake neighborhood, the city’s first designated LGBTQ cultural district, preserving local history while creating space for culture, visibility, and community to keep growing.

In OUSD, students and staff carry this work forward through programs that support LGBTQ students, allies, and inclusive school communities. Our LGBTQ Programming team supports Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs), at middle and high schools across the district. Each school has an LGBTQ School Liaison who advises the GSA, helps lead programming, hosts educational events, and shares key policies and resources with staff. GSAs give LGBTQ students and allies a place to meet regularly, build community, support one another, and improve school climate. At the elementary level, Rainbow Clubs create affirming spaces where gender-expansive students and allies can connect and learn the importance of respecting differences.

Each year, OUSD’s GSA Day brings students from across the city together for community building, resource sharing, and youth leadership. It is one of the clearest examples of what our students create when they are given the space and support to lead.

OUSD's 2025 GSA Day

Staff across the District can participate in LGBTQ professional development, become OUT for Safe Schools badge wearers as visible allies on campus, and access resources to help make classrooms and schools more inclusive. Families can also find support, policy information, and community resources at https://www.ousd.org/health-wellness/lgbtq-programs.

As the city prepares to gather for Oakland Pride on Sunday, August 16, OUSD looks forward to continuing the celebration and lifting up the voices of our LGBTQ students, staff, families, and community.

This month and every month, OUSD honors the LGBTQ people who shaped Oakland and our world, those who continue to strengthen our schools and communities, and the students whose voices, courage, creativity, and leadership will carry that legacy into the future.