The Rainbow Revolution is happening in our classrooms: Different Families, Same Love Awards

The LGBT+ Teachers Group hosted an awards ceremony on June 20 celebrating inclusion and diversity in Irish primary schools.

Different Families Same Love Event
Image: Damien Eagers

The INTO LGBT+ Teachers’ Group hosted the Different Families, Same Love Awards yesterday evening at 6.30pm in The Teachers Club, Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Speaking ahead of the awards, Sean Hegarty from the group said:

“The ‘Different Families, Same Love’ competition offered teachers an opportunity to explore and celebrate the diverse tapestry of families and peoples who make up Irish society today and to win wonderful prizes for their classrooms. We are delighted to celebrate their work at tonight’s awards.”

Prize-winning pupils, their teachers and families attended the event, where they showcased their spectacular projects. Social Justice and Mental Health Journalist and Podcaster, Dil Wickremasinghe MC’d the event, with Director of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm O’Gorman also speaking at the event.

The ‘Different Families, Same Love’ competition, ran during May to celebrate International Family Equality Day (IFED) and International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT). Primary school children began the rainbow revolution in their classrooms in May, by learning about and creating projects celebrating LGBT+ people and families of all sorts. Entries were judged based on creativity, originality, relevance to the theme and how well the learning was shared with the wider school and local community.

Mr Hegarty continued:

“This competition has been a true celebration of diversity and inclusion in our primary schools. Competition entries, like our families, took many forms- artwork, comics, stories, poems, plays, songs, videos, or podcasts. We were honoured, delighted and overwhelmed with the variety and standard of this year’s entries. The positive feedback from teachers, parents and most importantly from pupils has been truly wonderful.”

“We have winning entries from schools in Cork, Dublin and Galway represented at this evenings event. We will celebrate them and acknowledge their fantastic creativity, we will also showcase the spectacular work submitted by all other participating schools. There’s no better way to kick off the Pride season than with an inclusive family celebration like this!”

Overall winners were the 5th class students from Hansfield Educate Together who created their dream Pride.

Stay updated and interact with other INTO LGBT+ group members on Facebook and Twitter!

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