On Nov. 8, Jay Pryor and Stephanie Mott from the Kansas Statewide Transgender Education Project (K-STEP) will speak to the parents of transgender students at LHS at 7pm. The event was organized in an effort by the administration to create a more inclusive environment at the school.

Assistant principal Mark Preut was part of this organization. After the September sit-in protest in response to transphobic comments made by students, Preut realized that action needed to be done.

“…It was apparent that we needed a great deal more education and understanding in the LHS community,” said Preut in an email interview. “We have done equity work with teachers and some of that has been shared with students but we have not done any systemic equity work with students.”

K-STEP speaker Jay Pryor was grateful to be reached out to by Preut. As a Lawrence native, Pryor kept up on the events of the September sit-in.

“I’m friends with some of the teachers there and I’m in town so I know what’s going on,” said Pryor. “I was actually going to reach out to them to see if there was anything I could do and then they ended up reaching out to me.”

Growing up as a young lesbian, then transgender man, in Lawrence had its challenges. Pryor recalled the need for a more unified LGBT community since there were no public places, such as bars, to meet other members.

Pryor sees the great leaps of improvement in the LGBT rights movement, especially at LHS.

“The thing that’s powerful about that sit-in that happened at LHS, though, it’s different because in the 80s and 90s when we were young activists there wasn’t a lot of straight allies next to us, it was always all gay kids,” said Pryor. “We were leading our own group but the differences I’ve noticed today is that LGBT youth have a ton of straight allies that are your friends and are willing to do sit-ins with them which is amazing.”

However, he sees the shortcomings in terms of recognition and respect for transgender people.

“If you’re a trans person, especially if you’re a trans person that’s really committed to making a transition, it’s just not an easy thing to do,” said Pryor. “It has to be done very thoughtfully and if kids don’t have their parents on board with that, it’s painful and difficult. It used to be that I knew tons of kids whose parents would disown them just for being gay. Not that that still doesn’t happen, but it’s not as prevalent as kids being disowned for being trans.”

Despite the shortcomings and setbacks made aware in the sit-in, both Preut and Pryor have high hopes for how the parent meeting will go.

“Many people only know about the LGBTQ+ community from media reports and stereotypes and misunderstanding and misinformation leads to too many negative results—hate, bigotry, discrimination,” said Preut. “My hope is that as people have a greater understanding they will be more supportive and empathetic.”

Pryor’s main goal is to shift the views and opinions of parents who have transgender children.

“Our job is to deliver a message and to educate because with knowledge comes power to understand the truth,” said Pryor. “The one thing Stephanie and I are good at is telling our stories so people see us as people.”