Author: robertrigbyjr

FCPS Pride starts off 2024 with New Leadership and a return of FCPS Pride Coffees!!

New Leadership! The FCPS Pride Board elected new leadership for 2024. Chris McCormick and Vanessa Hall will be the new co-directors of FCPS Pride. But don’t worry, Robert Rigby isn’t going anywhere!  He is truly irreplaceable, and we are grateful for his leadership and continued dedication to our community.

Both Chris and Vanessa are long-term members of FCPS Pride and active in advocacy in our community. Chris has been on the board of FCPS Pride since 2021. She is also on the board of the Transgender Education Association (TGEA) and a proud parent of an FCPS student and an alum. Vanessa has been on the board of FCPS Pride since last Summer. She is also on the board of 4 Public Education, a parent representative of FLECAC, an FCPS alum, and a proud parent of FCPS students.

New School Board! FCPS Pride would like to welcome the new Fairfax County School Board composed of four returning members and eight new members whose four-year terms began at the beginning of this month.

FCPS Pride Coffees Return! Due to popular demand (and vaccines), we are bringing back the monthly FCPS Pride Coffees.  We’ve scheduled our first for Saturday, January 27 and are open to scheduling dates/times and locations depending on the needs of our group. 

Mark your calendars for our first coffee of 2024 at the Breeze Bakery (4125 Hummer Rd, Annandale) on Saturday, 1/27 from 10am – 12pm. Feel free to drop in or stay for the whole time, whatever works for you.

This will be an opportunity for the Fairfax Pride community to come together to discuss concerns, celebrate success, advocate for change, or just bask in each other’s presence after a long couple of years. We will ensure that two FCPS Pride Board members will be at each event. Newcomers and “old-timers” are welcome!

Sign up now for our e-mail list or ask about becoming a member here! Please remember that if you are employed by FCPS, please use a personal email for FCPS Pride contact and newsletters to prevent undeliverable messages. You may also contact us with any questions at [email protected].  Please reach out at any time!

Announcing FCPS Pride!

“Enfin!” in the words of my friend who teaches French: “Finally!” Fifteen years after the initial proposal, the Fairfax County School Board added “sexual orientation” to its non-discrimination policy, and it added “gender identity” this spring (Current FCPS nondiscrimination policy).

Thus, FCPS Pride has come in to existence, to “network and advocate for allied and LGBT employees, for ourselves, our colleauges, our friends and families, our students and our children.”

So FCPS Pride welcomes, of course LGBT employees, but also GSA sponsors and others concerned about students, and parents of LGBT children in the system who are also employees, as well as other staff supportive of LGBT people.

Members may include teachers, administrators, support staff, maintenance staff, substitutes, and central office staff; in other words, all people with a current FCPS employee number.

FCPS Pride envisions a school system in which all students, employees and applicants are respected and treated fairly, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

The purpose of this blog is to address issues of concern to this community. Discussion and disagreement are welcome, but extreme language should be avoided; this is also not a forum for disagreement with the basic rights and respect that LGBT people deserve (i.e. it is not a completely open forum). Specifically, misgendering of respondents will not be allowed.

Guest blogs are welcome, subject to editing for space. Please submit to [email protected]

Membership forms are on another page. Both members and associates may join the “action cohort.” You need to join membership and the action cohort separately, if you wish to be included in both. The contact information on each does not need to match.

You would receive “action emails” about letter-writing campaigns to the school board and other local government officials, and possibly robocalls (rarely) about a need for attendance at a school board meeting.

You may join both or neither, as you choose. If you wish to be removed, email [email protected]

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