Leading into Pride Month, Joaquin Miller Elementary Finishes Mural that Pays Tribute to LGBTQ+ Heroes
Oakland – It’s summer at Joaquin Miller Elementary School, and the school community is celebrating a long break, and something new on their campus. This spring, students, staff, families, and a local artist all worked to create a mural that honors pioneers in the LGBTQ community, both past and present. They finished the mural just as the school year came to an end and Pride Month began.
“It’s an LGBTQ+ Heroes mural painted on the side of two second grade classrooms,“ said Joaquin Miller 2nd grade teacher Tessa Strauss. “Our Rainbow Club, students and families, helped organize a bake sale to help fund the mural. The kids provided lots of ideas of what they wanted to see on the mural. And the second grade students across the grade level helped pick out the different queer heroes.”
The heroes on the mural include Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was later assassinated along with SF Mayor George Moscone. Strauss says she has a personal connection to Milk because after his assassination, her mother was one of the organizers of the vigil honoring him.
Also pictured is Angela Davis, civil rights activist, former Black Panther, and current professor at U.C. Santa Cruz – who was also this year’s commencement speaker at Skyline High School. George Takei, a survivor of the World War II internment of Japanese Americans, who later starred on the original Star Trek, is shown in his uniform from the U.S.S. Enterprise. Another LGBTQ icon featured is Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, who is remembered as a woman who broke all social conventions. In her art, Kahlo depicted Mexican and indigenous culture and the female experience and form.
There are seven other LGBTQ heroes on the mural. “The students, second graders, were obsessed with Josephine Baker, she was a spy during World War II, and wrote on her music in invisible ink. And she had a pet cheetah that wore a diamond necklace that she walked on a leash down the street. And the second graders are super into that side of Josephine Baker, so everyone was like, ‘got to put Josephine Baker up here,” said Strauss.
The youngest person depicted on the mural is 27 years old and from Oakland. “Kehlani, who is native to Oakland. They are a singer-songwriter, performer. They are non-binary. The students got to watch videos of Kehlani as a middle schooler and a high schooler on America’s Got Talent. The kids could see someone who is closer to their age taking on this cool role.”
Also shown are Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, who were involved in the Stonewall uprising against police brutality of the gay and transgender community in New York. “They are transgender heroes, part of the history, not as recent as Kehlani… We learned about Stonewall, and we learned how they were truly themselves in a time when it was not easy. It’s still not easy to be trans and have to stand up for your own rights all the time.”
The others shown are queer activist Alok Vaid-Menon, who is a writer and performance artist, dancer, choreographer and activist, Alvin Ailey, and Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist who helped plan the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr. Rustin had to remain behind the scenes because he was gay.
The project took months to complete, and artist Charlotte Grigsby put the finishing touches on it the weekend before the final week of school. “On Monday morning, when we got to school and saw all the butterflies and everything, they were just, I could hear them shrieking, ‘look at the butterflies!’ It’s so cute. Their excitement is incredible.”
There is outrage and sadness on the campus because of new anti-gay and anti-trans laws in states across the country, such as the “Don’t say gay” law in Florida, which would prohibit the existence of this mural if California had the same law. Strauss says the mural sends a powerful message that will be on campus for a long time. “It’s painful to hear what’s going on in other states… Being on our biggest, our main playground, it’s a visual representation of our acceptance and love for kids no matter who they are or what they do with their life. We are here for them and their families no matter what their family looks like.”
Joaquin Miller 2nd grade teachers Tessa Strauss (left) and Shelby Ziesing standing in front of their classrooms and the LGBTQ+ Heroes mural they helped create.
Shelby Ziesing is also a second grade teacher who works in one of the two classrooms with the mural on the exterior wall. “I feel so fortunate to teach in a place in which we’re not just allowed to teach about LGBTQ culture and history and people, but we’re actually required to. And I also try to remember that that didn’t happen by accident. It was decades of activism by people like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.”
Joaquin Miller families are thrilled with the mural. “The kids have so much ownership and pride… And we’re a two-mom family, so for our daughter to have this model for her, has meant the world to us… To bring such positivity, and celebrate, and have the whole school kind of embrace it, and everyone show up at the bake sale, was just beautiful,” said parent in Strauss’ 2nd grade class, Emily Anderson.
Principal Sara Green is proud of the new mural, and says it will have an important impact on students. “We want to make sure that our students don’t experience any bullying as a result of who they are as individuals, and I feel like when students walk by this mural, they feel seen and they feel understood and appreciated.”
* Despite school being out for the summer, for any media who would like to do a Pride Month story on the project, students, staff and families are ready to come to school to talk about the mural and what it means to them.
About the Oakland Unified School District
In California’s most diverse city, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is dedicated to creating a learning environment where “Every Student Thrives!” More than half of our students speak a non-English language at home. And each of our 77 schools is staffed with talented individuals uniting around a common set of values: Students First, Equity, Excellence, Integrity, Cultural Responsiveness and Joy. We are committed to preparing all students for college, career and community success.
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