"Staff, students and their families are invited to represent Austin ISD in the annual Austin Pride Parade," the Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD) promotes on its website for a march in the Texan city on Saturday, Aug. 12.
After providing logistical details, such as that there will be free shuttles, the district "encourage[s]" people to wear "pride costumes and rainbow colors." It also informs:
Austin ISD Pride T-shirts provided to participants upon arrival. (Limited quantity, first come.)
The clothing guidelines are available in the English version of the invitation, but not in the Spanish version. Austin ISD, which has 116 schools and more than 70,000 students, bills itself as the eighth largest district in the state. According to its own data, more than half of its student body is of Hispanic heritage.
Austin Pride Parade
Saturday, August 12
The parade begins at 8 p.m.
Free shuttles depart at 6:30 p.m.
Staff, students and their families are invited to represent Austin ISD in the annual Austin Pride Parade. pic.twitter.com/BnLvznalsx— Austin ISD (@AustinISD) August 7, 2023
Fully booked
Austin ISD has called on its students to march in the Texas city on at least two other occasions, in 2018 and 2022. In a video of the first march, students from different schools can be seen with district merchandise linked to the LGBT movement:
In the same video uploaded by AISD.TV, the school district's television station, students can also be seen playing instruments and dancing in the parade:
The Austin ISD also pledged this year to make pro-LGBT merchandising available to students in schools. In March, the district also distributed a "guide of suggested activities" to each campus and invited people to participate in a series of events:
Pride Style - Students and faculty, during the week of March 20-24, please visit your campus main office to pick up LGBT stickers, posters, banners, buttons on pronouns and more!
In June, they organized another series of activities for LGBT Pride Month. Those included a cross-industry roundtable on queer leadership in which they proposed a "brave space" for "inclusive dialogue" and the raising of the flag in LGBT colors.
Complaints on social media
"As a member of the House Public Education committee I heard all session how 'underfunded' public schools were," Texas House Rep. Brian Harrison said before noting:
Since Austin ISD has enough $$$$ to shuttle kids to and from the Austin Pride Parade, I can assume they are "fully funded."
Harrison was responding to a post by the family rights organization Texas Family Project, which questioned what academic advantage it would give students, whether the event would have "grown naked men prancing in front of children" and how much public money would be spent.
Austin ISD acknowledges on its website that the "majority of our funding comes from local property taxes along with state and federal funding."
What about this gives students an academic advantage?
What does this have to do with literacy?
Will this pride parade be like those in June with grown naked men prancing in front of children?
How many tax dollars are going to this while families in Austin struggle to get by? pic.twitter.com/u4iViXNgXr
— Texas Family Project (@FamilyProjectTX) August 8, 2023
In that same vein, reporter Tayler Hansen wondered why a school district was "taking children to a pride parade":
This weekend @AustinISD will be transporting children to and from the local Austin Pride Parade that takes place at 8-11PM.
Why is a school district taking children to a pride parade? pic.twitter.com/ihAfWW4cQq
— Tayler Hansen (@TaylerUSA) August 12, 2023
The official state GOP account also asked why schools are using public funds to sexualize children:
Why are public schools continuing to sexualize our children? #txlege https://t.co/xR6Yn9dFGq
— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) August 8, 2023
Other users on the social network X joined in the criticism, inciting parents to pull their children out of public schools:
Austin ISD is apparently having a grooming parade for the kiddos this weekend. Apparently getting the entire month of June just wasn’t enough Pride for these folks… 🥴 …great homeschool as though. 👍 https://t.co/BFm8zHrl9T
— Five Times August (@FiveTimesAugust) August 10, 2023
Austin ISD is using American tax $ to bus CHILDREN to this weekend’s pride parade in Austin, TX.
This further proves that our public school system is run by literal predators who want to make your kids gay & trans.
PULL YOUR KIDS OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. ASAP.
— Ella Maulding (@ellamaulding) August 9, 2023
