In response to the hate crimes that have recently occurred in Franklin and to show support for the LGBTQ comunity, on October 30th, an LGBTQ pride march down by the stop and shop intersection was held in Franklin. This march was held and organized by Kay, a member of the Franklin Cultural Council, with the goal of showing that the town of Franklin stands with members of the LGBTQ community and to promote acceptance of the community. I talked to FHS senior Kenzie Atwood who participated in the march in order to gain some more insight on the march.

She explained that while she did not organize the march, she is a supporter and member of the LGBTQ community and attended to show support for her fellow members of the community. When asked about the necessary steps she believes the town should take to better accept its LGBTQ members she told me that she thinks “the real change will come with parents teaching their children to respect differences, to know that being gay is a good thing and it’s not weird and that they should be able to identify how they please and respect others identities”. She believes the issue is almost systemic in a way and the solution has to start at home, she believes that once parents begin to educate their children and promote acceptance things like bullying of LGBTQ youth will go down and these educated children will be much more accepting of others differences causing many LGBTQ members of the community to feel more accepted and included in our town environment.

I also talked to her about the events at a recent town council meeting that went viral and made mainstream news. During this meeting,  she was yelled at by a Franklin parent that complained of the indoctrination of their children over the teaching and promotion of pro LGBTQ material designed to help those members of the community feel more accepted. She told me that after that event she felt that when “people’s eyes were opened by the events at the committee meeting” it shined a light on an issue she believed always had “an intense urgency in my head. And that the main goal we need to accomplish as an FHS community is to teach respect first so the less accepting people begin to understand those who are different from them”. 

In the end, Kenzie and all the organizers of the march hope to promote acceptance throughout franklin and support those that they feel need it most in the community hopes that franklin will become a more supportive and accepting town.