Editor,

I am writing as a representative of the Skagit Valley College Whidbey Island Campus’ Rainbow Alliance, the student/community education, activity and support group representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual, intersexed, asexual, queer and questioning persons as well as their friends, families and allies.

I am fortunate to serve as the faculty advisor for the group, in addition to being an adjunct instructor at the college.

Members of our group, including myself, were a part of the 2013 Holland Happening Parade on Saturday, April 27, and also were in the 2013 Fourth of July Parade earlier this month.

Our experience marching in these two parades this year was extremely positive. I am happy to report that we did not encounter any visibly negative reactions to our presence.

The one exception to this warm reception was in the reading of our group’s statement at the reviewing stands in the last leg of the parades. In both parades, the announcers read the first sentence of our group’s statement, then paused for a moment, and skipped over the second sentence, and ended with our last sentence that, in effect, said, “For more information, see the college website.”

Our statement’s second sentence contained the long list of inclusive identifiers used in the first sentence of the present letter.

We were not informed that the announcers of the parades would, at their whim, be editing our statement.

There is absolutely nothing objectionable about the language used in our statement.

All of the terms used are identifiers knowingly and happily adopted by members of the gender- and sexually-diverse communities in modern U.S. (and worldwide) society.

What is the harm in reading these and identifying us as we wish to be identified?

The fact is, although our contingent in the parade was small, there are people from all stripes of the gender- and sexually-diverse communities present in Oak Harbor, interacting with the community and contributing positively to it.

Simply mentioning these words in public and seeing people of these identities marching unafraid in a major public event can go miles toward making a young person of whatever age, or even adults who have been harassed or otherwise mistreated over these issues, have a major boost of confidence and an assurance that the oft-repeated slogan “It Gets Better” really can be true, when far too often it isn’t.

Dr. Phillip A. Bernhardt-House

Skagit Valley College-Whidbey Island Campus