A New Hampshire public high school held its inaugural "Intersectionality Day" last week, a day-long program that included workshops such as "Healthy Masculinity" and "Labels are for Jars."
Each of the approximately 350 students at Mascoma Valley Regional High School selected four of 28 offered sessions to attend, with options ranging from "GSRM (Gender, Sexual, Romantic Minority) 101," to "Journey Drumming," Valley News reported.
Workshops dealt with topics common in intersectional discussions such as gender non-conforming identities and privilege. The New Hampshire Teen Institute, a youth activism and leadership organization, helped organize the event.
"Where We Come From and Why it Matters" asked students to stand along a "privilege line," and step forward or backward in response to statements such as "My parents have held down a consistent job throughout my life," and "I have never had to worry about where I'm sleeping," indicating their privileged status, according to the Valley News.
Only one student remained standing in his initial position at the end of the exercise, according to the report.
The project was thought up by Julie Hogue, the mental health clinician at Mascoma High School. She did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
For assistance, Hogue recruited her non-binary, bisexual child Kelsie, a singer-producer who goes by the stage name "Sir Babygirl," and uses the pronouns she and they, according to the report.
Kelsie told Valley News she sometimes has "more masculine-feeling days" and said about her view on gender, "Why choose just one?"
Kelsie co-led a workshop called "GIRLSESH," where the message was "all genders are equally valid," wrote Valley News.
Sessions on "From Cinderella to Malala: Depictions of Females in Film" and "Implicit Bias & Racism" were also offered.
A poster that hung in the hallway broke down intersectionality into identities such as "age," "body type," "class," and "ethnicity."
According to the report, the school has received calls from concerned parents, but a teacher brushed them off as likely coming from fear of an "LGBTQ agenda."
Local, federal, and state costs per high school student at Mascoma Valley was $19,670.43 in 2015-2016. It is unclear how "Intersectionality Day" was funded.