Pride School Atlanta opens for LGBTQQIAA students: ‘I don’t think gender is finite’

The South has its first private school specifically geared toward the LGBTQ community: Pride School Atlanta.

Director and co-founder Christian Zsilavets, a transgender educator, recently sat down with CBS News to discuss his school, which is billed as a place where rigorous learning meets an “environment free of homophobia and transphobia.”

“We’re gender warriors,” the educator told CBS, the network reported Sunday.

“That’s how we identified ourselves when we first got together — gender warriors in love,” added his wife, Heather.

The school says it provides mentors for all LGBTQQIAA students, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, ally and agender. CBS was there with its first students, eight in total, to ask them about their decision.

“For me, the Pride School is kind of like a safe haven. I don’t have to worry about what names people may call me or what people would pull in the bathroom,” said said 14-year-old Josh Farabee, whose birth name is Sabrina. “I don’t think gender is finite. To me it’s how I feel most comfortable as.”

Josh’s mother, Stacia Oberweis, said she was much more “at ease” after enrolling her child in the Georgia school.

“If the transgender piece is something that was making Josh so uncomfortable and causing problems in Josh’s life and now we’re able to address it and move forward in this new way, I’m very hopeful that Pride School and the high school years are going to be a lot better,” Ms. Owens said.

“People often think or feel that sectioning off or segregating LGBT kids is like coddling them or giving them special treatment. My answer to that is very simple: Yes, we are coddling our kids,” added Reagan Stewart, a parent of one of the students. “We have left it up to public school systems and other school systems to work with them, but [public schools] have failed.”

A 16-year-old who asked only to be referred to as Jasper told the network that teasing at another school made Pride School a better option.

“I dreaded going to school because I didn’t want to be known as somebody who was a stranger to me,” said Jasper, who previously went by “she and her.”

Pride School anticipates having 15 students for its first academic year. It accepts part-time and full-time students.