December is usually all about the soft glow of twinkling lights and eagerly awaiting the first gentle snowfall, but in the earlier part of the month there are two holidays widely ignored.

December eighth will be Pansexual/Panromantic Pride Day which will also be a friendly reminder that there are more than just two genders. “It’s not very acceptable in our culture,” Zi Parks ‘20 said. “We don’t like to think that there are more than two genders and when we hear that there are, [we] don’t try and understand.”

An important part of Pride holidays is spreading awareness and information. “A major thing is communication,” Jordan Lehigh 17’ said. “Not a lot of things are out.”

Pansexuals/panromantics often face people who don’t think that they are valid. “There are a lot of people who push away pansexuals,” said Samm Grove 17’. “[People say,] ‘You’re just bisexual.’”

Though we are coming to accept a more diverse thought of genders there are still reminders in everyday life that people who don’t identify as a girl or a boy aren’t considered normal. As a school we need to start working on making more things gender neutral and inclusive.

Just two days later on December tenth it will be Humans Rights Day- a day where we should all sit down and discuss how humans rights laws have been violated throughout history and how human rights are still being violated and ignored today.

Maybe it isn’t the most cheerful topic for the holiday season, but it’s an important one. So for two days out of a heavily commercialized month why don’t we all just sit down and try and connect with other people?