【Rapsa (2025)】

Rhode Island's best teacher didn't turn down his opportunity to meet the president of the United States — but Rapsa (2025)he did make a statement about his values.

Nikos Giannopoulos, voted teacher of the year for 2017 in Rhode Island, visited the White House back in April. When the official White House photo of Giannopoulos, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump came out this week, it quickly went viral and resonated with the LGBTQ community during Pride Month.

Gianoppoulos wore a rainbow flag pin and held a black lace fan. With the photo he wrote, "Rhode Island Teacher of the Year 2017 meets the 45th President of the United States. That's all. 🌈🌈🌈"

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"For my trip to the White House, I wore a rainbow pin to represent my gratitude for the LGBTQ community that has taught me to be proud, bold, and empowered by my identity - even when circumstances make that difficult. I wore a blue jacket with a bold print and carried a black lace fan to celebrate the joy and freedom of gender nonconformity," Giannopoulos wrote in a Facebook post shortly after he visited the White House in April. "I wore an anchor necklace in honor of the State of Rhode Island whose motto “Hope” was inspired by Hebrews 6:19 - 'We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.'"

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

The state teachers of the year who visited the White House met with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and then met Trump — or as Giannopoulos called him "the man seated at the desk" — who Giannopoulos said turned to his usual talking points about CEOs and his electoral college win.

SEE ALSO: Facebook's new Pride Month features celebrate the LGBTQ community with style

"In previous years, state teachers of the year were given the opportunity to speak to the president for a few minutes each," Giannopoulos wrote. "Had I been given the opportunity, I would have told him that the pride I feel as an American comes from my freedom to be open and honest about who I am and who I love. I would have told him that queer lives matter and anti-LGBTQ policies have a body count. Taking pride in queer identity means rejecting the shame imposed upon us by a harsh society. It means opening yourself up to a lifetime of criticism and misunderstanding, but knowing that it’s worth it to be able to live authentically."

Giannopoulos also made sure to mention his visit to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture and how queer activists have learned from people of color in the United States.

Trump still hasn't designated June as Pride Month, but with words like Giannopoulos's, it's clear it is anyway.

---

Featured Video For You

---

Engineer grows ice pyramids to create a sustainable water source in the Himalayas

---

• Science
• Social Good
• Digital Culture
• Tech
• Shopping
• Games
• Entertainment
• Deals

• Faster, Higher, Stronger, More Harmonious
• New York and Las Vegas cabs start accepting China's biggest mobile payment mode
• 'Game of Thrones': Try not to cry at this detail about Ser Davos
• IoT will forever be in trouble, but there's hope
• What In God’s Name Happened To Ricky Gervais?
• Topshop's 'Stranger Things' collection is a fitting tribute to Barb
• Bob Weinstein is now facing sexual harassment allegations of his own
• A Star Wars fan in Congress wants us to know that porgs are 'dope'
• Carbon Omissions
• Newark offers $7 billion in tax breaks for Amazon's new HQ

• Google's Pixel 4a may have been delayed yet again
• Badass little otter pup is a survivor, he gonna make it
• Everything coming to Hulu in June 2020
• Pixel 5 to lose Google's motion sense feature, report says
• Note to Comey: Avoiding a hug from Trump takes practice. Just ask Hillary Clinton
• Everything coming to (and going from) Netflix in June 2020
• Neoliberals are trying to do the impossible: Make their memes cool
• EasyJet says hackers stole info from 9 million of its customers
• Apple released iOS 13.5, and here's why you should update
• Facebook launches 'Facebook Shops' for more in

• What So Proudly We Hailed
• Obsessively checking social media during a crisis might harm your mental health
• What the inside of Google's Pixel 2 XL looks like, including those weird squeeze sensors
• Kerry Washington's next project could be Facebook's first big hit
• The Reaching-Out Industry
• Scott Pruitt will draft industry vets for EPA's scientific committees
• Björk reveals more details about alleged sexual harassment by a 'Danish director'
• Magic Leap raised another $500 million, even though its product is MIA
• This Is Not a Blip
• Google Calendar for web just got a pretty new update

• Faux-Pas at MOMA
• Trump plummets down Forbes 400 list of richest Americans
• A startup is taking on Google and Microsoft with a 'Minecraft for docs'
• That joke isn't funny: A short history of the 'casting couch' trope
• Ruthless Take Downs
• Trump plummets down Forbes 400 list of richest Americans
• Trump's tweets keep killing his Muslim 'travel' ban
• South Park team explains why it's so damn hard to nail comedy in games
• The Swamp Thickens
• Ron Howard announces Han Solo movie title