GSA seeks to promote acceptance and awareness among students

“Our purpose is to create a safe space where everyone’s welcome,” said senior Ryley Olson, the club’s vice president. “A lot of our club meetings, we might not have a specific goal for that day and it’s just kind of hanging out and having a fun space where you know that everyone there is going to accept you for who you are, no matter what.”

The discussion at last Tuesday’s meeting centered around school dialogue regarding the LGBT community; though several club members described FHC’s environment as fairly accepting, many lamented the lack of conversation at school regarding LGBT issues. It is for this reason that the GSA exists. Commonly thought of as the “Gay-Straight Alliance,” GSA can also stand for “Gender and Sexuality Alliance,” or, in order to be most inclusive, the “LGBTQ+ Club.” The club wants to remedy the conversational deficit it observes at school. The first step to doing this, however, is to create an open, welcoming space where students of all gender identities feel comfortable.

“Our mission this year was to promote awareness for LGBT issues as well as create a better safe space in the school,” said club president Skylar Knuff, a senior. “It feels like we’ve just gone and taken the people who need help and support and given them a place to call home, and then we’ve helped make connections with other clubs and build better relationships within the school.”

GSA continues a theme of acceptance and openness which has been promoted at FHC in recent years through student interaction, in-school events such as last week’s Martin Luther King day discussions, and projects such as the Global Learners Initiative.

“My thoughts are that our FHC school community is very welcoming and accepting of the LGBT community,” said Principal Steve Passinault. “It fits in with our overall value of respecting all people and embracing diversity.”

The club was started in 2003 and has experienced fluctuation in membership ever since. According to Olson, the club had just three members at the beginning of last school year. Due to year-long outreach efforts last year and an influx of underclassmen this year, the club is now much larger and hopes to continue growing.

Senior Annie Salach is one of the club’s new members and joined after an invitation from a friend to try it out. A new student at FHC, Salach noted a marked contrast between the reception of LGBTQ issues at FHC and their reception at her old school.

“I think the student body here is a lot more accepting of LGBTQ’s and that is very different from my old school,” Salach said. “Kids who were out as gay would get bullied and beat up constantly, so it’s very refreshing being at such an accepting school.”

Both Olson and Knuff echoed Salach’s thoughts about the generally accepting school culture, though both also agree that many students are still uncomfortable talking about LGBTQ issues.

“I feel like usually if you bring it up people are going to take it well, but no one really talks about it and I think that’s kind of a problem,” Olson said. “Because if you don’t know that people are going to take it well yet, it just is really, really scary to talk to someone about it who you haven’t talked to before, because no one really talks about it. It’s just kind of like this silenced group.”

Knuff said that the lack of dialogue at school regarding LGBTQ issues could be “good and bad,” pointing out that the silence could arise either from the fact that there are few problems with these topics at FHC or, alternatively, from the fact that students don’t know “how to handle [the problems].”

“What we’re currently working with is making sure we can educate people on how to bring up issues and how to discuss them,” Knuff said.

With their increased numbers, the GSA is working to expand their presence within the school. These efforts have included a bake sale held at the beginning of the school year (the proceeds from which were used to purchase Straightlaced, a film sold exclusively for public viewings which GSA hopes to show to the entire school) and planning for the upcoming Day of Silence. Many members of the club participated in Day of Silence last year by not speaking for an entire day; the same event will occur this year in April.

“Day of Silence is basically because so many people in the LGBT community don’t have a voice, and a lot of times people commit suicide or are murdered because of their identity, so it’s showing that we are silent because those people don’t have a voice,”Olson said. “We’re showing that not having a voice can affect everything in your life; it makes everything harder.”

Sitting in Room 119 on a Tuesday afternoon, it can’t be denied that, through GSA, the LGBTQ+ community has a voice at FHC. Students who would like to add volume to that voice, along with those who have questions about what exactly that voice is saying, are emphatically welcomed.

“Just come once,” Olson said. “And if you decide it’s not for you then that’s okay. But just come once, just to see what it’s like. … You don’t have to part of the LGBT+ community to go. You can be an ally and we actually love seeing that there, because it shows the kids who struggle with finding acceptance that there are people at this school who care about them.”

That was certainly the case for Knuff.

“It’s given me a place to call home,” she said. “Another place I can call home.”