Would a high school really accomplish much by starting a GSA?

Question

My school issued a survey yesterday asking us what kind of new school clubs we would like to see next year and in years to come. About 9 of us(including myself) wrote down a GSA on the form.

Four of us belong to the LGBT community, again including myself, but nobody knows that about me except for one person. We would like to be able for the LGBT teens, and also straight ones, to meet and discuss issues relating to this. We think it will ease the hardships. Plus, I personally think it will make it a whole lot easier for me to come out.

However, I really think the administration will not allow something like this. Homosexuality is very unaccepted in our student body, and I think there would be some "disturbances".

What do you think we should do here?

Answer 1

An organization can give you a support network and a voice for equal rights. The university I attended started the first Matthew Shepard scholarship, and I think being from a very conservative state it provided credence to a voice that was not often heard or seen.

Organizing a GSA is a good idea for many reasons. Educating the public, bringing a face to a minority, empowering individuals to achieve beyond stereotypes. I have faith that this is possible for all. Good luck.

Answer 2

I helped to found the GSA at our high school. The first year people were to scared to call it a GSA, so we named the club TAA (Tolerance and Awareness Alliance) 5 years later the club has close to 30 members. It is in a small agricultural town. It helps that there is a college in the town, but the grass roots is still a farming community. The club focuses on GLBT issues, but also on other areas where there is discrimination. Seeing our group go to the elementary school and teach kids about racial discrimination gained a lot of good support for us. We have held community-wide panels on GLBT issues. Parents balked at us in the beginning, but eventually more and more began showing up at our panels, and it made the lives of a lot of kids much easier.
Next year they are even starting a GSA at the MIDDLE SCHOOL! It has been an amazing journey. Talk to people in schools around you, networking is where its at. If you ever need advice, feel free to contact me. GLSEN is a wonderful place to look into as well, they have lots of resources.
Good luck and stay strong!

Answer 3

If you can have a faculty sponsor for the organization, that will go a long way toward making it acceptable. Find someone whom you either know to be gay or who is really popular and not likely to face a lot of flack for supporting such a group.

The benefits of a GSA is improved grades, reduced mental health disturbances among the members, reduced teen suicidal behavior and thinking, greater stability of GLBT students, reduced violence toward gay people caused by greater tolerance, an organized response to unconscious homophobia exhibited by the school, individual faculty members, or members of the student body, etc.

Go for it. I formed the first gay student organization at a Catholic university in 1979. It had no official recognition, but we met anyway and we were able to provide a forum for support for a number of young people trying to figure out how to deal with the homosexuality as older adolescents and young adults.

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EDIT: FOR TY ABOVE:
In rural New England, it is rare to find a high school that does NOT have a GSA. It has served as a way to help make every child feel like they have a place in the school, rather than feeling totally rejected. By the age of high school, affectional preference is pretty much set in place, and the only thing left is to help the growing adolescents integrate that sexuality into a productive and loving young adulthood. Read the advantages that I wrote of above, and consider that if your child were gay, they would have an enormous amount of ridicule to face. You cannot easily help buffer them from that onslaught, but a well-run GSA can fill the gaps that parents and straight faculty members cannot fill.

Answer 4

I started one in my school... it was the first one in the county I lived in and 9 years later its still going strong... back then we didnt know what it meant to have a gsa and now its almost commonplace across most states... and true to form there is a website that is full of tools to help you with all the questions you might have...

http://www.gsanetwork.org/resources/start.html

the specific link I sent you is the page on how to start a gsa... further more you legally cannot be denyed the right to start a gsa in your school so they can protest all they want you are protected by the laws of the US government +1 for the gays... however you do need to watch yourself one wrong move and you can be disbanded for making a wrong step so go over the legal guidelines and know your rights and you will be fine ;-)

Answer 5

our college had the 1st GSA ever in our county final twelve months. regrettably although, it slowly diminished away simply by shortcoming of sound administration and events the college allowed. I wasn't an element of the club. once I found out my college had one, it already fizzled away. valuable, you may desire to have various delight and desire to show the worldwide who you're, yet be sure you intend each and every thing out until now you start up the club. you may desire to understand who is going to be on the administrative board, what events you adult men are going to be engaging in, and what the guidelines are. All colleges might desire to deal with all golf equipment the two. you besides mght might desire to come to a decision the thank you to develop money to your club once you are going to hold a parade or consistent with hazard return and forth someplace. sufficient administration and education will enable your club to succeed. As for a fashion it feels desire to run a club, it truly is truly tiring and infrequently you desire to stop, yet then you definately undergo in strategies what your combating for and save going. the better area is once you detect fulfillment, you end your first pastime or perhaps the subsequent and the subsequent and you will experience carried out. I say choose for it, yet plan, plan, plan and combat, combat, combat, peacefully of direction.

Answer 6

First off, you have to realistically assess the situation. If the school is really anti-gay you might be letting yourself in for physical harm if you are openly gay. Don't let that happen, your physical safety is of primary importance. If you think there will not be physical violence you still have to realistically assess what its going to be like with mental midgets teasing you or verbally assaulting you. It can be horribly obnoxious. But its up to you.

Answer 7

If it is a public school, they are required by law to allow it to be created. If any 'disturbances' took place, they would also be required to add security measures. I suggest anonymously writing to your town newspaper about the situation. Then, some other people in your town can give you advice.

Answer 8

What is a GSA? I am a mother of three and I personally would not want one in my school district. Sometimes you need to pick your battles in life. I know this is a big deal for you, but the fact that people have fear about that subject around their children is a battle that some people will gladly go to the forefront over. In the end, your maturity has not yet reached the levels it needs to be to endure the kind of confrontation it will be. If it was me, I would save it for when you are in college. Pick your battles. Wish you luck!!