Gay-straight alliances change high school for many

For gay and lesbian teen-agers, much has changed since 1983. While most gay adults remember… For gay and lesbian teen-agers, much has changed since 1983. While most gay adults remember high school as a time of quietly questioning themselves in the closet, many of today’s gay teen-agers are not just out — they’re active.

Often this activism takes the form of student-run activist/support groups called gay-straight alliances, or, in less-than-supportive school districts, persistent attempts to form such groups.

The Houston Chronicle recently reported that there are more than 1,700 gay-straight alliances in U.S. high schools, and more than half of them have sprung up in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, The Wisconsin State Journal found two dozen GSAs in U.S. middle schools.

Tom Wise, a speech therapist for the Pittsburgh School District and the adviser for Langley High School’s GSA, said that the organizations offer safe, informal places for gay teen-agers and supportive friends to gather.

“We don’t ask what your sexual orientation is, or anything like that,” Wise said “It’s just a place where students can plan different activities and talk about issues of diversity.”

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, which was founded by a gay high school history teacher in 1994, works for “a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression,” according to its Web site.

The group pushes for anti-discrimination amendments to school codes, holds seminars for current and future teachers and administrators (including those at Pitt’s School of Education), and helps to organize GSAs.

“Our group is really about high school,” said Bart Rauluk, a board member of GLSEN’s Pittsburgh chapter. “It’s important for [high school students] to know that there is someone they can reach out to if they feel isolated or harassed.”

Rauluk explained that students who are part of racial or religious minority groups can turn to their families or clergy members for support, but that many gay teen-agers struggle to be accepted at home and at their places of worship, as well as in school. He said that this creates a great need for groups like GLSEN.

“At just about every level, we are trying for safer schools,” Rauluk said.

The Houston Chronicle found that only a few GSAs meet with serious opposition from administrators.

“We were politely ignored,” said Sarah, a bisexual 17-year-old from Philadelphia. “The principle signed us up and then, I don’t think, ever said another word to us.”

“Still, he didn’t try to stop us,” she added.

If he had, he would have been breaking the law.

The Supreme Court has ruled that GSAs are covered under the 1984 Equal Access Act. The act, which was meant to facilitate religious organizations in public schools, states that schools must recognize and treat equally all student-run, non-curriculum clubs.

Still, some schools have gone to great lengths to prevent the formations of GSAs. In 1996, a school board in Salt Lake City circumvented the establishment of a GSA by demanding that all student groups disband, including Students Against Drunk Driving and the Bart Simpson Fan Club.

Despite legal protection for GSAs, there is organized opposition to them. The conservative group Focus on the Family states on its Web site, “Our public schools have become a battleground in the effort by gay activists to indoctrinate our children to believe dangerous and misleading messages about homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender identity issues.”

Focus on the Family representatives did not return The Pitt News’ requests for an interview.

Despite such opposition, GSAs are here to stay, their organizers assert.

“Gay-straight alliances are mushrooming throughout the country,” Wise said. “Within 10 years, if you do not have a GSA, you will be out of the loop.”