As a lesbian living in a small, southern, religious town, things can be somewhat scary. Life should not be scary because you are different than other people. A group of my friends and I have started a Gay/Straight Alliance at our high school, or at least we have tried to start one. Our vice principal only had one thing against the group, she did not want anyone to get hurt. We understood that. Our principal has refused to let the club be school sanctioned. She never really gave us a reason why it could not be school sanctioned. At least, not a real clear answer. We got the usual vague answers and some that made no sense whatsoever. Of course, so she wouldn't be doing anything illegal, she didn't tell us we could not meet on campus. So we do. Every other Wednesday, we meet in a teacher's room and discuss many different topics that we feel are important or just something we feel like discussing. At our last meeting, we discussed religion and how it affected our lives. This took up the whole hour. We are all a very opinionated group, and are very vocal, at least within our group. A majority of the group are indeed Gay or Bi, but, sometimes it seems like the straight people are more upset about some of the injustices commited against the LGBT community. This is very good thing. I think it shows that our generation is far more tolerant than our grandparents' or even our parents' generations.
I am proud of my friends and I. We did something that no one else had the guts to do. There are many more LGBT people at my school than I originally thought. This only makes sense. It is not a safe thing to be out around here. Maybe one day, hopefully soon, most likely not before I graduate, that the GSA will get school sanctioned. GSA should have a page in the yearbook. There are other groups that are not supposed to advertise around the school, but they do. Religious groups that meet on certain mornings around the flag pole or in the cafe, they have flyers on the bullentin boards. I saw one just yesterday, took all of my self control not to rip it off. I should have said something at the meeting, since I did see it on my way to GSA. It probably would have caused a big hooplah though and would have destroyed the whole order of the meeting.
As historian of the GSA, I plan to document the activites that we become involved in. I hope that the documentation of us doing things that could really help the student body and the community as a whole, will help the GSA get sanctioned sooner. Until then, students are stuck living in fear that if someone finds out that they are gay, they will get hurt. Physical pain shows more, but emotional pain is more deadly. A GSA is supposed to stop discrimination, not cause it.
From an out and proud lesbian living in the south
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