A new organization to Blue Valley Southwest is the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). This club is an opportunity for students, despite sexual orientation, to come together and support each other. The purpose of this organization is to help foster acceptance.
“It’s not about changing people’s minds about what’s right or wrong,” counseling department chair Kevin Halfmann said. “We’re not there to preach to other people. We’re there to support people that are the way they are.”
In 2006, according to Gallup polls, 54 percent of Americans found homosexuality acceptable. It is common for students to be reluctant to come out for fear of being treated differently.
With this fear come slurs based on homosexuality. The common phrase “That’s so gay” is a statement popular among teenagers today.
“It’s still more acceptable to ridicule people because of their sexuality,” Halfmann said. “People act as if it’s a choice to be gay or not, which there is nothing further from the truth.”
Senior Gabrielle Hespe was inspired to create a Gay-Straight Alliance for Southwest by first joining the club at Blue Valley High School. She was affected by the fact that her two lesbian friends had to save up money and travel to Iowa in order to get married because Kansas has not legalized same-sex marriage.
“All the other Blue Valley schools have [Gay-Straight Alliances] and our administration is really awesome and supportive for letting us have one.” Hespe said.
Southwest’s Gay-Straight Alliance’s first event is during the showings of the Laramie Project, a play that deals with the murder of a gay college student named Matthew Shepard. During the play, the Gay-Straight Alliance will have a table outside the theater where they will hand out bookmarks and fliers along with statistics.
The second thing the Gay-Straight Alliance is going to do is form a district alliance with the other GSA organizations in the Blue Valley schools. Anyone can attend these meetings.
GSA also wants to become involved with “It Gets Better” a support group for homosexuals in need. It deals with getting through the rough stages of coming out.
“Suicide rates are double for homosexuals than they are heterosexuals,” Hespe said.
The Gay-Straight Alliance is interested in the National Coming Out Day, which happened on Oct. 11 and The Day of Silence, which is held in April.
“The purpose of GSA is not to moralize the gay community and it’s not to change someone’s point of view,” Hespe said. “It’s resource for people to feel free enough to talk about their views and for people who are struggling to talk about it.”
