GSA Network News: Upcoming Pride Marches, Activist Camps, other Queer Summer Activities and More!

    With over 700 individual GSA clubs in high and middle schools across
California, GSAs are doing amazing work to open minds and educate people
about homophobia and transphobia. In this issue of GSA Network News, we
focus on two GSAs, one in Southern California and the other in Northern
California that have made powerful change in their schools.

    Glenna Colerider-Krugh of South Pasadena High's GSA and member of the
GSA Network Youth Council, shares her experiences helping her GSA become
an activist GSA.

    Glenna told us that, "This year, my GSA did a lot better than last year. Members of my GSA attended a candlelight vigil in Pasadena in memory of Lawrence King, and they helped me get in touch with other GSAs in our area and invite them to join us. Also, members of my GSA came to the Youth Today: Walking for Equality March in downtown LA. Additionally, we had massive school-wide support for Day of Silence, and made posters for Transgender Day of Remembrance. Last year, we attended no events as a club, our Day of Silence sign-ups were fairly low, and we didn't do anything for Transgender Day of Remembrance. Last year, we didn't have any rules in the GSA, so confidentiality was never established. This year, I really stressed that point, and it has made people way more open to sharing. I've done my best this year to come to every meeting with a topic ready for discussion or an activity to do, which has made more people come."

    Kris Switzer is a graduating senior from Northern California who has been extremely involved with GSA Network for the past year. She told us about switching from Clayton Valley High in Concord to Northgate High School in her junior year:

    "That was the year I started to get really involved in activism. My first goal when I got there was to find the GSA on campus and if there was not one I was going to start one. After three weeks of attending Northgate I went to the first meeting for all club presidents and I found out that there was no GSA on campus. But I did find out how to start one there and I even found my co-president Jason Ostrove.

    The Northgate High School's GSA had been dead for 5 years prior to 2009. In 2009 the first thing we as a GSA started to do was get more members and promote what it stands for, by putting up posters, making announcements, and even speaking in front of the whole school during lunch. Then once the GSA really got started we were dealing with the issue of the Prop 8 election and it seemed as if everyone knew what it was but did not have an exact understanding of what it meant. So as the GSA at Northgate High we wanted to change that and make sure that what ever people decided when they voted that it was right one for them, so as well as taking the students from the GSA to some of the rallies we decided to do something on campus that was open to all students and staff, we did a Thought Talk on Prop 8, at the Thought Talk we had a teacher representing each side the yes, the no, and the in-between to talk about why exactly someone would argue for each side. Also to inform everyone what exactly Prop 8 is.

    Like Glenna, Kris' GSA got involved in putting on the Transgender Day of Remembrance and found it made an impact on how students are treated at school:

    "For Transgender Day of Remembrance, we started making announcements three weeks in advance that there would be a memorial in front of the schools flag and to respect all the faces that they saw on the wall. Early that morning we had put up over 200 posters of different transgender people and their stories. As students and staff started to read the entire atmosphere of the school started to change. You see, at Northgate, most people believe discrimination and harassment to that extent just does not exist and when they started to see those faces and read there stories it opened their eyes. Due to this, a good portion of the students and staff showed up to the memorial, and from then on the students and staff started to show a little more respect to each other.

    In South Pasadena, Glenna's GSA built on its increased membership, successful educational activities and higher profile, by launching an educational campaign to educate students, teachers and principals to stop homophobic and transphobic slurs. Already this campaign had made dramatic changes at South Pasadena High. Glenna's GSA has big plans next year to keep the campaign going and to launch a new campaign to get LGBT history and literature taught at South Pasadena High. The GSA plans to start with a book club open to all students and teachers to build interest in and support for learning LGBT literature and history.

    She says, "I talked to the librarian at my school about getting some small class sets of the LGBT books of our choice and she was totally willing to help
us out! That's something I'm really excited for. So far, we know for sure that we want to read Nancy Garden's "Hear us out! Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope: 1950 to the Present." We're still looking for the next book."

    At Northgate High, Kris led her GSA to do a campaign to get more LGBTQ books in the library. She reflects on their strategy, "We got more LGBTQ books in the library, but we did not have them put into a specific LGBTQ section, and instead had them spread around the library into the appropriate section, so that way the students and staff would not be targeted when looking for LGBTQ books."

    Glenna had started the school year unsure of how to help her GSA be more than just a place to hang out and watch movies. She decided to join the GSA Network Youth Council to get support, ideas on building a stronger GSA and a space to connect with other GSA leaders. Glenna shared:

    "Last year, no one from my school was on the Youth Council, so our sources for hearing about upcoming events was severely limited. Youth Council meetings always give me great activities to try with my GSA, ranging from icebreakers to discussion topics to thought-provoking games. When there were interesting activities at each meeting, people wanted to keep coming back.

    "GSA Network gave me the confidence to trust in myself that I knew what I was doing. This is critical when getting people to listen to you! It gave me
leadership experience with planning and organizing, so preparing for events like Transgender Day of Remembrance and Day of Silence was much easier. At our Youth Council meetings, we would discuss upcoming events and create plans there that we could take back to our GSAs at school. From there, my GSA would give their opinions and ideas, and we would create an outline of what we needed to do. It was then easy to assign roles and duties to each member to help us prepare for the event at our school. It was a very effective system, and now I'm sure the other members of my GSA and myself
could write up one of the plans ourselves. I learned how to do it for myself, and my GSA members learned from me. I've realized how far our GSA
had come since last year, when we'd sit around watching "Saved," and I'd wonder if all GSAs were like this, and why wasn't my participation in one
more fulfilling?"

    Kris also participated in the Northern California Youth Council, learning important leadership skills throughout the year. She shared her final thoughts about a year well-spent in GSA activism: "Now that it has reached the end of the year and my co-president and I will no longer be in high school, we have lined up the people who will be running it for next year as well as trained them on what to do. Over all it has been a great experience and I loved every bit of it. If you ever have any thought of helping, getting involved or even starting a GSA please do it is worth it, it might be hard some times but trust me its worth it."

GSA Network congratulates Glenna and Kris for their incredible leadership and activism this past school year!