Gay-Straight Alliance Network

campuspride:

Campus Pride partners with GLSEN, GSA Network, and the Iowa Pride Network to celebrate the wonderful work of GSAs nationwide on GSA Day, February 6, 2013; #gsaday Tweet Chat to occur at 3 pm PST

Gay-straight alliances and LGBTQ campus organizations do invaluable work at schools, colleges…

Don’t miss it! Join us at 3pm tomorrow for the #gsaday chat!

LGBTQ students and students with disabilities face some of the highest rates of bullying. They’re also disproportionately suspended and expelled from school, along with students of color, showing that punitive discipline is not the solution to bullying and often hurts the youth it seeks to protect. Excluded from history, tormented by classmates and disproportionately kicked out of school, LGBT students and people with disabilities are often taught at school to feel worthless.

With the enactment of California’s FAIR Education Act, students can learn that these marginalized groups have actually made incredible contributions to this country’s history. They can learn that an openly gay man, Bayard Rustin, played a key role in the African-American Civil Rights movement—but that because of his identity, he was kept out of the spotlight and out of the history books. Students can learn that Americans with disabilities courageously fought for rights and protections under U.S. law, marking an important chapter in legislative history.

The FAIR Education Act gives California a tremendous advantage in the struggle to curb bullying. We just need to use it.

Racialicious takes a powerful look at David Phan’s suicide:

“As reported in The Salt Lake Tribune, on the day David committed suicide, Bennion alerted his mother, Phuong Tran, to let her know that her son had been suspended. When Tran rushed to the school, she was told by the principal that the reason for David’s suspension was because they found a condom in his backpack. When asked why a condom should justify suspension, she was told that they would discuss it further the following Tuesday.

Apparently, Bennion exists in a universe where the search of an Asian-Pacific Islander American (APIA) student’s body and personal property is warranted, and where a condom on campus is seen as a sign of criminal behavior rather than mature responsibility (not to mention that many public schools freely give out condoms to students to encourage safe-sex practices). Whereas David’s Vietnamese family unconditionally embraced him when he came out as gay, Bennion and Granite turned its back on David as he endured anti-gay bullying–and used the condom to punitively construct David’s sexuality as a threat to the school.”

Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, a member of the National Association of GSA Networks, doing amazing work:

“A student had been relentlessly targeted by other students around sexual orientation,” she said. “It was reported to school leaders repeatedly and they did nothing. The student thought his safety was in danger and he brought mace to school and he was expelled. Had the school actively addressed the bullying situation and ensured safety for that student, the student would never have been expelled.”

Mauro Ortega, 16, a CPS student who identifies as LGBT and is a member of VOYCE, spoke after the press conference about his own experience with bullying and unfair discipline.

“Back when I was younger, I used to be bullied a lot by certain students and this continued for about two years and I’d always tell the teacher, ‘He’s bothering me, he’s picking on me,’” he said. “The teachers talked to him and his mother but he still wouldn’t stop and so it came to a day when I was in a class … and we were in woodworking together and we were partners. He was picking on me and he hit me on the head with a piece of plywood and it snapped and I told him to stop and he started pushing me and we got into an altercation.”

“I think [being an LGBT student] was a really big motivation of it,” he added. However, Ortega was arrested even after he tried to explain what had happened.

“Some teachers notice, and they take action, some don’t notice until you ask them for help, but I think it was around a 75% percent chance that … I was being helped,” he said.

We all know that high school and middle school can be tough for just about everyone. But for preteen and teenage lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth, those years can be especially difficult. Since its inception in 1998, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (GSA Network) has been working with and “empowering youth activists to fight homophobia and transphobia in schools” by starting gay-straight alliance clubs, which are middle and high school student-run clubs composed of LGBTQ and straight students. These groups act as a support system — an affirming, welcoming environment to socialize and a venue for activism to combat anti-LGBT rhetoric.

Thanks, Huffington Post Gay Voices, for featuring us in your 30 Days of Holiday LGBT Giving!

On behalf of LGBTQ youth facing harsh discipline and school pushout, GSA Network has submitted written testimony for a hearing happening today before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. The hearing is at 11 am PST and you can watch it here!