GSA participates in various activities, events

Members of GSA meet to discuss plans for the club’s upcoming “Week of Silence” event.

The Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) plans to participate in several different awareness campaigns throughout the spring. The club is looking to host the “Week of Silence” in late March and has also donated money to other causes.

Currently the club is planning for the national Week of Silence event. GSA has traditionally held a Day of Silence to represent the struggles of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community. Last year, however, GSA expanded its Day of Silence into a week-long awareness event, which the club hopes to do again this year.

“People get way more into a Week of Silence [than a Day of Silence], and they participate more the more they know about [the LGBT community],” GSA President junior Ali Nowakowski said. “It educates students about the LGBT [population] so that they can make more informed decisions on how they act.”

The week is comprised of announcements that are meant to shed light on the difficulties the LGBT community faces.
However, during the official Day of Silence students are encouraged to duct tape their mouths to show their support. According to the official website of the Day of Silence, the purpose of the duct tape is to “illustrate the silencing effect of this bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT.”

“I feel that it’s important… because I think the LGBT community is limited and I believe everyone should be treated equal in society,” GSA Vice-President junior Jennifer Cooper said. “They aren’t lesser people. I feel like I should be a part of promoting that in our school and society.”

The dates for Week of Silence are yet to be determined because of scheduling issues. This is because the official Week of Silence occurs over spring break, so GSA must find an alternative time.

Earlier this semester, GSA also participated in a Phelps-a-thon event at Gunn High School. The event was organized in response to the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas against the LGBT community there.

In order to help out, the LAHS GSA raised about $45 to donate to Gunn’s GSA Club on Friday, January 29.

“The people doing the protest seemed to not have much logic, so instead we decided to donate to Gunn High School GSA directly,” Jennifer said. “We decided we weren’t going to go to the protest because we didn’t know if it would be violent, and we don’t want to get involved in that.”

The GSA has also been thinking of helping out the rest of the LGBT community by finding a teen runaway shelter at which members can volunteer.

“The shelters are for when teens or anybody comes out to their parents and are kicked out because they aren’t accepted anymore,” Jennifer said. “The shelters support kids through rough times, so maybe we would help talk to people or cook or clean or do whatever they need for our help.”

The club has been intending to volunteer since early fall but has yet to begin working on it.

“We are currently looking at helping out at Larkin Street Youth Services, which is located in San Francisco,” Ali said. “We have not spoken to them yet but will do so over the break to see how we can start to help.”

The GSA hopes to make one message clear to everybody: All are welcome, and all are safe.

“We are dedicated to helping the community, and [we make sure that anything said] does not leave the room,” Jennifer said. “We are there to support anyone and help the community in a secure environment.”