GSA Clubs "A Haven From Hurt"

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

When a student in Cara Cerise's ceramics class at Salt Lake City's Highland High School told her he had a solution to the gay marriage issue, she was ready to listen.

"Just kill everyone who's gay," she remembers the classmate saying.

Shocked, Cara started to cry. The daughter of a gay man, the teenager knew she needed to find a safe haven at school where she would not be judged.

It was through the school's gay-straight alliance (GSA), now melded into Highland's social-justice club, that Cara found a home.

Despite this and stories like it that are described in detail within the article, the Utah state legislature recently voted to add restrictions like requiring parental permission for students to join school-affiliated clubs. It was generally understood that this was an effort to undermine the ability of GLBT students to participate in GSAs since they would have to tell their parents what club they were joining.

Hal Newman, an openly gay history teacher at Hunter High, believes the mere existence of a GSA has the power to change the way people think. "Just by being, we raise consciousness," he said.

Of course, that's what religious conservatives don't want.

Several students have told him that without the club, they would have contemplated suicide.

For some students, the adult suspicion of GSAs can be explained by the age gap between politicians and teenagers today. They're criticizing something that's totally unfamiliar.

"I just don't think they understand what the club is all about, because they didn't have that when they were in high school," said Cara, the Highland student. "Things have changed."

True enough, and they continue to change despite efforts of anti-gay activists to turn back the clocks and keep GLBT students cowering in their closets.