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START A GAY/STRAIGHT ALLIANCE
Success Stories
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McAllen, Texas
In May of 2002, a letter arrived at the ACLU from McAllen, Texas, a small town near the Mexican border. Crystal Mendoza and Orlando Campa, two high school students, needed help. Students in their school had been harassed for years, and school leaders did nothing to stop it. Then that spring a gay student committed suicide because he couldn't take it anymore. For the first time ever, classmates at the school got together to talk about the harassment and other LGBT concerns. Mendoza, whose mother is a lesbian, was tired of being made to feel ashamed and secretive about her family. She says she and other students decided that if their school refused to address the problem, the students would do it themselves. They held an initial meeting and called themselves HUGS (Helping Unite Gays and Straights). Over 40 people came.
Soon after that meeting, the students asked their high school if they could become an official school group. The principal told them they would get approval only if they agreed not to focus solely on sexual orientation, ordering them to change their name and their mission. The students, fearing they could miss their chance to make a difference, changed to a general diversity club. HUGS became TAP (Teens Against Prejudice). But that wasn't "de-gayed" enough for the principal. Later in the year, the leaders of TAP coordinated an LGBT visibility event, and the principal responded by suspending the group. Despite the fact that they hadn't publicly addressed LGBT issues for much of the year, he said they were becoming too gay specific. So Mendoza and Campa wrote to the ACLU.
In August, the Project and the ACLU of Texas contacted the school to demand that it allow the students to meet as a GSA and have equal access to the school -- or meet the ACLU in court. A couple of weeks later, the school caved. It guaranteed that the students would be allowed to form as a GSA -- uncensored -- and be treated just like other clubs.
Neenah, Wisconsin
LGBT students at Neenah High School in Wisconsin had something many other schools lack: a confidential support group organized by the school guidance counselor. But students still got harassed on a regular basis. A group of students decided they needed to address anti-LGBT discrimination in a public way, and formed a GSA at the beginning of the 2001-2002 school year. That spring, they asked the principal that they be recognized as an official school club. Before the meeting Andy Sampson, one of the lead organizers, emailed the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project to get information about their rights under the Equal Access Act.
The principal waited until the end of the school year to formally deny the application, citing a school policy that prohibited the school from recognizing any group with a philosophical, religious, or political mission. He also said a GSA wasn't needed because the school already had a general diversity club.
The GSA had been preparing for this for two months. Immediately after the principal's decision, the GSA asked supporters to attend the June school board meeting to protest the decision. Around 20 students attended, as well as parents, teachers, and members of the local PFLAG chapter. The students also organized a petition to demonstrate community support, garnered positive coverage in local media, and spread the word through local LGBT media and email networks. Sampson also stayed in touch with the ACLU in case they needed legal assistance. At the same time, the GSA was following the formal appeal process for school clubs. They appealed to the superintendent, who formally denied the GSA in mid-August. Next, they appealed to the school board.
Finally, in October 2002, after a letter from the ACLU explaining why denying the GSA was against the law, the school board overturned the prior decisions and approved the GSA.
Andy Sampson, who has since graduated, says the GSA undoubtedly made a difference in Neenah. When he went back to visit the school, he says, "Many students have approached me and told me that had it not been for the GSA, they would not be comfortable coming out in high school."
The most concrete change, however, has been the growth of GSA's at a number of other high schools in northeastern Wisconsin. Local activists give credit to the Neenah High School GSA for paving the way by educating other schools about the mission -- and rights -- of GSA's.
>> Next: Steps to Starting a GSA
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