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by Abby bench
NS’s Gay-Straight Alliance, or the GSA club, is centered around the core principle of acceptance. The GSA is a club at NS that offers a place for anyone, especially those who identify as LGBTQ.
“The motivation, or the drive of the club, is to give everybody a safe space where, regardless of alignment, affiliation, identification, or orientation, you are loved,” said GSA advisor Sterling Whipple. “That’s what we’re all about. You are loved, we accept you for who you are, and we want to give you a place where you can be yourself without being persecuted.”
For some students at NS, that’s exactly what they need. Although it may be a little easier now than it was years ago, being part of the LGBTQ community can be difficult sometimes.
“Whenever you’re an LGBTQ person or part of the LGBTQ community, you kind of feel really alone and really introverted and excluded from the world,” said GSA President Skyler Leniger. “The GSA is a place for LGBTQ students and heterosexual people that are allies and good people. It’s just a place for us to get together. It’s not necessarily a support group, but it’s a place for LGBTQ students to feel safe and feel like they’re included in some way.”
The place in question is Mr. Whipple’s classroom. Club meetings are held there every Tuesday. In the meetings, members discuss future activities, have occasional guest speakers, and talk about ways to positively handle situations and improve both their lives and the lives of others.
“We’ve had some really good discussions and club meetings about how we show love when we receive anger or hate,” Whipple said. “We’re talking about healthy ways of coping with trauma given the tendency for people to be angry at things they don’t understand.”
Having discussions like this can be beneficial to the students in the club. Learning what to do in certain scenarios is also important. Especially when they can handle it in a positive way and have an optimistic outlook.
“We try to stay away from the negative side of everything because our club isn’t a place for negativity, it’s a place where we try to learn from what people are saying and what people are bringing up,” Leniger said.
Although some discussions may be about heavy or sensitive topics, the GSA meetings are uplifting, safe, full of energy, and supportive.
“It’s just somewhere that they can come and be themselves,” said GSA Vice Pres- ident Judson Yelsma. “I’ve noticed that’s been really important to a lot of kids. There’s a lot of self-discovery for them, for sure.”
Despite being formed in the 2015-16 school year, this is the first year that the GSA has actively participated in and held activities. In past years, they didn’t do much, but that’s changed this year, starting with their involvement in the homecoming parade.
“The parade was the best,” Yelsma said. “Those kids, oh my gosh, to wave pride flags down Mount Pleasant Main Street takes a lot of guts, and they’re very brave.”
Since their decision to be more involved, the club has begun to plan and take part in much more. After the parade, the GSA has set their sights on their next activity, a winter ball.
“It was the kids’ idea,” Whipple said. “I think they decided that throwing a dance would be a great way to reach out to the student body and make the GSA name a little more known at the same time as providing a great opportunity for the kids to have fun.
The Winter Ball will be held on Dec. 11. It will be open ask—which means anyone can ask anyone—and formal. The GSA decided to do formal dress in order to give the students of NS more formal dance opportunities than just prom.
“We’re hoping, obviously, that it will be a great first-time experience for kids to get to have another formal dance,” Whipple said. “We’ve heard that some kids want to have more formal opportunities. The one big example of a formal dance is prom, which we’re not trying to compete with at all.”
Now the club gets to figure out the theme and deco- rations. It could be GSA and LGBTQ focused, or maybe a winter wonderland theme, since it will be held in December. It will definitely have lots of places to take pictures and other fun things. They’ve also considered making it centered around the seniors.
“As a freshman and a sophomore you have homecoming, as a junior you have prom, but the seniors don’t really have an actual dance,” Leniger said. “We weren’t really sure if we wanted to base it around the seniors, we talk- ed about it. We want to make the winter ball about friends, getting together, and coming together as a community.”
