<p>What kinds of things does your GSA chapter (or whatever it's called) do? How well is the club received at your school?</p>
<p>We just sit around in a circle and talk about all kinds of issues that are not necessarily related to the LGBT community. We also eat, since we meet at dinnertime (by request of those opposed to our meetings but also for confidentiality reasons, so it works out). Occasionally, we would watch movies. I'm looking for creative ideas, since the president is outside the country right now. We're thinking of inviting the parents of gay students who committed suicide to speak to our group. Also, I would like to invite anti-gay church leaders and homophobes to hear where they're coming from. </p>
<p>I'm especially interested in ideas/activities that would appeal to our straight members, since ~80% of our club members self-identify as straight. Oh, we also changed our name to PRISM to debunk the false notion that GSA is a "gay club." Heck, even the president himself is straight.</p>
<p>Your president is straight? Hm, interesting.</p>
<p>We don't have a GSA chapter around here, needless to say (look at my location). It's one of the things I'm looking forward to when I move to college...</p>
<p>Be careful about inviting anti-gay pastors. If they're anything like the ones down here, they can be pretty extreme in their denunciations. Don't want to hurt anyone needlessly by a bunch of religious garbage (yes, I'm religious, but my beliefs are a little non-mainstream).</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm almost late for school, but I just wanted to say that it's cool your school has a club to embrace the LGBTQ community.</p>
<p>I'm the president of my school's GSA and I'm straight. We actually have a sort of unofficial rule in our club that the president and VP must be of different orientations, to make sure the leadership has the interests of the whole club in mind.</p>
<p>Anyway, at my GSA we do a variety of different things. Sometimes we do discussions or movies like your club. Recently we've also been getting involved in small community service projects. One day we decorated posters for the Colorado AIDS Project. Now we're working on a fundraiser for them, so the last meeting was spent creating fliers for that.</p>
<p>Day of Silence is coming up at the end of April, so we're starting to plan for that as well. If your GSA doesn't already participate, you should check it out (dayofsilence.org). It's a great way to raise awareness about GLBT issues and get your school community involved in a protest with you. This is especially true if you set up an info table/fliers BEFORE the event to make sure people understand what DOS is all about.</p>
<p>by the way, i'm impressed that you have a president who is both straight and male. my club has a lot of trouble recruiting straight males. the stigma of being perceived as gay is, i believe, a lot stronger among boys our age than girls. anyway, your president is clearly a together guy, and that's really cool :)</p>
<p>No really, not kidding. Have somebody from an outside health org (planned parenthood or something) come in and demonstrate how to use condoms, etc. correctly, and talk about STDs. People have fun playing with condoms/bananas, and they'll learn something USEFUL at the same time.</p>
<p>I think your idea of getting any non-accepting religious leader to talk is a baaaaad one. Some of these guys can be extremely harsh--even without meaning to be. You do not want the kids in your meeting to leave feeling guilty or wrong or dirty or abnormal, which there is a good chance they will. Some students are probably struggling with their religions anyway, and this wouldn't help. Instead, maybe think about getting some accepting religious leaders to come in and talk. Many gay teens feel that they aren't allowed to worship in any Church, so if you can find gay friendly churches nearby, ask someone from there to talk to you all instead. There are tons in Chicago, from Lutherans to Catholics (Dignity USA) to the United Chruch of Christ. (list: <a href="http://www.gaychurch.org/Find_a_Church/united_states/us_illinois.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.gaychurch.org/Find_a_Church/united_states/us_illinois.htm</a> )</p>
<p>I agree with a couple of the above ideas. "Cool" education about safe sex, drugs (especially prevalent in the gay community), and STDs would be good, especially for the kids going off to college. I think volunteering or raising money for an AIDS organization is a great idea, and straight people can get just as much out of that as gay people. </p>
<p>Maybe you could get together with some other schools' GSAs and hold a big dance? There will be a lot of straight and gay kids there, so that could be fun for everyone. It would require a good amount of planning, though.</p>
<p>We're observing the Day of Silence on Monday, April 10th, even though the National Day of Silence is on April 26th. The actual date is a half-day for us, so we met with school officials to set it up on a regular day. My teachers have been surprisingly cooperative.. they'be been wearing the ribbons we passed out this week!</p>
<p>Also, we organized a field trip to attend a social gathering for LGBT students. </p>
<p>In one of our meetings, we'll probably watch Boys Don't Cry.</p>
<p>Yes, we're proud to have him as our president (I don't think he's doing it just to have another leadership position to put on his college application). He was featured in a local newspaper for his efforts to get this club as popular as it is now.. he has an amazing ability to relate to people.</p>
<p>We're thinking of creative ways to advertise our club. What are some catchy slogans to put on flyers?</p>
<p>I'm the co-president of our school's GSA. Like Vegangirl said, our two co-presidents are unofficially supposed to be of varying sexual orientations; I'm the gay one, my friend Lucy is the straight one.</p>
<p>We don't do much. It's only been around for 3 years and we have maybe 20 members tops.</p>
<p>The Day of Silence and the Michigan AIDS Walk are the only real things we do that involve the whole school. We bid on MORP but didn't get it, unfortunately. That would be sweet though to have the GSA run a dance. ;)</p>
<p>morP is prom spelled backwards. It's a spin on prom. :)</p>
<p>Is there an LGBT prom/morp in Detroit? We have one in Chicago, but the social event we're going to is not really considered a prom or morp, just a regular dance.</p>
<p>The LGBT couples here just go to the normal prom like everyone else at the community center that hosts it. Nothing else is noticed. The GSA Alliance here is based primarily on raising funds, which it tends to do a spectacular job of given the fact that virtually all the gay males here are exceptional singers and at times the lead tenor and alto singers in the choir system, which tends to make easy pitching.</p>
<p>i'm from malaysia and it's quite common. there were 7 homo couples at my prom. they kissed, made out etc. like other straight couples. it was rather weird at first but after a while people get used to it. i'm now going to a school in ohio where being gay is considered 'cool.' i'd say more than 30% of students here are either gay or bi.</p>
<p>Yeah, we do. It's at a gay youth center called Affirmations out in one of the western suburbs.</p>
<p>I'm probably going to be working as a peer counselor there this summer, but I wouldn't go to the dances because I don't support the idea of a seperate prom for sexual minorities. This center tends to isolate and nurture gay youth, which is fine, but really gets no one anywhere in terms of a progressive society (the ideal, at least for me).</p>
<p>I'm very much a supporter of integration - proms for gay and straight couples.</p>
<p>There's a "gay prom" at this place Downtown, but I believe it's open to straight couples as well. I don't know why straight couples would go there other than to support their LGBT friends! I'm excited to go.</p>
<p>Kenyon_01, how come I can't see your posts? it appears on the forum as though you posted something, but when I click on the actual thread, none of your posts appears.</p>
<p>There is a GSA chapter at my school, but there aren't a lot of people in the club who identify themselves as straight. Nevertheless, they do a lot of things (inviting speakers, hosting club activities).</p>
<p>I've blocked no one. That's odd.. are you able to see his posts?</p>
<p>We took an anonymous survey of our members' sexual orientations, and an unusually high percentage claim they are straight. 'tis strange. Maybe it's because of the free food that more people come, and since most of the student population is straight, the % got skewed. Either that or our president has really good PR skills.. or both. We welcome all our members with open arms. :)</p>