<p>Hey guys. I just came out to my friends on Thursday who have been extremely supportive of me. Who else came out or is out?? Anyway, coming out was the best thing I ever thing because I am finally (after 2 years) living my life, not as a lie, but as myself. I also just created a gay-straight-alliance at my school :D What are you guys doing at your GSAs????</p>
<p>At all the small high schools I’ve been to, GSA has been a completely useless club. Mostly because although the schools had extremely liberal, “tolerant” student bodies, all the LGBTQ students still know the stigma of not being heteronormative very well. I remember how everyone “tolerated” one student after coming out. Annoying and fake as hell. Never seen a GSA whose body wasn’t made up of a few overachieving girls who were friends. Most they ever did was sell some rainbow sweat bands.</p>
<p>Not to put bad vibes all over your club, just stating my experience. Good luck. What do you plan on doing?</p>
<p>I’m a bisexual female and no one knows. I don’t tell people because well, it doesn’t come up in conversation and because I don’t want it getting back to my family.</p>
<p>Speaking of my family, I don’t see how I can ever tell them. They’re very religious and they pretty much use their religion to dictate their lives.
My mom expresses her distaste and hatred of gay people and homosexuality often. My brother sees nothing wrong with being gay, but thinks gay people should not “act on their feelings”.</p>
<p>Nice. Good to hear that it went really well for you, and good luck with your GSA!</p>
<p>sophistry, I want to give you a hug (and not just because your username is pretty bamf). I’m in a somewhat similar situation. Hope this doesn’t sound weird/condescending, but don’t let anyone pressure you to tell your family if you don’t feel comfortable doing it. I’ve noticed people have this weird tendency to think that if you’re not out it’s because you’re still coming to terms with your sexuality, or that your parents deserve to know and you’re being a bad child for hiding it, &c, &c. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s anything but a very personal decision for yourself.</p>
<p>Re: tolerance. We should def. be going beyond that. Tolerance implies that you’re okay with letting teh gays do their stuff as long as it isn’t in your way or making you feel uncomfortable. I always found it a kind of weird word to use in these kinds of situations.</p>
<p>What word would you prefer?</p>
<p>OP, congrats! That’s wonderful, and good luck with your club!</p>
<p>@ seancarpenter: I won’t pretend to speak for Greekfire, but “acceptance” would be a nice target to aim for.</p>
<p>^^^Thanks. And I know what you mean, I’m not pressured at all and I’ll come out when I’m good and ready. Which will probably be when I’m not dependent on my family any more. But yeah, I feel that way too, that doesn’t mean I’m uncomfortable with my sexuality, I’m perfectly fine with it. (Although I bet some of the people who say stuff like that are not comfortable with theirs. :p)</p>
<p>And to be honest I don’t like using the word tolerance either, to me it kind of sounds like “yeah, I’ll tolerate you, but I still hate you and think what you’re doing is totally despicable, but hey, I’m still tolerant of you, right?”.
Know what I mean?</p>
<p>As someone already said, acceptance is a much better word.</p>
<p>Wow. I haven’t been on CC for a while but I’ve dealt with what you’re dealing with Sophistry. My parents are extremely religious and conservative so they didn’t love the fact that I came out of the closet. But, the relationship between my parents and me is getting better gradually.</p>
<p>Our GSA went pretty well for this year. Now that NY is proposing a same-sex marriage bill my GSA is working with local politicians on protests and local rallies. We managed to raise lots of money to save a local homeless shelter for LGBT teens that was going bankrupt. We’re also working on creating a newsletter and working on bettering student/teacher relations on these issues. I’m not sure how many times I’ve been in a classroom where teachers have said homophobic things. We also did a red-out where everyone wears red on the Day of Silence to increase support</p>
<p>@Wanton Yeah, some GSAs don’t work out but I managed to bring people together to fight homophobia. There’s still stigma at our school but things are slowly getting better. Doing little things like putting a showcase related to LGBT-history in the library, making posters, making petitions, working with local activists and politicians, etc. works. </p>
<p>@Sophistry Trust me. I’ve had that same experience. My coming out experience wasn’t great but life did progressively get better. My parents are learning to deal with me and my girlfriend. I don’t have the most supportive family but my friends definitely helped out throughout the process. <em>hugs</em></p>
<p>@Greekfire Thanks 
I agree. Tolerance isn’t the answer. We need people to do more than that. We need to be able to embrace the LGBT community and incorporate it into society.</p>
<p>I’m a lesbian. I’ve known it pretty much my whole life, but I finally came out a little over a year ago. Currently the only out non-straight student on campus, but people have been pretty supportive of me. I’m running my GSA and we invited an LGBTQ panel to speak at our school, organized school-wide events honoring Day of Silence, a day to honor the surge in LGBTQ suicides last fall, and the You-Will-Be Loved chalking project. We have also held bake sales raising money for local LGBTQ organizations, screened LGBTQ movies, and held bi-monthly meetings.</p>
<p>@Serenen Yeah, I’m a lesbian as well. I’ve known for a long time too but I came out 7 months ago. </p>
<p>My GSA does all the GLSEN events in addition to our own, invite LGBT-related guests, raise money for a local homeless center, and a bit of political activism on the side.</p>
<p>At my school the GSA is just a comprised of one gay and about four homophobes. They joined the club just to mock it, and get free food- sad I know.</p>
<p>Also, I feel that for gays to become fully integrated into society (to the point where we don’t care one way or another whether someone’s gay) they shouldn’t really profess their sexuality.</p>
<p>just my 2cents.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Morgan freeman solves the race problem.](<a href=“Morgan freeman solves the race problem. - YouTube”>Morgan freeman solves the race problem. - YouTube)</p>
<p>haha brilliant.</p>
<p><<also, i=“” feel=“” that=“” for=“” gays=“” to=“” become=“” fully=“” integrated=“” into=“” society=“” (to=“” the=“” point=“” where=“” we=“” don’t=“” care=“” one=“” way=“” or=“” another=“” whether=“” someone’s=“” gay)=“” they=“” shouldn’t=“” really=“” profess=“” their=“” sexuality.=“”>></also,></p>
<p>Eventually the world will be like that (I hope!) but right now, no one professing their sexuality just leads to a silenced LGBTQ community. The general assumption is that unless you specify otherwise, you’re straight. When that goes away and gays are no longer born into a metaphorical closet that they are supposed to come out of, GSAs won’t be necessary. The first step to full integration is making the world aware of how many LGBT people there are.</p>
<p>Haha. I love the Morgan Freeman clip I think that the LGBT community needs to profess its sexuality until we get equal rights. We need events like Pride because for the rest of the truth is, we don’t have much if any pride. </p>
<p>I agree with serenen. </p>
<p>@GreedIsGood Wow. That’s awful 
I wish people at your school had more respect for the GSA.</p>