An excerpt from "GLSEN Celebrates 2,000th Gay-Straight Alliance"
New York, NY – The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, is proud to announce the 2,000th student club, often called a Gay-Straight Alliance or GSA, to register with the organization. The milestone came with the formation of a GSA at Detroit Central High School in Detroit, Michigan.
“It is with immense pride that GLSEN celebrates 2,000 GSAs,” said GLSEN Executive Director Kevin Jennings. “The young people involved in these student clubs are providing an invaluable service and support system for their peers while changing the climate of their schools and communities from one where discrimination and harassment are the rule to environments where everyone learns to respect and accept all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity / expression.”
Note - GSA's are NOT simply student "clubs" and GLSEN knows it. It's the adults in homosexual organizations such as GLSEN and PFLAG that provide the encouragement, direction, and resources for the formation of GSA's. Some GSA's are taxpayer funded, as documented here and here.
WHAT "GAY" STUDENT CLUBS WILL BRING TO YOUR SCHOOL"
Other links:
From Denial to Denigration: Understanding Institutionalized Heterosexism in Our Schools
Institutionalized Heterosexism in Our Schools: A Guide to Understanding and Undoing It
GLSEN Expresses Concern as Iowa School Postpones Disney Trip Due to "Gay Days"
GLSEN Hails Historic Supreme Court Ruling in Lawrence v. Texas
Gay/Straight Alliances
If "safe school" initiatives are successful strategies for activists to change policies and advocate in states and school districts, Gay/Straight Alliances (GSA) have proven one of the most effective avenues of activism in the school buildings themselves. Gay activists sell GSAs as student organized and led clubs in which students of all sexual persuasions can meet and discuss issues of sexuality, including homosexuality (Hopgood, 2000). In fact, GSAs commonly operate with tremendous support and organization from external community and national organizations, including GLSEN, a national organization with more than 85 local chapters in 35 states (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2001e; Kabbany, 2000), the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, 2001), the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, also a national organization with local chapters (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, 2001), and numerous other state and local organizations.
Moreover, despite claims that GSA's are not seeking to affect change in schools (Hopgood, 2000), they are more than simply safe student clubs in which students meet and talk. GSAs actually act as springboards for activism. For example, Higgins (2000) reports on an Arizona school in which weekly GSA meetings focused on "com[ing] up with an idea where we're going to take this," according to the student leader. "Where we're going to take this" turned into a student produced video about homosexuality shown schoolwide and the GSA student leader attending a faculty meeting to discuss gay issues with teachers. Mike Pollack, coordinator for Queer Voice, a local gay rights organization, also attended and distributed handouts on dealing with discrimination. After the faculty meeting, teachers asked the student and Pollack to make presentations in their classrooms.
Other examples of GSA activism come from GLSEN's how-to manual on "jump starting" GSAs (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2001c), 20 ways GSAs can "rock the world" (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2001b), and tips for recruiting new members (Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, 2001a). These documents provide students ideas for advocacy within schools, including organizing, performing a "school climate" survey, and creating an action plan. Students are given advertising and promotional tips and instructed on how to queer the curriculum and organize large school events, such as marches and movie nights.
While measuring the success of GSAs proves difficult, their growth may provide one indicator. In 1990, Massachusetts had the only two GSAs in the country. At the 2000 GSLEN conference, workshop leaders estimated more than 800 now operate nationwide.