I have been attending an International School for my entire learning career, from the ages 6 until 17. This has brought many benefits including different cultural backgrounds, political awareness and freedom to be yourself, I am entirely grateful. Though, as I grew older and started to be aware of the ‘LGBT+ Community’ whilst exploring my sexuality, I realised one of the aspects which my school lacked the most. Where was the ‘Gay/Straight Alliance’ which I heard about in nearly every typical American High School movie? There had never been one, in fact, there had never been any mention of LGBT+ news, sex or relationships in my entire time attending. I believe that this is an extremely common issue and concern in schools all around the world.
Once I got older and became fully aware of my sexuality and my gender, I decided it was time. One day after having an amazing speech from British Activist ‘Peter Tatchell’, I talked to him about my concerns. He then told another queer friend and I to start an all inclusive ‘Pride Alliance’ and that is exactly what we did. Our school has always been open to coordinating after school activities free of charge, meaning the process was extremely simple luckily for us. We found another leader, created posters, advertised during breaks and made announcements about our ‘Pride Club’ and it worked. Luckily, within a month of planning at the first official session there had been a few queer students from the younger years (as our club was open to all) ready to come learn, discuss and make friends. It took time for the group to develop into what it is now, but one year later it has grown into nearly an entire classroom worth of students who are all really close.
Let me go on to tell you why this is important and why this has been one of the most influential clubs in the school. Growing up queer, for the first portion of your life you are alone. I think this applies to all LGBT+ people as they are discovering their sexuality/gender, struggling coming out of the closet and not knowing who to talk to. There were times where I truly believed I was the only queer person in my entire town and school, because no one ever talked about it. I learnt everything I knew from TV, the Internet (thankful for Tumblr) and sometimes (rarely) the News. This is the case for so many other people, the first time I truly realised this is the first meeting of our Pride Group, we were all shocked and starstruck at the concept of even being open about anything to do with our sexuality.
Having this group has literally changed some peoples perspectives, it influences people to come out to their family in a safe environment and made younger teenagers more socially aware of political issues. Some people might see our group or any Pride Alliance and useless, this has happened, but once you realise the actual use for them it’s the most precious, valuable and important activity in the entirety of the school. I wish that I had a Pride Alliance growing up through middle school and I know that most people do too. The reason I wrote this article to share my story is because I needed that extra push to start one and I hope this does the same for someone else. Please, if you are in a safe environment and are ‘out’ I would highly recommend you take the initiative to do so, it truly warms your heart and you can make friends for life through it. Also, who doesn’t want queer friends? It’s amazing.
